<div dir="ltr"><div style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 13.5px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;background-position:50% 50%;background-size:cover;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;color:rgb(55,55,55);border-radius:0px"><div style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><p style="margin:0px 0px 12px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;line-height:normal;color:rgb(42,42,42)"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-kerning:none">For release: July 20, 2020<br></span><span style="background-color:transparent"><br><b>Lawsuit Renews Challenge to Trump Administration’s Order to Give Away Public Lands to Coal Industry</b></span></font></p><p style="margin:0px 0px 12px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;line-height:normal;color:rgb(42,42,42)"><span style="font-kerning:none"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b>Administration Throws Climate, Clean Air and Water, Communities Under Bus for Coal Companies<br><br></b>For more information:  Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians, (303) 437-7663, <a href="mailto:jnichols@wildearthguardians.org" target="_blank">jnichols@wildearthguardians.org</a><br><br>Liz Trotter, Earthjustice, (305) 332-5395, <a href="mailto:etrotter@earthjustice.org" target="_blank">etrotter@earthjustice.org</a><b><br></b></font></span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;line-height:1.43;max-width:1000px"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="background:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Great Falls, MT</span><span style="background-color:transparent"> </span><span style="background-color:transparent">– A coalition including states, conservation organizations, and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe today</span><span style="background-color:transparent"> </span><a href="https://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/20-07-20%20Supplemental%20Complaint_Exh%201.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(58,156,193);background:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;text-decoration-line:none">launched a new legal challenge </a><span style="background-color:transparent">against the Trump administration’s decision to open millions of acres of public lands for new coal leasing and mining. That 2017 decision ended an Obama-era leasing moratorium that had protected public lands from new coal strip mines, and the water, air, and climate pollution such mines cause.</span><br></font></p></div></div><div style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 13.5px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;background-position:50% 50%;background-size:cover;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;color:rgb(55,55,55);border-radius:0px"><div style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><div style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><div id="gmail-m_6618360644699859653et-boc" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><div style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><div style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;line-height:1.7em;max-width:1000px;margin:0px 0px 1em;padding:0px;height:0px"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;line-height:1.7em;max-width:1000px"><font face="arial, sans-serif">“The Trump administration is blatantly selling out the American public in a corrupt attempt to appease the dying coal industry,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians.  “This latest legal effort is about enforcing the fact that the public interest comes first, not the demands of climate denying coal executives.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;line-height:1.7em;max-width:1000px"><font face="arial, sans-serif">A <a href="https://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/19-04-19%20Doc.%20141%20ORDER.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(58,156,193);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none">U.S. District Court in Great Falls, Montana, ruled in April 2019</a> that the administration’s decision to end the moratorium broke the law because the administration failed to evaluate the environmental harm from its decision.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;line-height:1.7em;max-width:1000px"><font face="arial, sans-serif">However, earlier this year, the Trump administration attempted to remedy that violation by releasing a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-coal-tribe/montana-tribe-rips-trump-administration-over-federal-coal-leasing-idUSKCN1SZ2WQ" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(58,156,193);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none">widely-criticized</a> environmental assessment. The assessment looked at only four coal leases that the Bureau of Land Management had already issued, and concluded the leases did not cause any significant harm to the environment. The assessment did not consider Bureau’s other coal-leasing activities over the 570-million acre federal mineral estate, which contains approximately 255 billion tons of mineable coal.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;line-height:1.7em;max-width:1000px"><font face="arial, sans-serif">The complaint filed in the Great Falls court today challenges the administration’s findings that the federal coal-leasing program does not cause significant environmental harm, and asks the court to reinstate the moratorium on new coal leasing. Earthjustice filed the complaint on behalf of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Citizens for Clean Energy, Montana Environmental Information Center, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, WildEarth Guardians, and Defenders of Wildlife.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;line-height:1.7em;max-width:1000px"><font face="arial, sans-serif">The states of California, Washington, New Mexico, and New York took <a href="https://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/state-plaintiffs-complaint-7-20-20" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(58,156,193);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none">similar action</a> on Monday.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;line-height:1.7em;max-width:1000px"><font face="arial, sans-serif">“While people across the globe are literally fighting for their lives against persistent threats to their air quality, water supplies, and sustainable climate, the Trump administration is propping up a dying industry that still inflicts long-lasting harm on communities and the health of our planet,” <span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">said Jenny Harbine, Earthjustice attorney.</span> “We’re asking the court to restore critical protections and hold this administration accountable to science and the law.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;line-height:1.7em;max-width:1000px"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"> </span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">BACKGROUND:</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;line-height:1.7em;max-width:1000px"><font face="arial, sans-serif">The Trump administration’s actions are in stark contrast with the Obama administration, which had ordered the moratorium on new coal-leasing to allow time to reform the federal program to protect the climate and American taxpayers. In just the first stage of that review, completed this January, the Interior Department found that coal mining fouls the air, pollutes streams and destroys wildlife habitat on public land. Past estimates found that <a href="http://www.eenews.net/assets/2017/01/11/document_gw_02.pdf" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(58,156,193);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none">one-tenth of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions</a><u style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">, the pollution driving climate change,</u> come from federal coal.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;line-height:1.7em;max-width:1000px"><font face="arial, sans-serif">In addition to studying these impacts, the Interior Department previously committed to evaluate options for improving returns to taxpayers before resuming leasing. Internal <a href="http://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2013/06/doi-inspector-general-report-confirms-unfair-federal-coal-leasing-practices-0" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(58,156,193);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none">Interior Department</a> and independent <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/federal-leasing-program-a-giveaway-to-big-coal-government-watchdog-finds-a33d1e092389#.w7ont41mn" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(58,156,193);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none">Government Accountability Office</a> audits have recently concluded that the current leasing system shortchanges taxpayers while subsidizing coal mining. The Trump administration’s decision to resume federal coal leasing will lock in these subsidies—in addition to harmful environmental impacts—before they are fully studied.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto 1em;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;line-height:1.7em;max-width:1000px"><font face="arial, sans-serif">In addition to climate and economic impacts, the mining and burning of coal from public lands imposes heavy air-quality and public-health costs through emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and mercury. Scientists have <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/energy/dirty_energy_development/coal/pdfs/16_7_26_Scientist_sign-on_letter_Coal_PEIS.pdf" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(58,156,193);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none">called</a> on the United States to stop new coal leasing to help prevent the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.<br><br># # #</font></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>