Message

Thank you for your taking action to suspend new federal coal mining and conduct a review of the program’s impact on our climate and environment. Your leadership in reforming a broken, outdated federal program that currently fails to consider the threat of climate change on our communities is historic and a critical step to ensuring America meets its climate goals and continues to be an international leader on climate and clean energy following the landmark agreement in Paris. Coal from our public lands is blocking and slowing clean energy, not accelerating it, and a review of the coal leasing program needs to take that into account. An astonishing 40 percent of all coal produced in the United States comes from our public land and this marks the first time the U.S. will examine the collective impacts of all coal mined on public land. A review of the federal public lands coal leasing program should include a full accounting for the costs of the climate-disrupting pollution caused by coal mining, transportation, and burning -- and this decision provides an important opportunity to do just that. We must also ensure a just transition to clean energy just as the president’s Power Plus Plan did in Appalachia; the cost of federal coal should include a fee to support economic transition for coal communities. Thank you for ensuring our climate and public land have the strong protections they deserve and continuing to lead on climate.

Thank you for your taking action to suspend new federal coal mining and conduct a review of the program’s impact on our climate and environment. Your leadership in reforming a broken, outdated federal program that currently fails to consider the threat of climate change on our communities is historic and a critical step to ensuring America meets its climate goals and continues to be an international leader on climate and clean energy following the landmark agreement in Paris. Coal from our public lands is blocking and slowing clean energy, not accelerating it, and a review of the coal leasing program needs to take that into account. An astonishing 40 percent of all coal produced in the United States comes from our public land and this marks the first time the U.S. will examine the collective impacts of all coal mined on public land. A review of the federal public lands coal leasing program should include a full accounting for the costs of the climate-disrupting pollution caused by coal mining, transportation, and burning -- and this decision provides an important opportunity to do just that. We must also ensure a just transition to clean energy just as the president’s Power Plus Plan did in Appalachia; the cost of federal coal should include a fee to support economic transition for coal communities. Thank you for ensuring our climate and public land have the strong protections they deserve and continuing to lead on climate.