Post by Logan on Jan 26, 2016 23:25:29 GMT -6
BILLINGS – An Obama administration move to overhaul coal sales from public lands will be put to its first test this week as companies seek to advance two major mining projects in the Western U.S.
Cloud Peak Energy and Lighthouse Resources Inc. want to mine a combined 644 million tons of coal from government-controlled reserves in Montana and Wyoming.
Federal and state officials meet Wednesday in Casper, Wyoming, to consider the requests and whether the U.S. Interior Department should continue to process them.
The meeting comes less than two weeks after Interior Secretary Sally Jewell ordered a moratorium on the government’s $1 billion-a-year coal leasing program to address climate change and ensure taxpayers are not getting shortchanged.
Read more: www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/jan/26/major-mine-expansions-in-west-test-moratorium-on-c/
Cloud Peak Energy and Lighthouse Resources Inc. want to mine a combined 644 million tons of coal from government-controlled reserves in Montana and Wyoming.
Federal and state officials meet Wednesday in Casper, Wyoming, to consider the requests and whether the U.S. Interior Department should continue to process them.
The meeting comes less than two weeks after Interior Secretary Sally Jewell ordered a moratorium on the government’s $1 billion-a-year coal leasing program to address climate change and ensure taxpayers are not getting shortchanged.
Read more: www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/jan/26/major-mine-expansions-in-west-test-moratorium-on-c/