Trump official visits, touts Alabama coal mine with thousands of federal safety violations
Warrior Met has a checkered safety history, according to federal records. (Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News)
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
TUSCALOOSA — When Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum visited two Warrior Met coal mines in central Alabama last week, he said he was emphasizing the administration's commitment to 'clean, beautiful coal' and its plans to roll back regulation.
The department's press office swiftly posted on social media after the trip his ultimate goal: 'Mine, Baby, Mine!'
What Burgum didn't mention on Friday was Warrior Met Coal's checkered safety and environmental record, which includes thousands of federal safety violations issued under both Republican and Democratic administrations. He also didn't mention the death of Aaron Haley, a 34-year-old miner killed on the job in 2023 because, according to an investigative report by federal safety officials, Warrior Met did not keep equipment in safe operating condition.
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Missing, too, from Burgum's comments was any recognition that the coal produced by Warrior Met, metallurgical coal, is not used to power American homes or businesses. Instead, it is shipped abroad through the Port of Mobile, largely to countries in South America and Asia for steelmaking.
'Through these tours, Secretary Burgum is displaying the importance of President Trump's executive orders which are Unleashing American Energy and putting hardworking Americans first,' a press release from Burgum's office said after the trip. 'Friday's visit highlights the Department of the Interior's continued focus on bolstering domestic coal production to create more jobs, lower the cost of living for Americans, and unlock more of our nation's critical resources.'
Neither Inside Climate News nor other local news outlets contacted by ICN were notified of Burgum's visit ahead of time. A national reporter for Fox Business was on site for the trip with access to the cabinet secretary.
The Department of the Interior has not responded to questions about the trip or why local reporters were not included. It did not address Warrior Met's safety or environmental record. Warrior Met has not responded to questions about Burgum's visit or its own environmental and safety record.
According to the department, Burgum's first stop was Warrior Met Mine No. 4. The mine utilizes the longwall method of extraction where coal is sheared by large high-powered machinery, leaving behind vast open expanses underground that can lead to the permanent sinking of the land above. The method is faster and can be riskier than other forms of mining and has been blamed for methane leaks.
In March 2024, an Alabama grandfather was killed by an explosion in his home above Oak Grove mine, a longwall operation in nearby Jefferson County, after methane gas likely leaked into the home,
This month, just days before President Donald Trump boasted from the White House about 'unleashing…clean, beautiful coal,' a West Virginia woman was severely injured from a blast at her home above a longwall mine.
On April 5, she lit a cigarette, setting off an explosion that first responders suspect was caused by a methane leak from the mine, owned by Core Natural Resources, a Pennsylvania company created by the merger in January of CONSOL Energy and Arch Resources. An investigation is continuing by state inspectors who have ordered the company to submit a revised permit for monitoring methane emissions.
Coal helped turn the United States into a global economic and military power, but coal-fired power plants emit toxic air pollution and heat-trapping gases that are changing the world's climate in dangerous ways. Moreover, the methane that coal mining releases is a super-pollutant 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet over a 20-year period. Inside mines, methane also presents deadly explosion risks to miners if safety measures are not followed.
Contrary to Trump and Burgum's clean coal assertions, coal is the dirtiest of fossil fuels.
Warrior Met's No. 4 mine has had a history of safety violations, according to records maintained by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), the federal regulator charged with ensuring miner wellbeing.
Since 2019, the mine has been cited by federal regulators nearly 3,000 times with safety violations. About 25 percent—731 of those violations—were labelled by MSHA as 'significant and substantial,' meaning the violations were 'reasonably likely to result in a serious injury or illness.' More than 100 citations have been issued since Trump took office.
Records show that the No. 4 Mine is currently undergoing two spot inspections and a 'regular safety and health inspection,' investigations that have resulted so far in 25 citations. The mine's previous complete safety and health inspection, conducted in January, February and March, resulted in 78 citations, according to regulatory records.
Less than two years ago, Aaron Haley, a West Virginia native and father of three, was killed while working inside the No. 4 Mine. An MSHA investigation into the incident faulted the mine for his death and injuries suffered by two other miners.
'On August 30, 2023, at approximately 6:50 a.m., Aaron Haley, a 34-year-old belt foreman with over 13 years of mining experience, died when a longwall belt conveyor take-up unit (take-up) component, the bridle, broke and struck him,' the report said. 'The accident occurred because the mine operator did not maintain components of the take-up in safe operating condition.'
