Center Content:
Secretarial Order 338 - Coal Program Review
The Department of the Interior announced in January 2016 that a comprehensive review of the Federal Coal Program would take place. As directed by Secretarial Order 3338, the review calls for a pause on new coal leasing while the review is underway.
Part of the pause calls for the completion of a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement that will evaluate all environmental and economic effects of the Federal coal program.
The order directs the BLM, as the administrator of the Federal coal program, to undertake a series of good government reforms to improve transparency and administration of the program. These reforms include establishing a publicly available database to account for the carbon emitted from fossil fuels developed on public lands, requiring BLM offices to publicly post online pending requests to lease coal or reduce royalties, and facilitating the capture of waste mine methane.
The review of the Federal Coal Program began with a series of coal listening sessions, held in five cities, largely in the West. Below are links to materials from the sessions.
Washington, D.C.
Billings, Montana
Billings, Montana (August 11, 2015)
Watch the video of the first coal listening session in Montana.
Watch the video of the second coal listening session in Montana.
Gillette, Wyoming
Gillette, Wyoming (August 13, 2015)
Watch the video of the first coal listening session in Wyoming.
Watch the video of the second coal listening session in Wyoming.
Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado (August 18, 2015)
Watch the first coal listening session in Denver.
Watch the second coal listening session in Denver.