Coal companies must post real money for cleanup—not their own IOUs
H.R. 9029 — Coal Cleanup Taxpayer Protection Act of 2026 · Filed by Summer Lee (D-PA) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced May 26, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill tightens bonding requirements for coal mining companies by eliminating 'self-bonding' (where companies pledge their own assets as reclamation guarantees) and requiring them to post independent surety bonds or collateral instead. It also imposes new rules on surety companies, restricts what can be used as collateral (excluding coal-related property), and requires states to enforce these stricter standards within 90 days.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to strengthen financial accountability for coal mining reclamation by eliminating self-bonding loopholes and imposing stricter collateral and surety requirements. This is regulatory enforcement, not deregulation.
What the text implies
- Eliminates a major cost-avoidance mechanism for coal operators, potentially increasing their operating costs and making marginal mines uneconomical to operate.
- Surety bond market may consolidate or raise premiums if new concentration limits (percentage caps per state) reduce available bonding capacity.
- States with weak coal-reclamation enforcement may face federal pressure to upgrade programs, shifting compliance burden to state regulators.
- Executive compensation collateral requirement may expose officers' personal wealth to reclamation risk, creating personal liability incentives for compliance.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens benefit because stricter bonding reduces the risk that taxpayers will foot the bill for abandoned coal mines. Self-bonding allowed companies to walk away from cleanup obligations; independent bonds and collateral make reclamation more likely to be funded by the responsible party, not the public.
Who stands to gain
- surety bond companies (increased demand for independent bonds)
- collateral/escrow service providers
- environmental remediation contractors (more funded reclamation projects)
Named in the bill
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, Secretary of Interior, State regulatory authorities, Corporate surety companies, Coal mining operators, CCJ (Cameco, uranium/energy sector exposure), EQT (EQT Corporation, natural gas/energy), TRGP (Targa Resources, energy infrastructure), PSX (Phillips 66, energy/refining), EXE (Exelon, energy generation)
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Democrats.
- May 26, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 26, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
6 lobbying clients named this bill on 6 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $289,900 in lobbying spend. A filing names 12 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 82% of bills with at least one filing.
Summer Lee, the sponsor, reported $231,154 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Cms Energy Corp — $170,000 on 1 filing
- Columbia University — $50,000 on 1 filing
- Appalachian Voices — $40,000 on 1 filing
- Knowledge Alliance — $20,000 on 1 filing
- Association of People Supporting Employment First (apse) — $9,900 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jun 10, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Coal companies must post real money for cleanup—not their own IOUs” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr9029 Report an error
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