Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

Monday, January 31, 2011
Bureau of Land Management Pulls out Smoke and Mirrors in Coal Controversy

Claims Largest Coal Producing Region in United States is not a Coal Producing Region
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 573-4898 x 1303

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Map of coal-fired power plants fueled by Powder River Basin coal

Powder River Basin,Wyoming—The U.S. Bureau of Land Management today announced that the largestcoal producing region in the United States is not a coal production region.

“Once again, the U.S. Interior Department and its agencies are runninginterference for the fossil fuel industry,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate andEnergy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “Instead of living up totheir promises to restore trust and accountability in the wake of the Gulf oilspill, Interior and the Bureau of Land Management are protecting coal companiesat the expense of American taxpayers.”

The Powder River Basin of northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana is thenation’s largest coal producing region. Nearly 500,000,000 tons are stripmined annually, more than any other region in the nation (see chart showing amount of coal produced by region). Coal from the Powder River Basin is burned in more than 200 coal-fired powerplants in more than 35 states and is increasingly being shipped overseas to beburned in Chinese coal-fired power plants.

“Raiding the natural landscapes that make Montana and Wyoming a sportsman’sdestination is a direct threat to our economies,” said Mike Scott, RegionalRepresentative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in Montana. “Thisdecision will harm our economy, it will harm our climate, it will harm our landand it will discourage competition in the market, all so our coal can powerdirty plants in China.

“The effect of this decision is to force taxpayers in the U.S. to effectivelysubsidize coal exports to China,” continued Scott.

In response to a petition filed by WildEarth Guardians in November of 2009,Bureau of Land Management Director, Bob Abbey, upheld a 1990 decision to“decertify” the Powder River Basin (download the decision here).

The 1990 decision in essence declared the region no longer produced coal. Director Abbey’s decision today reaffirms this declaration.

“Decertification” has allowed the Bureau of Land Management—the InteriorDepartment agency that oversees federal coal leasing—to avoid followingstandard leasing procedures, allowing coal companies, rather than the federalgovernment, to design lease boundaries that preclude competition.

A report prepared by WildEarth Guardians in 2009, entitled “UnderMining theClimate,” found that in the last 20 years, only three lease sales out of 21have had more than one bidder (see WildEarth Guardians report).

“The coal industry has enough handouts paid for by American taxpayers,” saidScott. “We already pay for the price of coal-fired power in the illnesseswe suffer that are made worse by coal’s pollution. Asking us to pay moreso coal companies can monopolize mining in the process of damaging the climateis offensive.”

The Bureau of Land Management has not shied away from admitting that the reasonfor “decertification” was to accommodate coal companies looking to expandexisting mines in the region.

The unfair federal leasing program has undermined the ability of the Bureau ofLand Management to address global warming impacts. Not only has itthwarted the ability of the agency to prepare a regional analysis of the globalwarming impacts, the “decertification” has blocked the agency from limitingcoal leasing or otherwise adopting measures to address climatedisruption. WildEarth Guardians’ report found that the Powder River Basinproduces 42% of all the coal burned in U.S. coal-fired power plants, releasing800,000,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions—more than 13% of the nation’stotal.

“With responsibility over billions of tons of coal, the Bureau of LandManagement can’t just call climate disruption someone else’s problem, yetDirector Abbey’s decision does just that,” said Nichols. “Sadly, the InteriorDepartment seems bent on shutting the doors to climate solutions.”

Despite the problems with “decertification,” the Bureau of Land Management ispushing to offer 12 new coal leases in the Powder River Basin (see table of proposed leases). These leaseswould collectively mine up to 5.8 billion tons of coal—as much coal as has beenmined from the region in the last 20 years. WildEarth Guardians’ reportfound that together, these proposals threaten to lead to the release of morethan 9.63 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide—more than the amount releasedevery year by 1.7 billion passenger vehicles annually.

The groups will most likely be filing suit in federal court over thedecision.