Last week, an international panel of climate scientists
expressly warned that to safeguard our climate, we have to “move away from
business as usual” and aggressively turn away from coal.
In spite of this, U.S. Interior Secretary, Sally Jewell, who
was the former head of REI, Inc. and who has pledged in her job to rely on the
“best science available” has proposed to green light another 50 million tons of
coal mining in Utah.
Tell the Interior
Secretary today that the climate hypocrisy has to stop. Tell her to keep
the coal in the ground and put an end to business as usual.
Her latest proposal is to sell the Greens Hollow federal
coal lease. The lease would expand the SUFCO coal mine in Utah, the largest in
the state. The mine’s owner, Bowie Resources, not only sells to nearby power
plants, the company is increasingly exporting to Asia.
More coal is crazy. But
more mining in America to fuel Asian power plants is insane.
Ultimately, the Greens Hollow coal lease stands to release more
than 120 million tons of carbon, the same global warming impact as chopping
down a forest larger than the state of Utah.
What’s more, expanding the SUFCO mine threatens to despoil
untrammeled forest and push local wildlife, including the sage grouse, closer
to the brink. This is dirty energy at
its worst.
Let’s tell Sally Jewell loud and clear that the climate has
to come before the demands of the coal industry at the Interior Department. It’s
not unreasonable. It’s called science.
Because while Sally Jewell may have built REI into one of
the most successful outdoor businesses in the U.S., her pro-coal policies threaten
to destroy the very outdoors the company depends on.
Send a letter to
Sally Jewell today. Tell her America needs clean energy, not the Greens Hollow
coal lease.
For the Wild,
Jeremy Nichols
Climate and Energy Program Director
WildEarth Guardians
jnichols@wildearthguardians.org
