In a landmark victory, the Sierra Club, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy have reached an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address the longstanding issue of ionic toxicity pollution in West Virginia streams caused by coal mining.
Conservation groups sued the U.S. Forest Service today for failing to protect streams in the Cherry River watershed from the harmful effects of coal hauling in the Monongahela National Forest.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Biden Administration issued a new report on recommendations for updating the 1872 General Mining Law. Among the proposed reforms are increased Tribal consultation and engagement, a new leasing system, and incorporating climate change and environmental justice factors into the review of mining proposals.
This week, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement issued a proposal to streamline processes for communities to report violations of federal coal mining laws, rolling back burdens the Trump Administration placed on mining communities.
WASHINGTON, DC – After over a decade of contestation, the EPA came to a Final Determination to protect Bristol Bay from Pebble Mine, a proposed copper and gold mine which would have wide-ranging, disastrous social, environmental, and economic impacts to lo
ELY, MN -- Today, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland signed a Public Land Order protecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW or Wilderness), Voyageurs National Park (VNP), and 1854 Treaty Area from sulfide-ore copper mining. The PLO, called a mineral withdrawal, bans toxic mining on 225,504 acres of Superior National Forest land in the watershed of the BWCAW and upstream of the Wilderness.
HELENA, MT — Late Friday, Billings Federal District Court Judge Susan Watters ruled that a massive expansion of the Rosebud coal strip-mine was approved illegally.
GUNNISON, CO — Conservation groups sued Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’s administration today over its failure to ensure the West Elk coal mine in western Colorado complies with state and federal clean air laws.
HELENA — Yesterday, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' panel ruled Trump's Office of Surface Mining (OSM) wrongly approved an expansion of Signal Peak's Bull Mountain Underground Coal Mine near Roundup, Montana. OSM largely ignored the fact that the proposed 175 million ton expansion would release 240 million tons of greenhouse gas pollution over 11 years. In a 2-1 decision, Judges Christen and Rawlinson ruled OSM "hid the ball" about the climate and environmental impacts of expanding the mine. Judge Ryan D. Nelson, a Trump appointee, dissented.
K2 Gold, a Canadian mining company, announced that it is indefinitely suspending its controversial gold drilling project on Conglomerate Mesa, public lands located on the doorstep of Death Valley National Park. Tribes and other local groups are celebrating the news given the project posed a serious threat to Conglomerate Mesa’s ecological, cultural, and recreational values.
In a filing late Friday, the Biden administration's U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) defended two Trump-era resource management plans (RMPs) that failed to comply with a court order to account for impacts from burning publicly-owned coal, including on public health, and to consider alternatives that limit coal leasing on public lands in the Powder River Basin – the largest coal-producing region in the country.
Today, a coalition representing thousands of members who live in communities directly impacted by coal mining sent a letter to the White House asking the Biden Administration to prioritize the appointment of a permanent director for the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE). The groups highlight three specific, unprecedented challenges facing the coal mining industry and coal mining communities.