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Colorado, Wyoming Coal Mining Approvals Defy Climate Protection
Colorado, Wyoming Coal Mining Approvals Defy Climate Protection
Guardians Challenges Local Interior Department Officials Over Failure to Account for Carbon Costs of Selling Publicly Owned Coal
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663
Denver—More coal mining means more carbon emissions and more global warming, and in briefs filed late yesterday WildEarth Guardians challenged local Bureau of Land Management officials’ decisions to approve more coal mining in Colorado and Wyoming at the expense of the climate.
“Our nation is moving away from coal, yet local officials seem determined to maintain the status quo of more fossil fuels and more climate change,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director. “With the American West facing an increasingly uncertain future because of global warming, it’s time to keep our coal in the ground.”
In briefs filed with the U.S. Interior Board of Land Appeals, Guardians called for the reversal of two coal leasing decisions made by local Bureau of Land Management officials that would undermine the climate. One would expand Pacificorp’s Jim Bridger coal mine in southern Wyoming and the other would expand Peabody Energy’s Foidel Creek coal mine (also known as the Twentymile coal mine) in northwestern Colorado.
Guardians challenged the failure of the Bureau of Land Management to disclose the costs of added carbon emissions associated with the new mining. Carbon costs are associated with the damages caused by rising sea levels, extreme weather damages, crop destruction, and more. All told, the Bureau’s decisions would open the door for more than two million tons of new carbon pollution. Although federal estimates of carbon costs indicate that the costs of a ton of carbon pollution could be as high as $212 per ton, the Bureau rejected calculating carbon costs claiming that the results would be “misleading.”
“Although President Obama has been honest with the American public about the impacts of climate change and the need to reduce carbon emissions, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management continues to lie,” said Nichols. “Carbon costs are real, and for the Bureau of Land Management to argue otherwise is deceitful and illegal.”
On January 15, Sally Jewell, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the Bureau of Land Management, announced a pause on the leasing of publicly owned coal and committed to undertaking reforms to safeguard the climate, protect taxpayers, and defend the public interest.
In spite of the Administration’s move toward reform, Bureau of Land Management officials approved leases to expand the Jim Bridger mine in Wyoming and the Foidel Creek mine in Colorado.
The Bureau of Land Management manages publicly owned coal deposits, which are mainly located in the American West. 40% of all coal mined in the nation comes from publicly owned deposits. The mining and burning of this coal produces more than 11% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Coal from Foidel Creek is burned in the nearby Hayden power plant and coal from the Jim Bridger mine is burned in the Jim Bridger power plant, the largest coal-fired power plant in Wyoming.
In comments submitted last year, Guardians called on the Interior Department to reject the Twentymile and Bridger leases. Even as President Obama and the Secretary of the Interior called for restraint, the Bureau of Land Management instead moved ahead, opening the door for more coal mining.
The briefs were filed with Interior Board of Land Appeals, an administrative review board within the Department of the Interior.
For more information on the federal coal program and publicly owned coal leasing, check out WildEarth Guardians’ series of interactive maps >>
For pictures of the Jim Bridger mine and power plant, click here >>
For pictures of the Twentymile mine and Hayden power plant, click here >>