Connelly: AG Ferguson takes on Trump administration and Big Coal

In order to keep trains running, with limited regulation and transparency, the fossil fuel industry invested big bucks in re-electing key allies in the state Senate last November. In order to keep trains running, with limited regulation and transparency, the fossil fuel industry invested big bucks in re-electing key allies in the state Senate last November. Photo: Levi Pulkkinen Photo: Levi Pulkkinen Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Connelly: AG Ferguson takes on Trump administration and Big Coal 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Attorney General Bob Ferguson is taking on the Trump administration over its decision to restart leasing federal lands in the West for coal production.

Along with California, New York and New Mexico, Washington has field a federal court suit in Montana, charging that two federal departments acted "arbitrarily, capriciously, contrary to law, abused their discretion and failed to follow the procedures required by law."

The suit seeks an injunction to halt coal leasing until the Department of Interior and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation conduct up-to-date environmental review of leases, primarily in Wyoming and Montana.

The state has a stake in federal coal leasing, argued the AG's office, in that long coal trains pass through Washington cities, even without the two big export terminals that Big Coal has sought to build on Washington waters.

"Taxpayers deserve to have their natural resources managed responsibly," said Ferguson. "Responsible stewardship requires an understanding of the costs and benefits of extraction, which just months ago these same agencies admitted they didn't have."

Under the Obama administration, then-U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell put a moratorium on sale of new coal leases. The moratorium did not affect existing leases, but generated furious opposition from the coal industry.

Jewell stopped new leases in order to update 1970's-era environmental studies -- the department's last environmental impact statement was 38 years ago -- and get a handle on what price the federal government was getting for handing over resources on public lands.

In 2013, the Interior Department's Inspector General, in a report, stated: "BLM faces significant challenges in the areas of coal leasing and mine inspection and enforcement." It said agency practices resulted in millions of dollars of royalties lost because the BLM was "not receiving the full, fair market value for the leases."

The Trump administration has rescinded the pause. New U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a former Montana congressman and coal advocate, scrapped the environmental review and restarted the leasing program on March 29.

The Bureau of Land Management, in the past nicknamed the "Bureau of Livestock and Mining", overseas coal resources on 570 million acres of the public's domain. Coal production from BLM-administered leases has totaled more than 4 billion tons of coal in the past 10 years.

The coal from public lands comes west.

The BNSF Railroad says it runs two or three coal trains a day in or through the state-- the Attorney General's office gives a higher figure -- mostly from the Powder River basin, passed through Washington or some corner of the state.

Even without the planned Gateway Pacific export terminal north of Bellingham -- vetoed largely by opposition from the Lummi Indians -- lots of coal is passing through the state.

Over the weekend, a U.S. reporter covering British Columbia's provincial election went to a campaign headquarters in North Delta, B.C., just south of the Fraser River. The local manager reported coal trains passing through at all hours. There is a big export terminal at Roberts Bank, just north of where ferries take off for Vancouver Island. It is a sight to be seen by all connoisseurs of ugliness.

As well, the AG's suit noted that Washington experiences negative impacts of human-caused climate change: Rising ambient temperatures, a diminished and unpredictable snowpack necessary for water and power, ocean warming and acidification.

Last year, Ferguson created an environmental protection division in the Attorney General's office.