Five coal-mining companies spent $95-million to lobby US lawmakers and more than half a billion dollars on salaries for top executives in the decade before they filed for bankruptcy, according to a report by an environmental group.
At the same time, the companies – Walter Energy, Patriot Coal, Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Peabody Energy – benefited from a federal programme that leases land for coal production at a discount. The environmental group, the Western Values Project, said in a report to be released Tuesday that the companies’ “excessive” spending shows the leases helped lobbyists and executives, not the public.
