The U.S. Department of the Interior is taking the first steps in a review of the federal coal leasing program announced in January. A formal notice of intent published Friday in the Federal Register officially launched the department’s programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) with a schedule of public meetings. The meetings are planned to be held in May and June in Casper, Wyo.; Grand Junction, Colo.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Seattle, Wash.
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.
“We have an obligation to all Americans, as well as future generations, to ensure coal resources we manage are administered in a responsible way,” Bureau of Land Management Director Neil Kornze said in an Interior Department release. “As we undertake this review, we look forward to hearing from the public on a wide range of issues, including how, when and where to lease federal coal, how to account for the environmental and public health impacts of federal coal production and how to ensure that American taxpayers earn a fair return for the use of their public resources, including whether current royalty rates should be adjusted.”
Further information on the times and locations of the meetings will be released in the near future. The Interior Department plans to release an interim report on the PEIS by the end of 2016.
