The coal industry went broke in the mid-2000s because of cheaper competition from natural gas. Alpha transferred all these mines to a smaller company that was going to clean them up. That ended up being a great deal for Alpha as it's now a publicly traded company again and can tell its investors, look, we don't have this legacy obligation of uncertain costs.
As the US coal industry dwindles, big mining companies that once made a fortune are packing up–and leaving behind a staggering mess of destroyed land and poisoned water. So who’ll pay to clean it up? Bloomberg reporters Josh Saul and Zachary Mider spent time in coal country and join this episode to talk about the multi-billion-dollar game of pass the buck now playing out in Appalachia.
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