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Indemnity’s headquarters in a suburb of Nashville. The insurance company underpins the financing for the cleanup of almost one-fifth of the US coal mining industry. 

Indemnity’s headquarters in a suburb of Nashville. The insurance company underpins the financing for the cleanup of almost one-fifth of the US coal mining industry. 

Photographer: Kristina Krug for Bloomberg Green 

Green
Shafted: Part III

The Tiny Insurance Company Standing Between Taxpayers and a Costly Coal Industry Bailout

Indemnity backs two-thirds of West Virginia’s coal bonds. The concentration worries just about everybody.

In a quiet commercial strip in an upscale suburb of Nashville, there’s a single-story brick building housing a company that may determine whether another billion-dollar taxpayer bailout of the coal industry is needed.

It is the main office of Indemnity National Insurance Co., a specialty insurer whose health underpins the financing for the cleanup of almost one-fifth of the US coal mining industry.

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