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ILLINOIS — On Thursday, August 20, the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors voted to sell its federally-owned mineral rights to the Sugar Camp mine in Illinois. TVA’s decision to divest its ownership in Sugar Camp ensures that one of the nation’s largest mines will continue to operate — despite the alarming environmental issues and safety violations that have plagued the mining complex.
"TVA divestiture or sale of Illinois coal rights will mean 30 more years are likely for damaging longwall underground coal mining by a coal mine operator that repeatedly has risked miners' lives and has a record of worker deaths due to management failures. We do not want to see more of these mine tragedies in Illinois." said Joyce Blumenshine, a volunteer leader with the Illinois Chapter Sierra Club Mining Issues Team.
Blumenshine traveled from Illinois to the Board’s listening session in Memphis, Tennessee, to urge the TVA to delay its vote and ask for a review of the current controversial mine operators, Foresight, citing safety and environmental concerns..
Earlier this month, four coal mine managers were indicted on federal charges after concealing an underground fire which threatened the lives of hundreds of miners and obstructing the federal investigation that followed. Meanwhile, the Illinois Attorney General is suing Sugar Camp Energy for illegally discharging PFAS into local waters to fight the fire. These myriad hazards are only compounded by the well-documented harms that coal-fired plants have on air quality, electricity prices, and our environment as a whole.
Jack Darin, Director of the Illinois Sierra Club, said, “Illinois has set bold goals for moving beyond fossil fuels, but now Trump’s Tennessee Valley Authority is throwing a wrench in our state’s progress. Opening thousands of more acres around the Sugar Camp site for coal mining is selling out Illinois land, resources, and people to profit an industry that has utterly failed to protect both worker safety or our natural resources. This massive expansion will only harm workers, farmers, and all Illinoisans. The only right decision here is to clean up the damage coal mining has already done to these communities, and plan for a just transition that is consistent with Illinois’ leadership in building a clean energy future.”
In December, Prairie Rivers Network and Sierra Club Illinois sued the TVA to block the federal government from a massive expansion of coal mining in Illinois. The organizations noted the operators of the Sugar Camp mine history of noncompliance with mining and worker safety protections, including negligence leading to miner deaths, and numerous water quality violations.
“This recent TVA decision is just one example of the Trump administration’s efforts to support the coal industry, at the expense of miners, communities, and the environment,” said Amanda Pankau, Director of Energy and Community Resiliency at Prairie Rivers Network, “The administration has delayed miner health protections for black lung, rolled back mercury standards and coal ash protections on coal-fired power plants, and eliminated the 2009 Endangerment Finding, the longstanding determination that greenhouse gas pollution endangers public health and welfare.”
