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Thursday, December 3, 2015
New Interactive Maps Bolster Need for Obama Administration to Keep our Coal in the Ground
WildEarth Guardians Project Shows Climate Impacts of Federal Coal, Underscores Calls to End New Leasing and Stop Bailing out Coal Industry
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663
Denver—A new series of online maps unveiled by WildEarth Guardians today highlights the opportunities for President Obama to make significant progress in combating climate change by keeping publicly owned coal in the ground.
“These maps shine a much-needed spotlight on the devastating climate impacts of the federal coal program and underscore the opportunities to turn things around,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “It’s time for the Obama Administration to get serious about keeping our coal in the ground and these maps lay out where to get started.”
The mapping release comes as the Obama Administration, including Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Sally Jewell, continues to engage in the Paris climate talks and follow on the heels of proposed federal legislation that would ensure the management of publicly owned coal is consistent with protecting the climate.
The series, entitled “Keep it in the Ground: Our Coal and the Opportunities to Protect the Climate,” was prepared together with Conservation Geography. The maps tell the story of publicly owned coal in the United States, focusing on the Rocky Mountain West. As the U.S. Department of the Interior has leased this coal to private companies at very low prices, huge amounts have been mined and burned, flooding the atmosphere with carbon pollution.
All told, federal leases, many of which underlie iconic public lands in the American West, are the source of more than 11% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
With dozens of leases awaiting action from the Interior Department, the mining of federal coal poses an ongoing threat to the climate. In the Powder River Basin of northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana alone, more than 2.1 billion tons of new coal leases are pending. If these leases were to be rejected, 3.4 billion tons of new carbon pollution would be prevented.
“The stakes for our climate and our future are high, but now, more than ever, is the time for action,” said Nichols. “It’s time for the Obama Administration to put an end to new coal leasing, stop giving breaks to the coal industry, and ultimately put an end to the federal coal program.”
The maps utilized data from the U.S. Department of the Interior and represent the first time that federal coal leases have been comprehensively mapped. Among other things, the project shows the location of authorized and pending leases, provides information on mines in the Rocky Mountain West that extract publicly owned coal, displays who owns leases in the West, and presents data on the climate impacts of leases, including information on carbon emissions and costs.
The maps show, for example, that many pending coal leases would expand mines with significant reserves already under lease, raising questions as to whether new leasing is necessary or appropriate.
Also highlighted are the efforts of WildEarth Guardians to confront the climate impacts of the federal coal program throughout the Rocky Mountain West. Earlier this year, Guardians unveiled a five-point plan to wind down the federal coal program and ultimately keep coal in the ground.
The plan called on the Interior Department to both put an end to new leasing and develop a plan to help coal-dependent communities transition to more sustainable and prosperous economies as the coal industry declines.
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