The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is allowing Clearco-Aurevo — two renegade coal companies operating as a single entity — to illegally mine coal in Greenbrier County, West Virginia.

On Oct. 26, our partners at Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance received an anonymous tip that coal trucks were seen transporting coal along Clearco-Aurevo’s Haulroad #1, in apparent violation of a slew of state cessation orders against the company’s mining permits in the area. ABRA provided this information in a complaint to the West Virginia DEP. In response to the complaint, DEP inspector Braden Snyder, called ABRA’s staff attorney, Andrew Young, and confirmed that Clearco-Aurevo is in fact mining coal at the company’s Laurel Creek Surface Mine, and transporting it along Haulroad #1 to the Clearco prep plant.

When a coal company fails to fix an environmental violation in a timely manner, regulators issue a cessation order, which prohibits any coal removal until the underlying violations are addressed. There are currently seven cessation orders in force against the Laurel Creek Surface Mine, three against Haulroad #1, and six against the Clearco Prep Plant. Two of the cessation orders on the Laurel Creek mine are for ongoing violations that have remained unabated since the spring of 2024. The company’s ongoing mining, transport, and stockpiling operations on these three permits violate these cessation orders.

These operations are part of a 3,600-acre complex of chronically noncompliant mines and related infrastructure that was previously operated by South Fork Coal Company. That company went bankrupt in 2025. Clearco-Aurevo were incorporated on the same day in late 2025 by James Woods Jr., as Clearco Processing Corporation and Aurevo Resources Inc., and then took over the South Fork operations.

The state Department of Environmental Protection granted Clearco-Aurevo advanced approval of permit transfer for South Fork’s operations in May of this year. As a result of the permit transfer, Clearco-Aurevo became legally responsible for correcting all of the violations South Fork left in its wake and complying with all existing enforcement actions stemming from those violations.

“When I spoke with Mr. Snyder, he told me WVDEP was allowing Aurevo and Clearco to operate under ‘advance approval’ even though South Fork Coal — which doesn’t actually exist anymore — remains the permit holder,” said Andrew Young of Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance. 

But advance approval is not a free pass to disregard environmental law. West Virginia’s regulations allow the WVDEP to grant approval of a permit transfer application prior to the close of the public comment period on those applications, but such an “advanced” approval transfers the permits to the new operator the same as a standard approval after the close of public comment. West Virginia regulations expressly require anyone who assumes control of a mining operation to correct its outstanding violations. The law also requires WVDEP to find that a successor will comply with the law and existing permit conditions before approving a permit transfer. Federal law likewise requires anyone taking over an existing mine to comply with all requirements in that mine’s permit. The cessation orders don’t simply disappear because WVDEP hasn’t finished its paperwork.

“Meanwhile, South Fork Coal has been liquidated,” said Young. “It has no employees, no equipment, and no financial ability to correct these violations. WVDEP cannot allow Clearco-Aurevo to operate the mines while leaving responsibility for environmental violations with a bankrupt predecessor. You don’t get to inherit the right to mine without inheriting the responsibility to comply with the law.”

The anonymous tip received by ABRA came just days before Appalachian Voices, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against Aurevo Resources, Inc.. The organizations are represented by attorneys with Lewisburg-based Appalachian Mountain Advocates in that suit, which attempts to enforce more than 50 violations of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act on Aurevo’s mines. Prior to filing the lawsuit, the organizations’ attorney reached out to DEP to inquire about the company’s progress addressing violations, but the agency did not respond. 

“Clearco-Aurevo owns and controls these mines, so there’s no question that they are responsible for environmental compliance on them,” said Young. “But the DEP seems to want to create an extra-legal status that would allow these companies to avoid any responsibility for the violations and pollution at the mines they have taken over while still profiting from mining coal. There is nothing in West Virginia’s surface mining program that allows Clearco-Aurevo to break the law and DEP to respond by writing a violation against South Fork Coal, a company that no longer exists. It’s absurd and nakedly unlawful.”

In total, as of Nov. 11, 2026, the publicly available record shows there are at least 68 cessation orders that remain in force against the 10 mining permits controlled by Clearco-Aurevo. The company is therefore legally required to focus on addressing these violations and nothing else. Instead, it appears Clearco-Aurevo is neglecting environmental cleanup in critical habitat, mining coal illegally and requesting the Forest Service hand over 1.2 miles of roads, which would essentially close off legal public access to nearly 300 acres of the Monongahela National Forest for a period of at least 10 years. 

The companies, incorporated by a confessed and convicted fraudster, are clearly bad actors, but the DEP is bending over backwards to enable this appalling behavior.

Along with the Oct. 26 complaint, Allegheny Blue Ridge Alliance requested a citizen inspection of the Laurel Creek mine, Haulroad #1 and Clearco Prep Plant. As of this blog’s publication, DEP has not honored this request. 

To help hold Clearco-Aurevo, as well as the DEP accountable, please contact WVDEP’s Nicki Taylor ([email protected]) and the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s Deputy Director Thomas Shope ([email protected]). Demand that they investigate the ongoing coal mining and hauling, enforce the outstanding cessation orders, and grant Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance its citizen inspection.