Nevertheless, BLM officials seem either unable or unwilling to adjust
the coal leasing program to account for these major shifts in the market.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and others in the Obama administration should take the President's call to climate action seriously, beginning with a moratorium and comprehensive review of the federal
coal leasing program, including its role in fueling the climate crisis.
This conclusion is supported by the history of
the coal leasing program, an International Monetary Fund report on fossil fuel subsidies, and common sense.
But despite the major impacts of the federal
coal leasing program on the price of coal and carbon pollution, it has been largely administered by state BLM offices, with minimal oversight from the Interior Department, much less the White House.
As we've seen, the cheap coal made available by the federal
coal leasing program has encouraged increased coal consumption in the United States for decades, at the expense of cleaner forms of energy.
The role of the federal
coal leasing program in increasing the supply of coal and carbon pollution was highlighted by a recent federal court ruling, which blocked Arch Coal's plan to expand a mine in Colorado.
The federal
coal leasing program amounts to a major fossil fuel subsidy, favoring coal at the expense of cleaner forms of generating electricity.
However, the IG and GAO reviews fell far short of a comprehensive review of
the coal leasing program, and did not attempt to calculate the total amount of taxpayer revenue that has been lost.
The federal
coal leasing program is the source of 40 % of US coal extraction, with major impacts on coal markets and carbon pollution.
Without major changes, the federal
coal leasing program will continue to undermine federal, state, and international efforts to reduce carbon pollution; the BLM Wyoming office plans to lease over 10 billion tons of coal in the coming years, dwarfing the emissions reductions expected from the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan.
The United States» federal
coal leasing program has come under increased scrutiny in recent years, as communities impacted by coal mining and export proposals, taxpayer advocates, and environmental groups have questioned the ability of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to ensure a fair return to US taxpayers and adjust to newer challenges such as climate change and coal export proposals.
The Bureau of Land Management has not adjusted to the US coal mining industry's efforts to increase exports of publicly owned coal.The US coal mining industry is openly aiming to increase exports of publicly owned coal, and the federal
coal leasing program has been faulted by multiple government audits for ignoring exports when determining the «fair market value» of leased coal.
The federal
coal leasing program amounts to a major fossil fuel subsidy, favoring coal at the expense of cleaner forms of generating electricity.A recent federal court ruling rejected BLM's argument that increasing the supply of coal would not increase carbon pollution, in part because coal competes with cleaner methods of generating electricity.
Another problem with the federal
coal leasing program is that Bureau of Land Management officials have failed to comprehend or adjust to the US coal mining industry's efforts to increase exports of publicly owned coal.
This question is especially important in light of a recent federal court ruling, which blocked plans to expand a coal mine in Colorado because of the failure of the federal
coal leasing program to properly consider the federal government's social cost of carbon figures and climate change impacts.
A moratorium and comprehensive review of the federal
coal leasing program is needed to ensure that it does not continue undermining President Obama's Climate Action Plan.
It was not immediately clear Monday whether Trump's Interior Department would continue a broad review of the federal
coal leasing program even as it restarts sales; that analysis is already about a third complete, with regulators unveiling a broad blueprint of possible changes earlier this year.
«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.
And she listened — in March 2015, she called for an «open and honest conversation to modernize the federal
coal leasing program.»
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.
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.
The moratorium is part of the Interior Department's three - year study of the impact of
the coal leasing program on climate change.
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.
, 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.»
Not exact matches
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.
As Montana's only representative in the House, Zinke has also been a strong supporter of Montana
coal and has expressed concern over a three - year
leasing moratorium and programmatic review of the federal
coal program undertaken this year by Interior.
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.
Last time we updated our
leasing program, we had a very different relationship with our national
coal resources.
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.
To do this, we are challenging every single new
coal lease and reforming the region's
leasing program.
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 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.
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.
R&D for renewable energy, de-funding the EPA Energy Star
program, ignoring the Social Cost of Carbon, renewing
leasing / sale of
coal on Federal lands without regard to whether the
coal companies are paying a reasonable price, threatening to open more Federal lands to fossil fuel extraction... the list goes on.
This is what's known as a «
lease by application,» and under BLM's corrupt
coal -
leasing program, Peabody will almost certainly be the only bidder and pay next to nothing.
It's clear that the BLM's
coal -
leasing program is deliberately designed to benefit a few
coal mining companies like Peabody and Arch at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.
Incredibly, BLM's
coal -
leasing program deliberately encourages this uncompetitive process.