The resumption of coal mining on public
lands in the United States will result in a negligible increase in greenhouse
gas emissions, the Trump administration has told those opposing the decision.
According to the Bureau of Land Management, an exhaustive environmental assessment conducted by the agency found no significant impact from lifting the temporary ban on coal leases, imposed under former President Barack Obama.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of the Interior has ended the war on American energy and coal, which allows local communities to prosper,” Casey Hammond, the acting assistant secretary for land and minerals management, said in the statement.
“Coal is and will continue to be a
critical part of our nation’s energy portfolio and we are committed to the
responsible development of our abundant resources and advancing American energy
independence, jobs, and economic growth,” Hammond added.
Trump’s first attempted to end the Obama-era ban in 2017, but a federal judge ruled last year the policy did not include sufficient assessments of its potential environmental impacts and asked for those to be provided.
Despite the ruling, federal coal sales resumed before the three-year review begun under Obama was complete, with many claiming the scheme — which leases land for coal production at a discount — had in the past only benefitted lobbyists and executives, not the public.
“[Former US Interior Secretary Ryan
Zinke’s] order terminated the pause (on coal lease sales) approximately two
years ahead of schedule,” officials wrote. “Because there is no basis for
concluding that the Zinke order would result in a change in the amount of coal
production or associated impacts in the long term…there would be no
difference in cumulative (greenhouse gas) emissions.”
About 40% of the US coal production
comes from federal lands. Those operations, according to official figures, supported
more than 32,000 jobs in fiscal 2018.
Mining companies have extracted 4
billion tonnes of coal from federal lands in the last ten years, generating $10
billion in revenue to state and federal governments.