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Tuesday, June 25, 2013
President's Announcement on Climate Change Undermined as More Coal Mining Approved in the American West
Guardians Challenges Interior Department Coal Plans, Calls on Administration to Put Clean Energy First
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663
Denver—President Obama intends to announce today that his Administration will begin to reduce greenhouse gases from coal-fired power plants in the U.S., but his own Interior Department is still approving massive new coal mining plans in the American West that threaten to fuel global climate change for decades to come.
The latest plans include a multi-million ton coal lease in New Mexico, a coal mine expansion in western Colorado. Late Monday, WildEarth Guardians filed appeals of both decisions, challenging the Interior Department over its failure to account for the climate implications of its coal program. Download the New Mexico lease appeal here and the Colorado appeal here.
“We applaud the President’s initiative to curtail carbon from coal-fired power plants, but the reality is his Interior Department is fanning the flames of global warming by approving millions of tons of new coal mining,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director. “More coal mining only means more carbon, and while we may put a cap on greenhouse gases at power plants, if we can’t rein in coal supply, we’re simply treading water.”
The New Mexico coal lease would expand Peabody Energy’s El Segundo coal strip mine in northwestern New Mexico to the tune of 11 million tons. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management approved the lease in late May, paving the way for Peabody to access more than 136 million tons of coal at its mine. El Segundo provides coal to power plants in Arizona. Once burned, more than 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide would be released.
In western Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management approved an expansion of the McClane Canyon coal mine near Grand Junction. Comprising nearly two million tons of coal, the mine expansion would give CAM Colorado, LLC, a Kentucky company, access to more than 16 million tons of coal. Once burned, more than 23 million metric tons of carbon dioxide would be released.
On Monday, Guardians filed appeals of both decisions with the Interior Department’s Board of Land Appeals, calling on the Board to reverse the Bureau of Land Management. The appeals challenge the Bureau’s failure to account for the coal combustion impacts of its decisions, namely the resulting release of hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide. For both decisions, carbon dioxide emissions resulting from coal combustion were completely ignored. In 30 days, Guardians will provide a detailed statement of the Bureau’s legal violations to the Board of Land Appeals.
“The Interior Department bizarrely seems to think that we can combat climate change and still mine and burn as much coal as we want,” said Nichols. “This isn’t wishful thinking, it’s willful insanity.”
The President’s announcement also comes as the Interior Department is weighing whether to approve more than 220 tons of new coal exports in the Powder River Basin of northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana, which is the largest coal producing region in the nation. Already on the rise, coal exports pose perhaps one of the greatest threats to the United States’ efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. More than 120 million tons of coal—or 10% of all coal produced in the United States—were exported in 2012, primarily to Europe and Asia.
As coal exports increase, efforts to curtail power plant pollution in the U.S. have the potential to become futile.
The Interior Department is the largest provider of coal in the U.S. The majority of coal mined in the U.S. is federally owned, placing it under the purview of Interior. According to the Energy Information Administration, federal coal mined under the watch of the Interior Department accounted for 42% of all sales in the U.S.
“Interior’s approval of more coal mining is a black eye on what is otherwise an impressive and bold plan to confront one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases in the U.S.,” said Nichols. “We can’t continue to deepen climate deficit, the Interior Department has to step up and stop approving more coal mining.”
A decision on Guardians’ appeals will likely be issued by the Interior Board of Land Appeals in early 2014.
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