Herald-Leader: 'Life and Death.' Tax on coal companies for black lung victims slated to be slashed.

The Lexington Herald-Leader recently interviewed ACLC’s Deputy Director, Wes Addington, about the Black Lung Excise Tax that will expire at the end of the year unless Congress takes action.

“It’s the beginning of a scenario where you could see very sick miners having to do without health care, and ultimately it could cost them their lives,” said Wes Addington, deputy director of the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center.

Addington specializes in black lung and mine safety litigation. For many of the former miners and widows he represents, the benefits they receive from the fund are “the difference between making it and not.”