The outgoing Biden administration is trying to ensure that coal companies – not American taxpayers – pay for their former workers’ black lung disease treatments and monthly benefits. It’s one of the final moves being made before President-elect Donald Trump returns to office.
The U.S. Department of Labor and the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) announced the changes on Dec. 11.
By law, the federal government is on the hook to pay coal miners’ black lung disability benefits from the taxpayer-backed Black Lung Disability Trust Fund if the company they worked for goes belly-up and declares bankruptcy, which is becoming more common. Those bankruptcies are hurting the fund, which is in about $6.5 billion of debt.
But that requirement for the feds to pay miners could theoretically be overturned by the next U.S. Congress or Trump’s administration. Some of those incoming policymakers, like those in the newly-formed DOGE Caucus in the U.S. House, have said they want to dramatically slash government spending.
If a new Congress were to overturn that federal requirement and a coal company went bankrupt and couldn’t pay its miners’ benefits, it could mean miners with black lung wouldn't get their payout and medical treatments.
The Department of Labor’s policy makes it so some coal companies that go bankrupt won’t be able to shed their obligation to pay benefits to the black lung fund as easily.
Instead, it’ll put more responsibility on coal companies to pay those benefits themselves.
The new rules also say that companies that choose to insure their own future black lung liability instead of using commercial insurance will need to secure a larger amount of liability money than is required right now. That’s to keep them from drawing from the embattled fund if they later go bankrupt.
“The protection of the trust fund is important because again, if that law should ever change regarding federal backing for the ongoing benefits, it could have a very significant impact on [coal miners’] livelihoods,” said the Biden-appointed director of the OWCP, Chris Godfrey, in an interview with Wyoming Public Radio. “And as a taxpayer, they should want the responsible mining operator to be responsible for their own debts.”
Coal mining companies in Wyoming, like Black Hills Energy, will likely be impacted by the change, Godfrey said. Though the new policies will be phased in over time, companies will need to undergo an actuarial process with the OWCP to determine their projected future black lung liabilities. They’ll need to post 100 percent of those liabilities under the new rules.
In a statement emailed to WPR, a spokeswoman for Black Hills said, “We will continue to support our past, present and future employees in light of this recent ruling.”
In Wyoming, Godfrey said the number of miners who are drawing benefits for black lung disease recently increased, going from 25 in fiscal year 2022, to 52 towards the end of fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024.
Sarah Salveson-Jones is the program director of the Northwest Community Action Programs (NOWCAP) Black Lung Clinic, which helps miners in parts of the Rocky Mountain region. It’s the only clinic of its kind in Wyoming.
She said she thinks it’s very likely that the number of miners who are receiving benefits will continue to increase as more get tested for black lung disability and word spreads about the need for testing.
“There’s probably tons more that haven’t even screened with us because they don’t think they’re sick,” said Salveson-Jones.
She guessed the actual number of miners who have benefit-qualifying black lung in Wyoming could well be in the hundreds.
Since 2005, 272 claimants residing in Wyoming have filed for benefits under the Black Lung Benefits Act, according to the OWCP.
Beyond Wyoming, advocates for coal miners in Appalachia applauded the Labor Department’s rule changes.
“We think it's a good change,” said Rebecca Shelton, the policy director of the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center. “We're happy to see the Department of Labor requiring 100 percent of the projected black lung liability and to have that in securities for companies that choose to self-insure. It’s a huge improvement over what's currently required, which is really around 19 percent of projected liabilities.”
But Shelton said the new rules omitted one item that she and her organization have advocated for: a public database of coal mining companies that lists their self-insurance status, how much security the OWCP has on hand for them and their projected liability.
“I think you [could] get this information through open records requests and things like that,” she said. “Ideally, it would have been more transparent [to have a database], because the only reason [this] really kind of came to our attention is because of the bankruptcies that happened. And by then, it was too late for advocates to push for change.”
Black lung disease is irreversible and is caused by breathing in coal or silica dust for even short periods of time.
The lungs develop fibrotic tissue that fights the presence of coal or silica particles. That tissue grows over time, severely scarring the lungs and increasingly hampering breathing. In recent years, there’s been a spike of black lung cases caused by silica dust exposure in Appalachia and on the Navajo Nation.
The Labor Department’s new rulemaking goes into effect in a little less than 30 days, but it could be overturned either by both chambers of Congress or the new presidential administration.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
