WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Guardians Calls on U.S. Interior Appeals Board to Reverse Coal Export Approval in Colorado

Illegal Lease in Western Colorado to Fuel Climate Change, Air Pollution
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663

Denver—Illegal federal coal leasing in western Colorado would open the door for more coal exports, fuel global warming, and flood the region with more air pollution, spurring WildEarth Guardians yesterday to call on an Interior Department appeals board to overturn new mining plan.

“It’s bad enough to have the federal government green light more coal mining at a time when our world desperately needs to wean itself from this dirtiest of fossil fuels, now it appears they have to break the law to do it,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director.  “We’re aiming to put an end to this climate crime.”

In a detailed brief filed with the Interior Board of Land Appeals, Guardians exposed how the Bureau of Land Management, the Interior Department agency charged with managing federal coal, failed to comply with environmental review laws in approving the Spruce Stomp coal lease. The Bureau not only ignored key air quality impacts, including smog impacts, but refused to address the impacts of coal exports.

Guardians called on the Board to reverse the Bureau of Land Management’s approval.

The lease would be sold to Kentucky-based Bowie Resources so the company can expand its mine east of the town of Paonia in western Colorado’s Delta County, and would directly facilitate the company’s coal export ambitions.

Bowie Resources has agreements with ports in California to export up to 2.3 million tons of coal annually from its mine.  The company is seeking an additional 1.2 million tons of capacity in California and looking to secure export capacity in the Pacific Northwest.  The company recently tried to secure an agreement from the Port of Oakland for additional export capacity, although those plans were rejected. 

Despite this, the Bureau of Land Management asserted in its decision that approval of the Spruce Stomp coal lease was needed to meet national energy objectives. 

“Our federal government should not be in the business of propping up a coal export market,” said Nichols.  “Our efforts to curtail carbon here at home will amount to nothing if the Bureau of Land Management keeps shipping coal abroad to be burned.”  

Approval of the Spruce Stomp coal lease comes as government investigators reported the Bureau of Land Management is failing to take into account the economic and environmental implications of exports when leasing federal coal.  Both the Government Accountability Office and the Interior Department’s Inspector General specifically found that Bureau officials in Colorado did not consider coal exports because of their claim that “there were few or no coal exports from their state” (see GAO report at 38).

However, not only is coal currently being exported from the Bowie Number 2 mine, but a neighboring mine, the West Elk mine, owned by Arch Coal, is also exporting.  On a recent earnings call, Arch announced that 50% of the West Elk mine’s production was exported in 2013 (see p. 3 of transcript).

Despite these revelations, the Bureau of Land Management approved the Spruce Stomp lease without even mentioning, let alone considering, the potential for coal exports.

“Turning a blind eye to coal exports coupled with illegal leasing is a recipe for fraud,” said Nichols.  “A fraud on American taxpayers, who stand to lose revenue because the Interior Department is undervaluing coal, and a fraud on our climate, which is being jeopardized because the Interior Department appears to be subsidizing coal exports.”

The Spruce Stomp lease would add 8 million tons of coal to the Bowie Number 2 mine and expand it by 1,790 acres.