Dear Guardian,

President Trump and his Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, are moving to hand over our public lands to coal companies, part of a plan to subsidize the industry at our expense.

I’m outraged at this and I hope you’ll join me in speaking out to thwart their attempts to put this corrupt scheme into action.

I’m not exaggerating. Ryan Zinke himself called the notion of charging the fossil fuel industry for exploiting our public lands “un-American.”

Now, in the American West, Zinke is eyeing some of the first major coal giveaways.

In Colorado, they want to hand over 640 acres so Peabody Coal can expand its Foidel Creek mine, which is located just west of Steamboat Springs. The move would open the door for more than four million tons of new coal to be ripped from the ground.

And in Wyoming, they want to hand over more than 3,500 acres so Cloud Peak Energy can expand its Antelope mine, a massive strip mine in the Powder River Basin. The move would open the door for more than 440 million tons of new coal to be stripped, shipped, and burned.

We just can’t afford to stand on the sidelines and stay silent as these coal catastrophes unfold. Send a letter today; let’s present a united front of resistance to these plans.

Both Peabody and Cloud Peak are on the ropes, continuing to report massive financial losses. Cloud Peak just reported a loss of $27 million so far in 2017 and Peabody reported a loss of $20.1 million in stock value just this last quarter.

These companies are failing and the only way they can survive is if they’re propped up by taxpayers and given massive breaks by the federal government.

That’s what Trump and Zinke are trying to do, but we can’t let them.

This is where we defend our climate and our future, on the ground here it the American West. Join us in speaking out so we can derail Trump’s and Zinke’s plans to prop up coal.

Trump and Zinke want Americans to become tools of the fossil fuel industry and in doing so, surrender our public lands, our climate, and any hope for clean energy. We can’t let this happen and we won’t let this happen.

For the wild,

 

Jeremy Nichols
Climate & Energy Program Director
WildEarth Guardians
jnichols@wildearthguardians.org

P.S. Seriously, Ryan Zinke said that it is “un-American” to charge private companies to develop public. This is outrageous and it underscores the need for us all to speak out as loudly and persistently as possible!

P.P.S. Want more dirty details? The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has more information on Peabody’s plans here and Cloud Peak’s plans here.

photo: Peabody Energy