WildEarth Guardians is seeking to have the US Bureau of Land Management more closely study the climate change impacts of more than 406 million short tons of coal scheduled for sale in spring 2011. Antelope Coal, a Cloud Peak Energy subsidiary, first requested the sale of the 4,700-acre tract known as West Antelope II in 2005.
In a 22-page response to the WildEarth Guardians lawsuit, Department of Justice attorneys representing BLM denied allegations that the agency had violated the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act in vetting the sale.
The case, in the US District Court for the District of Columbia before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, is one of several involving federal coal sales in the Powder River Basin being closely watched by the Wyoming coal industry and its backers in the state and federal government. The basin accounts for
nearly 40% of US coal production annually.
WildEarth Guardians has challenged several other proposed sales before the Interior Board of Land Appeals, an administrative appeals court where the group also filed an appeal seeking to have the whole sales method--known as leasing by application or LBA--altered to allow for more regional planning and environmental review.
Coal industry officials fear that a court-ordered injunction or elongated leasing processes could affect their acquisition of federal coal, which makes up the vast majority of their reserves.
"We're looking at alternatives, but there's no other alternative to getting federal coal other than leasing," a senior industry official said.
The official, who was not authorized to speak to the press and spoke on the condition that his name and company not be identified, said the industry's main push is to avoid any further delays in the leasing process. As long as a stay or injunction is avoided, the industry would likely be content to
litigate the issue in court "for years."
"We're selling out three years [for coal we have leased]...the problem you have is when you run into selling LBA coal that you don't have [in hand]," the official said. "It's an interesting tactic, you never know what we get in the court system."
The Wyoming Attorney General's office and Antelope Coal have both filed for intervenor status in the case, while WildEarth Guardians has requested that the two parties file all motions and pleadings in tandem. The court has yet to rule on those motions, but that did not stop state attorneys from
filing an answer this month that sought to have the entire case dismissed.
The environmental challenge to the coal sales is unusual in a federal study process usually limited to comments from a handful of local residents--often in support of continued mining--and local landowner groups.
However, the specter of the WildEarth challenge has brought the leasing issue to the highest levels of BLM and senior officials within the Department of the Interior thanks to lobbying from Governor Dave Freudenthal, who has vigorously defended the industry.
Most recently, three dozen US senators and representatives penned a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar calling for a "vigorous defense" of the leasing by application process.
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