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

Friday, May 6, 2016
Colorado Coal Mine Expansion Overturned

U.S. Interior Department Finds Coal Lease Illegally Approved, Rejection Comes Amid Coal Reforms
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663 jnichols@wildearthguardians.org

Denver—Millions oftons of publicly owned coal are slated to remain in the ground as a rulingtoday found a western Colorado coal mine expansion was illegally approved.

“This is a win for our climate and for clean energy,” said JeremyNichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director. “It also bolsters the need for the InteriorDepartment to move forward on bold reforms to fix the way our coal is managedin the American West and help our nation move away from fossil fuels.”

Responding to an appeal filed by WildEarth Guardians in2014, the U.S. Interior Board of Land Appeals found that an unauthorized Bureauof Land Management official improperly approved a coal lease that would expandthe Bowie No. 2 mine in Colorado’s North Fork Valley.

The Board “set aside” the leasing decision and found that it“has no legal effect.”

The lease, called “Spruce Stomp,” would have allowedKentucky-based Bowie Resources to expand its coal mine by nearly 2,000 acresunderneath the Grand Mesa outside of Paonia, Colorado. The eight million ton coal lease would haveboosted Bowie’s plan to export coal from its mine through ports in the Bay Areaof California.

According to Bowie Resources, the company has agreementswith ports in California to export up to 2.3million tons of coal annually. Thecompany is seeking to expand its export capabilities by usingmoney from the State of Utah to fund the development of a new coal exportterminal.

The lease rejection comes as the InteriorDepartment launched a historic reform effort around publicly owned coalmanagement. The reform push comes amidgrowing controversy over the climate impacts of the federal coal program andsigns that taxpayers are extensively subsidizing coal production in the westernU.S.

The Secretary of the Interior imposed a moratorium on newcoal leasing and initiated a programmatic environmental review of the federalcoal program.

As part of its reform push, the Interior Department isholding public hearings in western states in May and June. A meeting is scheduled for GrandJunction, Colorado on June 23.

Since 2014, the Bowie No. 2 mine has slowed production andis nowidled, although the company has indicated it is assessing market conditionsto determine whether production should restart.

Today’s ruling by the Interior Board of Land Appeals meansthe Spruce Stomp coal lease must be canceled and that Bowie Resources is nowprohibited from mining the lease.