(1) The secretary of the Energy and Environment Cabinet shall promulgate regulations for the permitting and performance of coal exploration operations which substantially disturb the natural land surface. The regulations shall include at a minimum provisions for giving notice of intention to explore including a description of the area to be explored and the period of supposed exploration and provisions for reclamation, as required by this chapter, of all land disturbed in the exploration.
(2) Any requirements of public access to records set forth in the Kentucky Revised Statutes to the contrary notwithstanding, the secretary shall order that confidential trade secrets or privileged commercial or financial information in the possession of the cabinet or pursuant to a coal exploration permit remain confidential.

Terms Used In Kentucky Statutes 350.057

  • Cabinet: means the Energy and Environment Cabinet. See Kentucky Statutes 350.010
  • Operations: means surface coal mining operations, all of the premises, facilities, roads, and equipment used in the process of producing coal from a designated area or removing overburden for the purpose of determining the location, quality, or quantity of a natural coal deposit or the activity to facilitate or accomplish the extraction or the removal of coal. See Kentucky Statutes 350.010
  • Operator: means any person, partnership, or corporation engaged in surface coal mining operations who removes or intends to remove more than twenty-five (25) tons of coal from the earth by coal mining within twelve (12) consecutive calendar months in any one (1) location. See Kentucky Statutes 350.010
  • Person: means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, society, joint stock company, firm, company, or other business organization and shall also include any agency, unit, or instrumentality of federal, state, or local government including any publicly-owned utility or publicly-owned corporation of federal, state, or local government. See Kentucky Statutes 350.010
  • Reclamation: means the reconditioning of the area affected by surface coal mining operations under a plan approved by the cabinet. See Kentucky Statutes 350.010
  • Secretary: means the secretary of the Energy and Environment Cabinet. See Kentucky Statutes 350.010

(3) (a) No person or operator shall remove more than twenty-five (25) tons of coal by coal exploration operations without first obtaining a coal exploration permit from the cabinet.
(b) No person or operator conducting coal exploration operations in which more than twenty-five (25) tons of coal are removed shall knowingly and willfully receive, transport, sell, convey, exchange, transfer, trade, donate, deliver, or otherwise convert to a commercial use any coal extracted during the course of the operations, except with the prior written approval of the cabinet for the purpose of testing or determining the properties of the coal.
(4) All persons or operators conducting operations pursuant to this section shall be subject to the applicable provisions of KRS § 350.990.
Effective: July 15, 2010
History: Amended 2010 Ky. Acts ch. 24, sec. 1878, effective July 15, 2010. — Amended 1990 Ky. Acts ch. 205, sec. 3, effective July 13, 1990; and ch. 212, sec. 3, effective July 13, 1990. — Created 1980 Ky. Acts ch. 62, sec. 6.