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BLM plans PRB coal sales in face of environmental opposition

https://www.chemnet.com   Aug 09,2010
The US Bureau of Land Management plans to go ahead with the sale of more than 350 million short tons of coal in the Wyoming Powder River Basin, despite objections and at least one planned lawsuit from environmental groups.


The BLM will set a date for the lease sale at a later time, according to a notice to be published Friday in the Federal Register.


The BLM is set to issue its record of decision for the 130-million-st Caballo West tract being sought by Peabody Energy, one week after releasing a decision for the 222-st Belle Ayr North lease applied for by Alpha Natural Resources. The two leases cover more than 2,700 acres south of Gillette, and would add to the life of Peabody's Caballo and Alpha's Belle Ayr mines.


Approval of the lease sales comes at a time when the agency's sales process, known as leasing by application, is under fire from environmental groups.


A nearby LBA, known as the Antelope II tract, is being appealed by groups at both the Interior Board of Land Appeals and a federal district court in Washington. Both complaints allege, among other things, that the BLM has not
sufficiently considered the release of greenhouse gases in its environmental
evaluations.


WildEarth Guardians, a Santa Fe, New Mexico-based group, has participated in the lawsuits, as well as a challenge of the so-called "decertification" of the PRB as a coal production zone. The decertified designation reduces some of the environmental evaluations the government must complete before proceeding to coal sales. The group's Jeremy Nichols said WildEarth Guardians will sue again.


"Yes we will be challenging the Belle Ayr North lease," Nichols, climate and energy program director, said Thursday.


The coal sale also was opposed by national environmental groups including Clean Energy Action and the Center for Biological Diversity, plus the Powder
River Basin Resource Council, a local landowners' group. The agency received
more than 14,800 form letters opposing the sale.


The groups have until August 30 to appeal the Belle Ayr decision to the Interior Board of Land Appeals. The Caballo coal sale can be appealed until
September 7.


Separately, the BLM will publish a final environmental impact statement for a cluster of leases known as the Wright Area Coal Lease Applications. Those leases include applications from Arch Coal, Peabody Energy and Cloud Peak Energy to extend their 8,800-Btu mines in the southern extreme of the PRB.
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