The launch of a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) review of the national coal leasing programs is “unjustifiable,” Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) told the Interior Department in comments submitted Friday concerning the PEIS. In a 75-page letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Bureau of Land Management Director Neil Kornze, Mead concluded that “this PElS is unnecessary and suggest that no further action is warranted by the [Bureau of Land Management].”
The Interior Department announced in mid-January it would issue no new coal leases on federal lands while completing a PEIS 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 review for the federal coal program in 1983-1984. Currently, approximately 41 percent of the nation’s annual coal production comes from federal land.
Mead argued that the Interior Department should not worry about fixing the coal leasing program because there’s nothing to fix. Coal leasing is managed adequately at the state level offices according to the letter. “The way the BLM Wyoming State Office runs the federal coal program in Wyoming shows that the program is not broken,” the letter says, noting that coal produced from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana accounts for more than 85 percent of coal produced on federal lands.
“[T]he administration’s call for revisions to the federal coal program targets coal production in Wyoming, but the administration cannot identify any issues with the way BLM Wyoming manages the program,” the letter says.
