§1244 Remining Incentives

Summary

The Secretary can make rules, after public comment, that let money from the fund be used as incentives to encourage remining of eligible land under section 1234. The rules must be written so the incentives use fund money to get more reclamation done than would happen without them. Incentives can be used only if the Secretary and the State regulatory authority agree that, without the incentives, the land probably would not be remined and reclaimed. Possible incentives include rebates or waivers of the reclamation fees in section 1232(a) and using fund money to provide financial assurance instead of some or all performance bonds under section 1259. Any rebate or waiver must fund work that removes or reprocesses abandoned coal mine waste or meets the priorities in section 1233(a)(1) or (2), and the rebate cannot exceed the estimated cost to reclaim the land.