WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, July 28, 2015
U.S. Interior Department to Hear From Public Tomorrow about Federal Coal Policy

First "Listening Session" in Washington, DC Wednesday July 29; Expert from WildEarth Guardians Available for Interviews about Federal Coal vs. Climate Objectives
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663

The U.S. Department of the Interior is moving to reform the way it manages publicly owned coal in the United States.  As an initial step, the agency is holding a series of public listening sessions starting with Washington, D.C. tomorrow, and then in the American West. 

“These listening sessions are a welcome and refreshing acknowledgment of the need for bold change in the federal coal program,” says Jeremy Nichols from WildEarth Guardians.  “Yet any reforms will be wholly inadequate until the climate implications of mining and burning more publicly owned coal are confronted openly, aggressively, and effectively by the U.S. Interior Department.  As Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, has remarked, there is a need to address how to manage the federal coal program in a way that is consistent with our need to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. That ultimately means that the coal needs to be kept in the ground.”

The first listening session will take place on Wednesday, July 29, 2015, 1:00-4:00 pm EST at the South Interior Building Auditorium, 1951 Constitution Ave, NW, Washington, D.C. 20245

The reasons for keeping coal in the ground are all too clear.  The Interior Department oversees nearly a trillion tons of publicly owned coal reserves in the lower 48 United States, the vast majority in the American West.  These reserves are the source of the majority of all the coal mined and consumed in the U.S.  In fiscal year 2014 alone, more than 40% of all coal produced in the nation came from publicly owned reserves managed by Interior.

Coal is mined for one reason, to be burned.  And the burning of publicly owned coal produces massive amounts of carbon pollution.  All told, reports indicate that 11% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and 46% of all carbon dioxide emissions from coal combustion can be traced back to the mining of publicly owned coal.  The link between the Interior Department’s coal program and carbon emissions has been described as a massive “blind spot” of the Obama Administration.

Combating climate change means transitioning away from fossil fuels, first and foremost coal.  Study after study has found that moving beyond coal is the single most important means of limiting carbon emissions.  Most recently, scientists concluded that to meet modest climate targets, the United States must keep 95% of its recoverable coal reserves in the ground. 

In spite of this, the Interior Department continues to lease and condone the mining of more publicly owned coal.  Since 2009, the agency has auctioned off more than 2.2 billion tons of coal, including the sale of 40 million tons in June of this year. 

And in what may be one of the most significant coal decisions ever made by the Interior Department, the agency proposed in May to make more than 80 billion tons of coal available for leasing and mining just in Montana and Wyoming.

The economic and environmental consequences of more carbon emissions are undeniable.  As the White House has acknowledged, the devastating impacts of extreme weather, rising sea levels, and more threaten the U.S. economy with billions in losses, diminished national security, public health risks, and social unrest. 

“The U.S. Interior Department’s federal coal program can no longer continue to condone and facilitate the extraction of more coal and the production of more carbon,” says Nichols.  “It’s time for Sally Jewell and the Department to chart a deliberate and expeditious path toward ending the program and keeping publicly owned coal in the ground for good.”