Nearly 25,000 retired miners supported by the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, a program administered by the Department of Labor and funded by an excise tax on mine operations for every ton of coal they carve out of the earth. But now the coal companies, citing the economic cost of the pandemic, want to cut back the taxes they pay to support the fund and let the federal government pick up the tab, the Washington Post reported. The National Mining Association asked Congress last month for a 55 percent cut in the excise tax for the trust fund, and a suspension of another fee that pays to clean up abandoned mines. Altogether the operators say they could save about $220 million. While the level of taxation to back the fund has fluctuated sharply over the past two years, it currently stands at $1.10 for every ton of coal mined underground and 55 cents for surface coal. The idea didn’t make it into the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill, but the association plans to keep pushing for it.
