The Senate Rural Affairs Subcommittee voted 5-0 to report Senate Bill 929, which would establish an abandoned mine land grant retention fund into which eligible federal funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) would be deposited.

Sen. Travis Hackworth, who presented the bill, said the fund would authorize the director of the state Department of Energy to provide grants for projects described in the federal IIJA related to protecting public health, safety and property from coal-mining impacts. Hackworth said the state receives designated federal funds and that without a statutory retention fund unspent funds could be returned to the federal government.

A department witness clarified the program’s scale: the state receives about $22.7 million in designated funds annually, of which up to 30 percent — roughly $6.9 million — may be retained under the federal law; the subcommittee previously spent about $7.1 million from the program last year as planning and program set-up continued.

Environmental and conservation groups testified in support. Peter Anderson, director of state energy policy with Appalachian Voices, said the organization supports keeping IIJA dollars in Virginia for abandoned-mine cleanup. Josepha Salmon of the Southern Environmental Law Center and representatives of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters associated themselves with that support.

The bill permits the Commonwealth to reserve the federal-share retention each year and directs use for abandoned-mine land programs in Southwest Virginia. The subcommittee reported the bill to the full Senate on a 5-0 roll call.