Jan. 15, 2016
For immediate release
ALBUQUERQUE – New Mexico sportsmen and women today applaud President Barack Obama and Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell for reforming the federal coal program; it is broken, outdated and costs American taxpayers millions of dollars.
The American public wants to see clean energy development, not coal mining, on public lands. According to a Colorado College poll released Jan. 11, 63 percent of Western voters want to encourage the use of solar and wind energy, compared to 3 percent each for oil and coal.
Coal mining in the Powder River Basin alone is responsible for 10 percent of all our national green house gas emissions. Further, some companies are trying to get out of their responsibility to clean up their mines on public lands, and could leave taxpayers holding the bag for billions of dollars in reclamation costs. Coal companies, not the American public, should pay for their environmental damage.
Protecting and restoring wildlife habitats to their pre-mining conditions is a regulatory requirement, but often public lands cited as reclaimed are aesthetically unpleasing. This moratorium ensures quality hunting and fishing habitat for generations to come.
“The U.S. coal industry has provided the nation with cheap power for decades, but at a steep cost to our health and the health of our public lands,” said New Mexico Wildlife Federation Executive Director Garrett VeneKlasen. “Sportsmen have always supported responsible energy development. This moratorium on future coal leases on public lands will help ensure that, going forward, coal companies – not the American public – will foot the bill on protecting our public lands and the wildlife they support.”
