on new
coal leases on public lands, she knew she had to do something.
The Obama administration this week announced a moratorium on new
coal leases on federal land while it conducts a sweeping review of the coal program administered by the U.S. Department of Interior, examining the terms under which the coal is sold and environmental impacts associated with extracting and burning it.
The order will require the Interior Department to lift a moratorium on the sale of new
coal leases on federal land, and compel a review of regulations designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
Oregon Jeff Merkley is joining Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in calling for a halt to new oil, natural gas and
coal leases on federal lands and in coastal waters.
Last month, the Obama Administration announced that it was stopping new
coal leases on federal lands, pending a review of how royalties are calculated.
While the recent moratorium on new
coal leases on federal land will not directly impact the Colorado Roadless Rule decision, advocates are hopeful it signals that the Obama Administration will use this opportunity to take another stand against coal and climate pollution.
The Obama administration took a step in the right direction when it announced a major overhaul of the federal coal program in 2016, a change that includes a moratorium on new
coal leases on public land.
The government has suspended new
coal leases on federal land.
«My administration is putting an end to the war on coal,» President Donald Trump said March 28, before he signed an executive order that lifted the ban on
coal leases on federal land.
The U.S. temporarily halts
coal leasing on federal lands to reassess its policy in light of global warming
This includes announcing a withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, repealing the Clean Power Plan, rolling back vehicle fuel economy standards, attempting to rescind rules on methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands, ending the moratorium on
coal leasing on federal lands, and opening additional offshore areas to oil and gas leasing.
In January 2016 the US Secretary of the Interior announced a moratorium on new
coal leasing on public lands pending completion of a comprehensive review.
In January 2016 the US Secretary of the Interior announced a moratorium on new
coal leasing on public lands pending completion of...
But
coal leasing on public lands affects backyards that belong to all of us, so let's stand with her today.
Not exact matches
Less well known are its efforts to sell mining
leases on federally owned land to promote
coal exports abroad.
, who called
on the Government Accountability Office to look into the federal
coal leasing program in 2012, said, «Leading
on climate change means leading by example in how we manage the oil, gas and
coal resources that belong to the American people.»
Last summer, Interior launched a series of listening sessions
on the
coal program, aimed at making
leasing «more transparent and more competitive» (E&EN ews PM, July 29, 2015).
Reading between the lines, some see the president's statement as a signal that the administration will try to push through reforms to federal
leasing programs for oil, gas and
coal on public lands.
Meanwhile, Trump has also said he would end the moratorium
on new federal
coal leases, revive the Keystone XL pipeline, and take other actions to promote energy development — all actions that would impact public lands.
Earlier this year, the Obama administration placed a three - year moratorium
on federal
coal leasing, and closed the entire East Coast and parts of the Arctic Ocean to offshore oil drilling.
He'll have plenty of support: Interior Secretary nominee Ryan Zinke, who would oversee the federal
coal leasing program, has a long history of support for
coal mining
on public lands.
One of the restrictions that could fall early in Trump's presidency is the moratorium the Obama administration placed
on coal leasing in early 2016.
The moratorium is part of the Interior Department's three - year study of the impact of the
coal leasing program
on climate change.
The Obama administration did indeed place a federal moratorium
on all new
coal mining
leases on public lands across the country in June — but but only out of concern from environmentalists, Congress, and the Department of the Interior that
coal companies have spent 30 years cheating taxpayers out of $ 30 billion in royalties.
In addition to building
on the Sierra Club's recent successes establishing legal standing to raise climate arguments (1) and telling the agencies that they can not simply ignore the Social Cost of Carbon when weighing the impacts of
coal leasing, Judge Jackson squarely rejected the notion that massive
coal mines would have no impact
on our climate.
Judge Jackson's ruling exposes the bogus economic assumptions underlying nearly all of BLM's
coal leasing decisions, and it will help hold BLM accountable for the climate impacts of other decisions
on coal and fossil fuel extraction.
In the Bureau of Land Management's upcoming
lease auction for over 700 million tons of
coal on public land in Wyoming, there's likely only to be one bidder: Peabody Energy
A federal appeals court in Denver told the Bureau of Land Management
on Friday that its analysis of the climate impacts of four gigantic
coal leases was economically «irrational» and needs to be done over.
It comes as the Trump administration is moving to reverse actions taken at the end of the Obama administration to review the
coal leasing program
on climate and economic grounds.
