The Obama administration is deliberately trying to put the coal industry out of business using executive authority, according to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.). Enzi, in a Wednesday evening post on Medium titled “The war on warm houses, cold beer and bright lights,” stated that “President Obama and his Administration have unleashed a slew of policies intended to subvert reliable, affordable, traditional energy sources in the hopes that they can stretch renewable energy resources to fill the gap.”
Of particular concern to Enzi is the Interior Department’s recent moratorium on federal coal leasing. The moratorium will not affect current leases and will be in place until a programmatic environmental impact statement of the U.S. coal leasing program is completed. The review is intended to determine if the program is properly structured to provide a fair return to taxpayers, reflects its impacts on the environment, and will continue to help meet the nation’s energy needs. The agency last conducted a PEIS for the federal coal program in 1983-1984. That review process also included a pause on coal leasing, as did the previous four.
“This attack hits close to home for me because my home state of Wyoming produces approximately 40 percent of this country’s coal. According to the National Mining Association, coal supports more than 9 percent of jobs in my state,” Enzi wrote.
