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Coalition Demands No Coal for the Holidays
Coalition Demands No Coal for the Holidays
Groups Urge U.S. Interior Department to Halt New Leasing, Move on Reforms to Federal Coal Program
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663
Washington,D.C. – In the wake of the Paris climate summit and a renewed commitment from the Obama Administration to combat climate change, a coalition of groups representing millions of Americans today called for reform of the federal coal program to become a top priority.
“It’s time to stop giving the American public coal for the Holidays,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy ProgramDirector. “Our nation needs to move to keep our publicly owned coal in the ground and protect our climate and our future.”
In a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary, Sally Jewell, the groups urged the Administration to halt new coal leasing, ensure fair return from the mining of publicly owned coal, and to overhaul the federal coal program to be consistent with our nation’s climate objectives.
Over the past year, the Interior Department has moved to fix the way it manages publicly owned coal in the U.S. This past summer, Secretary Jewell announced a need to modernize thefederal coal program and undertook a series of “listening sessions” to solicit public input.
All told, more than 40% of all coal produced in the nation comes from deposits owned by all Americans and managed by Interior. Most of this coal is strip mined in thePowder River Basin of northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana. When burned, this coal contributes to more than 10% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making the federal coal program a root contributor to global warming in America.
This situation has been exacerbated by Interior Department’s practice of subsidizing coal mining. Interior currently allows coal to be leased for less than $1.00 per ton and consistently allows companies to pay royalties below legally required levels. The result is that less money goes back to taxpayers and the coal industry is incentivized to keep digging.
The groups’ letter comes on the heels of growing recognition that efforts to combat climate change must take into account coal mining. As President Obama remarked when rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline, “If we’re going to prevent large parts of this earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, we’re going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground.”
In spite of this, the Interior Department is weighing whether to approve more than two dozen new coal leases in the western U.S. even before implementing reforms. Together, these leases would open the door for more than 2.5 billion tons of new mining, which stands to unleash 5 billion tons of carbon pollution.
Today’s letter calls on the Administration to take a timeout on new coal leasing so that new reforms can be enacted. Among other things, the letter urges SecretaryJewell to close royalty loopholes, raise royalty rates, establish criteria to determine whether coal leases are in the public interest, and to use the social cost of carbon to evaluate the climate impacts of any future federal coal leasing.