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

Denver—WildEarth Guardians appealed to safeguard the climate today, challenging the U.S.Interior Department’s approval of expanded coal mining in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming that would fuel more carbon pollution in America and overseas.

“The Interior Department continues to turn its back on the climate, putting the interests of the coal industry before our nation’s interest in tackling carbon pollution,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director. “If we have any hope of confronting the impacts of climate change, we have to start keeping our coal in the ground.”

In mid-August, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management approved the sale of 15.75 million tons of coal to Cloud Peak Energy, the nation’s fourth largest coal company, to expand the company’s Antelope mine. Cloud Peak Energy is the largest exporter of coal from the Powder River Basin, shipping millions of tons of coal every year primarily to Asia.

The Antelope mine is the fourth largest coal mine in the U.S. and is located in the Powder River Basin of northeastern Wyoming, the nation’s largest coal producing region. More than 30 million tons of coal are stripped from the ground here shipped to power plants throughout the U.S. and abroad. The mine produces more than 30 million tons of coal annually, producing nearly 50 million metric tons of carbon pollution every year.

The Interior Department’s coal sale comes even as the Obama Administration is urgently calling for reductions in carbon pollution to safeguard the climate and prevent billions in economic damages.

WildEarth Guardians appealed the Interior Department’s decision today, filing a notice with the Interior Board of Land Appeals. The appeal will ultimately challenge the Interior Department over its failure to limit air pollution from expanded mining and to safeguard the climate from increased carbon.

The appeal is part of Guardians’ ongoing campaign to rein in coal mining in the Powder River Basin, which fuels more than 200 power plants in the U.S. and is increasingly shipped abroad. The coal mining region is responsible for more than 40% of the nation’s carbon pollution.