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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
EPA to Give Coal Industry Another Break on Pollution
Politics Again Prevent Action on Global Warming
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663
Washington, D.C.—Despite President Obama’s call for action to confront global warming, his U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today intends to side with the coal industry in rejecting a proposal to reduce methane emissions from coal mines using profitable and energy-generating solutions.
“Either Obama’s call to action fell on deaf ears at the EPA or the call was empty from the start,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director. “Regardless, a win-win solution that could make coal mines money and reduce potent greenhouse gases was rejected.”
In his February 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama told Americans, “for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change.” Yet in denying a June 2010 petition filed by WildEarth Guardians and others, the EPA has stated it intends to reject the notion that more must be done to combat climate change, instead opting to let coal mines continue to pollute.
Nationwide, coal mines, particularly underground coal mines, are large sources of methane gas. While a potent greenhouse gas with 25 times more global warming potential then carbon dioxide, methane is also natural gas, a valuable and useful product.
A 2011 inventory of industry reported emissions has revealed that coal mines release the equivalent of nearly 28 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, as much as 8 coal-fired power plants.
Much of this methane is released from underground coal mines that drill methane drainage wells and vent millions of cubic feet of gas daily. Click here to view pictures of methane drainage wells and venting in western Colorado.
Far from being a costly greenhouse gas to control, the EPA itself reports that there are numerous technologies and practices that can be utilized to control methane emissions from coal mines (see for example, the EPA’s report on opportunities to reduce ventilation methane).
According to the EPA, mines nationwide are already voluntarily reducing around 1/3 of their methane. Practices used to reduce methane include harnessing the gas to generate electricity or selling the gas to consumers. Despite voluntary efforts and financial and other incentives, nearly 2/3 of all methane emissions remain uncontrolled.
Nearly three years ago, WildEarth Guardians and others petitioned the EPA to regulate methane and other harmful air pollutants from coal mines and ensure. EPA explicitly stated in a motion to federal court that it intends to reject the petition today.
“EPA is literally stomping the life out of a win-win opportunity to curtail greenhouse gases and live up to President Obama’s promise to future generations,” said Nichols. “This isn’t just bad policy, it’s insanity. If the EPA can’t muster up a shred of will to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal mines, then President Obama’s promises to our children were clearly false.”
The denial will also back efforts to curtail other harmful air pollutants from coal mining, including nitrogen dioxide emissions associated with blasting at strip mines and particulate matter emissions. The denial also comes on the heels of an EPA decision to delay regulating carbon pollution from existing coal-fired power plants in the United States.
Although WildEarth Guardians intends to challenge the petition denial in federal court, the EPA’s rejection will effectively set back efforts to control methane, as well as other harmful pollutants, from coal mines for many more years.
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