§1244 Remining Incentives

Summary

The Secretary can make rules, after a chance for public comment, that let the reclamation fund pay incentives to encourage remining of eligible land so more land gets reclaimed than would without the incentives. Those rules must say the incentives apply only if the Secretary, with the State regulatory authority’s agreement, finds that the land probably would not be remined and reclaimed without the incentives. The rules can include things like a rebate or waiver of reclamation fees and using fund money to provide financial assurance instead of performance bonds. Any fee rebate or waiver can be used only for removing or reprocessing abandoned mine waste or for remining that meets certain priority goals, and the rebate cannot be more than the estimated cost to reclaim the land.