According to legal news service Courthouse News Service Amerikohl sued the Department of the Interior, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Pennsylvania Game Commission in Federal Court.
Courthouse News reports Amerikohl claims the defendants took the $317,000 under “an illegal and unenforceable Pennsylvania-specific policy developed, implemented and applied by a local office of USFWS”
Amerikohl claims it paid the money to the bat fund to “obtain the necessary approvals to conduct surface mining activities at surface mines” in Beaver County.
After it paid though, Amerikohl claims it discovered those payments were not necessary because the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection had granted its applications for a post-mining reclamation plan.
Indiana bats, like other eastern US bats, are being decimated by white-nose syndrome.
