The federal government’s chance to keep coal in the ground
by Marissa Knodel, climate change campaigner
For the first time in 35 years, the federal government is undertaking a comprehensive environmental review of the program that leases thousands of acres of public lands for coal production every year. On January 15, 2016, the Obama administration announced a moratorium on new coal mining while a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) is undertaken to examine how, when, and where to lease federal coal, how to account for the environmental and public health impacts of federal coal production, and how to ensure American taxpayers are earning a fair return for the use of their public resources. This announcement was made as Friends of the Earth was working with the Western Organization of Resource Councils in the courts to require the Bureau of Land Management within the Department of the Interior to prepare a PEIS on the federal coal management program.
The DOI currently manages 306 coal leases covering 482,691 acres across 11 states. Most of these leases were sold at auctions with only one bidder for a rental fee of $3.00 per acre. The failure to hold competitive auctions for coal leases at their fair market value equals a revenue loss of approximately $28.9 billion over the past 30 years. Royalty rates on the coal produced from these leases are among the lowest in the world, and do not incorporate the environmental and social costs of coal development. That means that the costs of the harms of coal development — air and water pollution, deforestation, mountaintop removal, asthma, cancer, climate change and many others — are far greater than what companies pay to extract the coal. Americans would be healthier, wealthier, and safer if coal was kept in the ground.
Take action: Tell Obama to protect Bryce Canyon!
For decades, fossil fuel companies have exploited this non-competitive, unfair, and environmentally-destructive coal leasing program for profit, leaving coal communities with a toxic legacy on their lands and in their bodies. Even worse, as some of the world’s largest coal companies file for bankruptcy protection, coal executives are reaping millions of dollars in compensation and hiring high priced lawyers to attack government regulation, while laying off coal workers and dumping the costs of clean-up and reclamation on taxpayers.
The federal coal PEIS provides the Department of the Interior the opportunity to reevaluate how our public lands should be managed for the best interests of people and the environment. To better align the federal coal program with a safe climate future that protects people and the planet, the federal coal PEIS must do two important things:
1. Fully evaluate the climate impacts from future federal coal production in relation to meeting national and international climate commitments
At least 80 percent of global coal reserves and 90 percent of U.S. coal reserves must remain in the ground to have a 50 percent chance of avoiding catastrophic levels of global warming. Unleased federal coal contains up to 212 billion tons of potential greenhouse gas emissions, which is 43 percent of the potential emissions of all remaining federal fossil fuels, including oil and gas. With more than 57 percent of fossil fuel emissions from federal areas coming from the combustion of federal coal, there is no place for the federal coal program in a carbon-constrained world.
2. Use the social cost of carbon to evaluate the climate impacts of current and potential federal coal leases
If the social cost of carbon were incorporated into the lease price, federal coal should be as high as $62 per ton. By putting an accurate price that reflects the true economic, environmental and social cost of federal coal, it would become clear that the only place for dirty fossil fuels like coal is to leave them in the ground.
For coal leases already in production, using the social cost of carbon to raise the royalty rate and other fees for federal coal production could help return millions of dollars to state budgets to support coal workers, schools, infrastructure and other important programs.
During his 2016 State of the Union address, President Obama said change is needed in the way coal resources are managed “to better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and the planet.” The federal coal program is contrary to U.S. and global efforts to combat climate disruption, safeguard our public lands and waters, and protect the welfare of coal communities. The Department of the Interior is giving away more than $1 billion every year to fossil fuel companies that are destroying our environment, spewing climate-disrupting emissions into the air, and threatening public health and wildlife. When the climate, environmental and health impacts of the federal coal program are fully and properly considered, it will become clear that the future of the federal coal program lies in no new leases and no renewal of existing leases that are not producing. Federal coal must be kept in the ground.
Take action: Tell Obama to protect Bryce Canyon and other National Parks from Big Coal!
