BLM Hasn't Performed An Environmental Review Of Its Coal Leasing Programs Since 1979
t has been 35 years since the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) last performed an environmental review of its coal leasing program. Two environmental groups are suing the BLM to force a review of the program.
Given advances in scientific knowledge of the risks posed by mining and burning coal to human health and Earth’s climate made since 1979, the groups argue that the review will “compel the Bureau of Land Management to deliver on its legal obligation to promote environmentally responsible management of public lands on behalf of the citizens of the United States.”
Friends of the Earth and the Western Organization of Resource Councils filed the lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, naming Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and BLM Director Neil Kornze as lead defendants, along with the Department of the Interior and the BLM.
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The lawsuit comes as President Obama is arguably getting tougher than ever on climate action, having recently signed a non-binding climate deal with China in which both countries pledge to lower emissions. Obama’s EPA is also pursuing the Clean Power Plan, which aims to rein in emissions from power plants, especially those that are coal-fired. “There is an inconsistency between the President’s declared policy on global warming and the coal leasing policy of the BLM,” Ben Schreiber, Friends of the Earth’s Climate and Energy Program Director, said in a press release. “The lawsuit is saying, under the law, the BLM must provide an updated programmatic environmental impact statement that examines the contribution of mining and combustion of BLM coal to climate change and consider alternative energy policy options that would help reduce global warming.”
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http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/12/04/blm-has-not-performed-environmental-review-coal-leasing-program-1979
