We have a new piece at More Perfect Union today unpacking the many corporate tax cuts and handouts added to the One Big Beautiful Bill, which passed the Senate yesterday and is now back in the House. One last-minute change caught my eye in particular—a new tax break for a specific kind of coal company that stands to benefit a GOP senator who had expressed reservations about the bill’s Medicaid cuts.
The provision, added to the Senate bill in a late-night update last Tuesday, makes metallurgical coal that is used in steel manufacturing eligible for the 45x Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit, which was established in 2022 by the Inflation Reduction Act for clean energy projects. The bill designates so-called “met coal” as a critical mineral and provides a 2.5% tax credit for costs related to producing it. While this is a relatively modest tax benefit compared to other provisions in the bill, it could still save millions of dollars annually for large met coal producers.
Jim Justice, West Virginia’s freshman U.S. senator, happens to own tens of millions of dollars worth of stock in a family company called Bluestone Resources that has been increasingly shifting its business from thermal coal production to met coal in recent years, with industry analysts expecting the company to begin focusing on met coal production exclusively. In a 2021 lawsuit, the company’s lawyers described Bluestone as “engaged in the business of mining and processing high quality met coal” with “some of the largest steel producers in the world” as its customers. According to a 2024 financial disclosure, Justice owns more than $50 million in BlueStone Resources stock, in addition to up to $50 million in accounts receivable from the company and an inactive Bluestone Coke Processing Plant in Alabama worth up to $25 million. While he owns these stakes in the business, Justice handed control of the company to his son in 2017, after being elected governor of West Virginia.
Earlier this week, Justice said he was concerned that Medicaid cuts in the bill could hurt Republicans politically and he opposed an amendment that would have cut Medicaid even further (the amendment was ultimately withdrawn). Yesterday, Justice voted in favor of the bill, calling it “a strong step in the right direction.” He also highlighted the met coal provision on his website, saying it “will have a significant impact on Southern West Virginia.”
Read the full piece here, and follow us on X and Bluesky.
Speed Read
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Politico: Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Rick Scott are blasting former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for starting a D.C. consulting firm after saying he would not become a lobbyist after leaving the government.
ProPublica: In 2023, while Kristi Noem was governor of South Dakota, she supplemented her income by secretly accepting a cut of the money she raised for a nonprofit that promotes her political career, tax records show.
