WildEarth Guardians

Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Western Colorado Coal Mine Threatens Climate, Clean Air

Conservation Groups Challenge Wasteful Dirty Energy Development
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 573-4898 x 1303

Denver—With clean air and the climate at stake, WildEarth Guardians and the Sierra Club late yesterday sought to overturn a U.S. Bureau of Land Management decision authorizing the expansion of the Elk Creek coal mine in western Colorado.

“This is a dirty energy disgrace,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians.  “Instead of seeking clean energy solutions, the Bureau of Land Management is just rubberstamping whatever the coal companies put in front of them.”

With the help of Earthjustice, a public interest environmental law firm, the groups filed an appeal and petition for stay targeting the failure of the Bureau of Land Management to take into account the air quality and climate change impacts of wasteful mining operations at the Elk Creek mine east of Paonia. In January, the Agency authorized the sale of 3.9 million tons of coal as part of the Elk Creek East coal lease.  After the lease is sold, Oxbow Mining, LLC—a multinational coal company—intends to mine the coal within 18 months.  The appeal and petition for stay seeks to prevent the sale of the coal.

The decision promises a one-two punch to the Earth’s climate because of wasteful greenhouse gas emissions, which are fueling global climate change. 

First, the coal from the Elk Creek East lease will be shipped out of Colorado and burned in dozens of power plants throughout the U.S., leading to the release of more than 10 million tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide—as much as is released by more than 1.7 million passenger vehicles annually (see Coal-fired power plants fueled by Elk Creek Mine data here).

And second, the mining will vent 5.1 million cubic feet of methane daily into the air. Methane is a potent greenhouse with more than 20 times the heat-trapping potential of carbon dioxide. The Bureau of Land Management estimates that methane venting alone will release the equivalent of one million tons of carbon dioxide annually—1% of all greenhouse gas emissions released in Colorado.

Methane however, is not only a potent greenhouse gas, it’s also a valuable product. Otherwise known as natural gas, methane is worth around $4,000 per million cubic feet. Mining the Elk Creek East coal lease will therefore waste $7.4 million annually.

Although methane must be removed from mines for safety reasons, many mining companies today actually take steps to capture and use methane to generate electricity, or, as a last resort, flare the gas.  The Bureau of Land Management refused to do anything to limit methane waste and described climate 

 “This decision is a spit in the eye,” said Nichols. “It endangers our climate, it deliberately wastes a valuable public resource. This isn’t just irresponsible, it’s reprehensible.”

 The groups’ appeal also challenges the failure of the Bureau of Land Management to protect public health and the environment from the air quality impacts of expanded mining. According to a 2010 compliance advisory issued by the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, between 2008 and 2009 the company violated its air pollution permit 14 times, releasing illegal amounts of particulate matter (see the Compliance Advisory here).

Expansion of the Elk Creek coal mine also threatens to increase levels of smog and haze in the region, yet the Bureau of Land Management proposed nothing to address these impacts.

“The agency has failed to recognize and address the damage this coal mine extension would have on our local air quality and on climate disruption,” said Roger Singer, Sierra Club regional representative in Colorado. “This mine proposal would be a huge step backwards from the gains Coloradans made recently towards a clean energy future that moves us away from dirty coal, such as the Clean Air Clean Jobs plan.”

The groups’ appeal was filed with the U.S. Interior Board of Land Appeals in Washington, D.C. and requests that the Board grant a stay. Under federal regulations, the Board has 45 day to rule on the groups’ request for a stay.