Other programs that provide economic support for
coal include federal and state tax breaks, the Rural Utilities Service loan guarantee program, research
on new combustion technologies by the Department of Energy, and the Department of the Interior's
coal leasing program.
A moratorium
on federal
coal leasing effectively hands a pink slip to the thousands of people in Wyoming and across the West employed in
coal production.»
After years of hearing from you, the Interior Department will begin a massive overhaul of the federal
coal program, including a halt
on most new federal
coal leasing.
During that time, the Interior Department — the part of the administration responsible for the federal
leasing program — has put a halt
on new federal
coal leases, with a few exceptions.
«For years, BLM has been telling the public that its individual
coal leasing decisions — even those approving hundreds of millions of tons of
coal — have no impact
on our climate.
On May 11, 2011, the Port of Morrow Commission approved a one - year lease option with Coyote Island Terminal LLC of Salt Lake City, Utah, to build a rail off - loading coal terminal on up to 24.26 acres to transfer the coal onto barges for shipment to the Millennium Bulk Logistics Longview Terminal in Washington, and on to customers in Asi
On May 11, 2011, the Port of Morrow Commission approved a one - year
lease option with Coyote Island Terminal LLC of Salt Lake City, Utah, to build a rail off - loading
coal terminal
on up to 24.26 acres to transfer the coal onto barges for shipment to the Millennium Bulk Logistics Longview Terminal in Washington, and on to customers in Asi
on up to 24.26 acres to transfer the
coal onto barges for shipment to the Millennium Bulk Logistics Longview Terminal in Washington, and
on to customers in Asi
on to customers in Asia.
«BLM's federal
coal leasing program has a massive impact
on our climate and public health, affecting the waters we use, the air we breathe, and the wild areas we enjoy,» said Roger Singer, Senior Organizing Manager with the Sierra Club in Colorado.
They are used to concoct and justify energy and economic policies, ranging from delays and bans
on oil and gas
leasing and drilling, to the war
on coal mining and use, and diehard opposition to hydraulic fracturing and the Keystone XL pipeline.
Despite the link between the Powder River Basin and global warming, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar recently proposed to sign off
on twelve new
coal leases totaling up to 5.7 billion tons of new mining in the region.
Today, amid an anemic economy and joblessness far worse than official government figures admit, President Obama balks at approving the Keystone XL pipeline, cancels
leasing and drilling
on federal lands, tells our budget - sequestered military to buy $ 26 to $ 67 - per - gallon ship and jet fuel, punishes refineries for not buying cellulosic ethanol that doesn't exist, and happily lets EPA shut down
coal - fired power plants and kill countless thousands of mining, utility and other jobs.
This most recent stance against
coal comes
on the heels of President Obama's decision last week to freeze all new
coal mining
leases on federal land until the climate risks are incorporated into any
leasing decision.
Under the bill, there would be no new
leases for extraction of fossil fuels — such as
coal, oil, and gas —
on all federal lands.
These measures include levying a price
on carbon emissions, eliminating tax subsidies for fossil fuels and ending implicit subsidies, such as
leasing federal lands that contain
coal or oil at rates below the fair market rate.
The Bureau of Land Management has
leased to the
coal industry 400 million tons of
coal on federal land in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, and the administration has defended the decision against a court challenge by environmental groups.
«The executive order also demands the Department of the Interior lift its
coal leasing moratorium
on public lands.
On November 12, 2009 Arch
Coal (ACI) announced that it is
leasing 9,600 acres in southeastern Montana's Powder River Basin.
President Donald Trump is expected to lift a moratorium
on federal
coal - mining
leases Tuesday — and it probably won't do the industry much good until years after he's left office.
In January, the Obama administration implemented an immediate moratorium
on new
coal leases, as the program was examined to make sure it was fair to taxpayers and ecologically sensitive.
Here's his website: «We will end the war
on coal, and rescind the
coal mining
lease moratorium... and conduct a top - down review of all anti-
coal regulations issued by the Obama Administration.»
To do so, we must first determine the amount of carbon pollution that will be released from BLM's recent
coal leases; this analysis will focus
on coal that has been
leased during the Obama administration.
A ton of publicly owned
coal leased during the Obama administration will,
on average, cause damages estimated at between $ 22 and $ 237, using the federal government's social cost of carbon estimates — yet the average price per ton for those
coal leases was only $ 1.03.