Dear Madame Secretary: Please Look Into A Federal Coal Leasing Moratorium. Sincerely, Your Livable Climate
New Interior Secretary Sally Jewell’s first day was today. One of the first things that will cross her desk is a letter asking her to halt coal mining leases on public lands in the Powder River Basin.Coal is the largest single source for U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Domestic coal use has leveled off and coal companies want to export it to other countries. But we as taxpayers can stop this from happening because we own much of the coal still in the ground.
The Powder River Basin stretches from Wyoming to Montana. Each of the top ten coal mines in the country are in the Basin, and most coal deposits on public lands are mostly located there. This area holds 1 trillion tons of coal — though only 25 billion tons of it are economically feasible to actually pull out of the ground.
The letter (full text found here) points out that those 25 billion tons would not only be unfeasible, they would be disastrous:http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/15/1864341/dear-madame-secretary-please-look-into-a-federal-coal-leasing-moratorium-sincerely-your-livable-climate/?mobile=nc
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