After "Unfortunate" Fatal Explosion In AL Home, State Abandons Monitoring For Methane Leaks From Coal Mining
OAK GROVE, Ala.—Alabama officials charged with protecting residents from surface impacts of underground coal mining have notified the federal government that they’ve suspended plans to require that expanding mines monitor for potentially explosive methane gas. The decision is a reversal of the state’s previous agreement with federal regulators spurred by a fatal home explosion above the expanding Oak Grove mine here in rural Jefferson County.
After months of pressure from local residents and close media scrutiny, primarily a lengthy investigation by Inside Climate News, federal officials had issued Alabama a Ten Day Notice, a regulatory action meant to force state officials to address the risks of methane escape from active coal mines. Longwall mining, fairly common in Alabama’s coalfields, releases methane gas. That risks explosions if it escapes to the surface through cracks in land disturbed by the mining method.
Within days of that December 2024 notice, state officials agreed to require that coal mining companies launch methane monitoring programs across Alabama, giving the operators 90 days to file updated plans outlining how they planned to comply. Later, at the request of the coal lobby, the state’s top mining regulator extended the deadline by six months, giving coal companies until Sept. 30 to file their updated plans. When that extension was announced, officials with the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement told the state they believed the delay was “excessively lengthy.” “If your original … response had contained an eight-month response time with little information/justification,” OSMRE’s Birmingham Field Office director wrote to Alabama regulators in March, “it is unlikely that your … response would have been deemed adequate.” Now, as that extension has come to an end, the state regulator, Alabama Surface Mining Commission director Kathy Love, has notified OSMRE that she has “indefinitely suspended” any requirement for methane monitoring plans.
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Eighteen months ago, Lisa Lindsay watched as her neighbor stumbled up to her home in rural Alabama. His body, covered in soot, was still smoking. Moments before, she’d felt the shockwaves of a nearby explosion surge through her body. Tim Griffice, still in shock, told Lindsay and her husband that the explosion at the next-door home of his brother, W.M., had knocked him out of bed. He ran out of the house to the sound of his nephew’s screams, he told them: “Help me! Help me!” Tim and his nephew, who was inside the home when the explosion occurred, went back into the structure to retrieve W.M. from the flames. About a month later, W.M. Griffice would die from the injuries he suffered that day. His grandson remained in hospital for weeks, recovering from injuries that are expected to impact him for the rest of his life.
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03102025/alabama-rolls-back-commitment-to-monitor-coal-mine-gases/
= new reply since forum marked as read
the inhumanes are in charge and this is how they roll. 
