WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Climate in Danger as Interior Moves to Sell Coal for Exports in Colorado

Guardians Vows Protest: Interior Department Lease Sale Would Undermine EPA Efforts to Curtail Carbon, Comes Amid Growing Controversy Over Federal Coal Program
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663

Denver—As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is holding public hearings today and tomorrow in Denver in support of rules to cut carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management is planning to sell 8 million tons of publicly owned coal for export tomorrow, a move that comes amid flaring controversy over federal coal sales and the growing costs of carbon.

“We can’t combat climate change by sending coal overseas to be burned,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director.  “It’s time for the Bureau of Land Management to stop turning its back on carbon pollution and start protecting the public interest.  For the sake of our future, cancel this lease sale.”

The sale is slated to take place Wednesday morning at 10 AM at the Bureau of Land Management’s Colorado State Office at 2850 Youngfield St. in Lakewood.  WildEarth Guardians, which has appealed to overturn the leasing decision, has called on the Interior Department to cancel the sale.

The 8 million ton Spruce Stomp coal lease is likely to be sold to Bowie Resources to expand the company’s western Colorado mine.  The company already exports one million tons annually from the mine, sending coal through California ports to Asia.  Bowie has stated it intends to increase its exports in the coming years.

The Spruce Stomp lease stands to unleash 20 million metric tons of carbon pollution, equal the amount released annually by 4.2 million cars.  In approving the lease, the Bureau of Land Management made no mention of exports and discounted the climate impacts, even though federal courts have chastised the Bureau for failing to take into account carbon costs when leasing coal.

A flurry of recent reports illustrate the dire climate consequences of the federal coal program.

Last week, a report released by the Sightline Institute revealed that while exports of federal coal are widespread in the western United States, the Bureau of Land Management is ignoring the issue.  The revelations come even as the Bureau of Land Management has been under fire by the Interior Department Inspector General and Government Accountability Office because of overlooking the economic consequences of exports.

And this week, reports released by Greenpeace and the Center for American Progress revealed that the federal coal leasing under the Obama Administration may be costing Americans upward of $550 billion, with coal from the Powder River Basin of northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana costing the public $49 per ton.  The costs stem from the economic damages wrought by carbon pollution.

WildEarth Guardians is currently in court seeking to overturn a number of recently approved coal leases, including nearly two billion tons of leasing in the Powder River Basin, over the failure of the Bureau of Land Management to weigh climate costs.  The federal government is defending its decisions.

The reports follow on the heels of a WildEarth Guardians analysis, which found that, because of carbon pollution, oil, gas, and coal production overseen by the Interior Department in 2013 imposed more costs on Americans than benefits.

“The Department of Interior is turning its back on the climate implications of fossil fuels, saddling Americans with massive carbon costs,” said Nichols.  “If they continue to turn a blind eye to climate change, we stand to make no progress in curtailing carbon pollution and no progress toward clean energy.”

Tomorrow’s lease sale would continue the federal government’s practice of giving coal companies the right to mine publicly owned coal for export.  Neither the Bureau of Land Management nor the Interior Department has responded to requests that the sale be cancelled.