Coal news and updates

Conservation groups challenge Utah coal mining plan

King Coal’s robes may be fraying at the edges, but that news hasn’t yet reached federal agencies, which continues to make decisions that are in conflict with the Obama administration’s stated intention of reducing heat-trapping pollution.

In Utah, the federal government recently proposed auctioning leases for millions of tons of coal that will drive CO2 pollution to even higher levels. The coal leases beneath national forest lands in central Utah have been challenged by conservation groups under a formal objection process and could also face a lawsuit.

“Selling more coal portends disaster for our public lands, our climate and our clean energy future,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ climate and energy program director.

The Greens Hollow coal lease would expand what is already the largest coal mine in the state. The mine’s owner, Kentucky-based Bowie Resources, exports coal internationally through ports in California’s San Francisco Bay Area and also sells it to nearby power plants, including the massive Hunter and Huntington plants, which are the largest sources of air pollution in central Utah.

Adding nearly 60 million tons of coal that lies under more than 6,000 acres of national forest land, the lease would extend the life of the mine for another decade. When burned, this coal would unleash more than 120 million tons of carbon, equal to the amount released every year by 23 million cars.

Located underneath the Fishlake and Manti-La Sal national forests, the SUFCO mine has been a disaster for public lands, fish and wildlife. It has caused major subsidence in the area, fracturing the ground, causing springs to disappear, toppling trees, triggering rock slides and draining streams.

The coal lease is one of several proposed by the Bureau of Land Management, the Interior Department agency tasked with managing federal coal, in the American West.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the Interior Department is  under fire for illegally selling coal below fair market value.

Oversight reports released in 2013 and in early 2014, show the BLM may have been making illegal deals with the coal industry and failing to take into account the environmental and economic implications of coal exports.

The appeal, filed by WildEarth Guardians, Grand Canyon Trust, Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, challenges the U.S. Forest Service’s proposal to allow the Bureau of Land Management to sell the Greens Hollow coal lease. Without Forest Service approval, the lease cannot proceed.

The Forest Service must respond to the coalition’s objection by June 1.

source: http://summitcountyvoice.com