The amount of coal available for mining in the Powder River Basin under existing leases is “more than sufficient” to meet U.S. demand through 2040 in a scenario under which global temperature rise is limited to 2 degrees Celsius, according to a report issued Tuesday by Carbon Tracker. “We therefore recommend that, to be consistent with the Administration’s aspirations at [the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change], the current short-term moratorium on new leases within the [Powder River Basin] be extended indefinitely,” the report says.
The Interior Department announced in mid-January it would issue no new coal leases on federal lands while completing a programmatic environmental impact statement of the U.S. coal leasing program. 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.
Currently, approximately 41 percent of the nation’s annual coal production comes from federal land. Of that total, nearly 90 percent is produced in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana.
Earth Track and Energy Transition Advisers also worked on the report.
