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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 1, 2002

Silver Anniversary of SMCRA Prompts Coal Performance Review; NMA's Gerard Points Out Sterling Contributions and Achievement

WASHINGTON - NMA President and CEO Jack N. Gerard said the silver anniversary of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) is an important time to note some sterling achievements by the coal industry in reclamation and production.

In the 25 years since SMCRA's passage, the industry has restored 1.9 million acres of land to other productive use, he said, and last year supplied Americans with energy equal to 10.9 million barrels of imported oil a day. The restored land is an area one-and-quarter times as large as the state of Delaware or more than twice the size of Rhode Island. The energy content of the coal equals the energy in the combined totals of our crude oil imports from OPEC plus our own domestic crude production, a total 10.6 million barrels a day.

"This industry's performance is standing proof that our nation's concern for the environment can be successfully harmonized with our need for low-cost, secure energy," Gerard said in reviewing an analysis prepared in connection with ceremonies to commemorate President Carter's signing of the act on August 3, 1977.

Gerard said SMCRA-era achievements serve to underscore the reasons President Bush chose to emphasize the link between coal, technology and electric power in the National Energy Strategy. He cited achievements in production, in protecting the environment during production, in safety and in reclamation.

SMCRA applies to surface production and the surface effects of underground production. It requires pre-approved plans that meet or exceed state and federal laws and regulations. Careful attention is given the management and mitigation of affects on water and hydrologic resources during and after production. Like care is taken with soil stabilization and revegetation techniques. Land must be returned to productive use and as closely as possible to original characteristics.

FBI Complex in Clarksburg, West Virginia is located on 986 acres of reclaimed land.

In reclamation, SMCRA-era achievements include 2,969 square miles restored to uses such as cropland, pasture, tree farms, wildlife parks, wetlands, recreation areas, and golf courses. They have provided sites for residential, commercial and industrial development. One SMCRA site, he noted, is even involved in the war on terror. The FBI's fingerprint processing center in West Virginia is built on a valley fill that resulted from coal production.

In production, the SMCRA era saw coal by 2001 account for 32.5 percent of all homeland energy production, 40.4 percent of all domestic fossil energy production and 50.9 percent of electric power. Production of 1,121.3 million tons for the year was comprised of an estimated 731 million tons surface production and 390 million tons underground. It equaled 4 billion barrels of oil in energy content. Most coal is used for electric power, about 981.5 million tons in 2001.