Haley's obituary offers a more expansive sense of what was lost that day: 'Aaron was kind, loving, generous, funny and would give the shirt off his back to anyone. He loved teaching [his son] baseball, football, fishing, and just 'guy' stuff. His two baby girls…had him wrapped around their fingers. He loved playing kitchen, restaurant and pushing them on their swings. Aaron loved his wife…dearly and took the best care of her. He was the absolute best husband, father, son, and an all-around wonderful man.'
MSHA cited Warrior Met with a violation of 30 CFR 75.1725(a), a regulation requiring that equipment 'be maintained in safe operating condition.' If machinery is deemed unsafe, the regulation requires it be removed from service immediately. Since Haley's death, the No. 4 Mine has been cited nearly 39 times for violating the same safety requirement.
Burgum's visit to the No. 4 mine was followed, according to his department's press release, by a 'windshield tour' of Warrior Met's planned Blue Creek facility, which is slated to be one of the largest coal mining expansions in the state's history.
If approved by state and federal regulators, the project is expected to increase Warrior Met's coal production by up to 60 percent. Taxpayer-funded support for the facility may top $400 million.
Warrior Met's planned expansion at Blue Creek may also include the extraction of publicly-owned coal managed by the Bureau of Land Management, according to federal documents.
In Alabama, as in many other states, so-called 'mineral rights'—including the right to mine for coal under property—have been separated from surface ownership over time. One person or entity can own a surface property under Alabama law while another person or entity can own the rights to all of the resources below that same piece of land, a situation known as a 'split estate.' In significant areas of Alabama, the federal government retains mineral rights despite private land ownership on the surface.
The federal Bureau of Land Management announced in April that it would conduct an environmental assessment related to Warrior Met's Blue Creek project and, specifically, its proposal to mine 14,040 acres of federal minerals underlying privately owned land in Tuscaloosa County. Warrior Met's applications to lease the coal rights propose the extraction of approximately 57.5 million tons of recoverable public coal reserves.
Taxpayers will help to pay for some critical needs related to the expansion of the Blue Creek project, according to state and county officials who touted the expansion as leading to job creation. In March 2024, Gov. Kay Ivey announced that, with the support of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, the Appalachian Regional Commission would provide $500,000 in taxpayer funding to install public water service to the Blue Creek mine site. 'Access to dependable local water service is essential to attract and grow new business and jobs,' Ivey said.
Warrior Met also secured a $26.5 million tax abatement from the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority. A breakdown of the tax incentive deal in 2020 estimated that Warrior Met would receive $18 million in tax breaks during the project's construction and $8.5 million over the next decade.
'This project represents a significant investment in our community by Warrior Met Coal,' said Mark Crews, chairman of the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority, 'but also represents valuable job opportunities for our citizens for several decades to come.'
Exports from Warrior Met and other Alabama coal producers are also a driving force behind continued expansion at the Port of Mobile, including the publicly-funded dredging of Mobile Bay, which is slated to cost taxpayers more than $350 million.
Warrior Met has been the target of litigation over its environmental record. In September 2024, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, an environmental group founded to protect and restore the Black Warrior River and its tributaries, settled a lawsuit with the company over a leaking coal slurry impoundment at Warrior Met's No. 7 Mine in Brookwood. Black Warrior Riverkeeper had documented nearly two dozen leaks from the coal waste pond in the year before the suit was filed, the organization said in a court filing earlier this year.
The settlement, approved by a federal judge in September of last year, requires Warrior Met to limit and monitor leaks from the site, pay $250,000 to the Freshwater Land Trust for a conservation project and reimburse the nonprofit for its legal fees.
Burgum said last week that metallurgical coal like that extracted by Warrior Met is 'essential for us for steelmaking,' though the company itself has acknowledged its coal is not used for steelmaking in the United States. 'Substantially all of our steelmaking coal sales are exported,' the company wrote in its 2024 annual report to shareholders.
In the same report, Warrior Met outlined various risks and uncertainties that could impact their bottom line. Among them: 'Challenges associated with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations' and 'climate change concerns and our operations' impact on the environment.'
James Bruggers contributed reporting for this story.
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