Dem senators back Interior coal leasing review

Top Democratic senators are encouraging the Interior Department to conduct a thorough review of the federal coal leasing program. 

In a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, a group of Democrats led by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) encouraged the department to overhaul the leasing program after completing its review, which began several months ago and could last up to three years. 

{mosads}The senators said officials need to “get the science right” and consider coal’s impact on climate change before selling more leases for mining on federal land. 

The agency should also stop being “a passive auctioneer rather than a steward” of federal land, the group said, and stop selling off tracts of mining land when there is only one bidder for that land. 

The Democrats said the Bureau of Land Management also needs to “balance extractive uses against other uses of public land” and consider the impact burning coal has on public land. 

Taken together, the senators said they back Interior’s coal review, a process that could potentially result in mining companies paying higher rates for public land mining.

“Beginning with your call for an ‘honest and open conversation about modernizing the federal coal program’ last year, you have proceeded thoughtfully and firmly,” the senators wrote in their letter to Jewell.

“The changes you have set in motion may be regarded by future generations as one of your most significant actions.” 

Cantwell, the ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, and nine other senators signed the letter to Jewell. 

The senators’ support comes as a public fight over the future of the coal leasing program heats up. Republicans from coal-producing states have promised to fight Interior’s review of the program and its associated moratorium on new leasing, calling it an extension of President Obama’s “war on coal.”