Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Brian Morris halted a slew of coal leases in the so-called Powder River Basin (PRB) district of southern Montana and north-central Wyoming. See Western Org. of Resource Councils v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 2018 WL 1456624 (D. Mont.2018). PRB coal, for those in the know, is synonymous with […]
Read moreSocial Cost of Carbon: Friend to Federal Energy Projects?
Jamison Colburn BLM, climate change, coal, oil BLM, Forest Service, mineral leasing act, risk, social cost of carbon
In a starchy article in The Electricity Journal earlier this year, researchers from the University of Wyoming argued that “parties should be prepared to offer substantive comments on the suitability and accuracy of quantitative analyses of the impacts associated with greenhouse gas emissions” from energy development projects on federal land as a result of the […]
Read moreA Programmatic EIS on Federal Coal Will Show . . . ?
Jamison Colburn action agencies, climate change, coal, inthenews burnable carbon, climate change mitigation, coal leasing, risk
So the Secretarial Order (Order No. 3338) on the “pause” was recently released and we took a look at what it tells Interior personnel conducting this review they should view as the priorities in the Nation’s coal leasing “program.” The three “main” priorities named in the order—fair return on the coal, climate change, and coal-dependent […]
Read moreApplause for the Pause? A Moratorium Made Possible by NEPA
Jamison Colburn action agencies, climate change, coal coal leasing, coal moratorium, Department of Interior, Powder River Basin, risk
The big news out of western coal country is the Department of Interior’s announced review of its coal leasing program and consequent “moratorium” on new leases for coal mines on federal public lands. As most media reports have emphasized, 40% of the nation’s mined coal comes from federal lands and most of that comes from […]
Read moreBeyond the Four Corners: Extending the Life of a Western Coal Belt
Jamison Colburn climate change, coal, inthenews, uncategorized coal, Four Corners, Navajo Mine, risk, social cost of carbon
Combined, the Navajo Generating Station, Four Corners Generating Station, and San Juan Generating Station make up a sizable portion of just about everything in their vicinity. Their emissions of greenhouse gases, conventional pollutants like particulates and NOx and SOx, and toxics like mercury, lead and selenium are enormous for the region. Their economic impact is […]
Read moreBLM’s Flat Canyon Mistake
Jamison Colburn action agencies, additionality, climate change, coal coal subsidies, Public Lands Transfer Movement, risk, Tour of Utah
WildEarth Guardians announced last week that they’re headed to court to stop a lease sale of coal underlying the Manti-La Sal National Forest in Utah. A lot of coal. Estimates have long put the “recoverable” coal in this prospect north of 42M tons. The problem is that the Bureau of Land Management, which administers such […]
Read moreClimate of Hypocrisy? The Peculiarity of Glocal Problem Solving
Jamison Colburn climate change, coal, inthenews, oil Arctic, chukchi sea drilling, climate change, POTUS, risk
Bill McKibben’s recent column in Medium on physics—or, more specifically, the nonnegotiability of CO2e emissions’ effects in the atmosphere—took President Obama to task for his visit to Alaska and what he called the President’s “climate change hypocrisy.” How can the Administration claim to be fighting for future generations on climate when it’s simultaneously opening up vast […]
Read moreBreaking: It is Reasonably Foreseeable that Mined Coal Will be Burned
Jamison Colburn action agencies, CEQ Watch, coal, uncategorized CO2, coal, hard look, mining, Office of Surface Mining, risk
Besides skiing, endangered species habitat, and the rain shadow giving Boulder, Denver, and other parts of the Front Range their sunshine and abundant water, Colorado’s West Slope also secures its title of seventh largest coal producer in the Union. Two of Colorado’s three surface coal mines have made the news lately for big NEPA failures, […]
Read moreNEPA Analyses Shouldn’t Ignore the Obvious
The recent proposed guidance from the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) about factoring climate change and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the typical NEPA routine elicited spirited comments from industry (and some others) opposing the proposal. One claim industry commenters made forcefully is that the judicial decisions construing NEPA § 102(2)(C)’s “significance” threshold have mostly […]
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