The U.S. Forest Service has given the green light to a loophole that would allow the second biggest coal company in the country to bulldoze through thousands of acres of publicly-owned roadless forest in Colorado so they can mine millions of tons of taxpayer-owned coal.
But you can help – tell President Obama to protect our public lands and preserve a powerful climate legacy by rejecting the coal mine loophole today.
This loophole would give Arch Coal access to 172 million tons of coal with the potential to release up to 486 million tons of carbon pollution. In fact, the Forest Service's own analysis found that this carbon pollution could cause up to $3.4 billion in damages to the world's economy and environment. It will also keep 40,000 gigawatt-hours of clean energy electricity – equivalent to approximately 150,000 homes with solar panels producing energy for 20 years – off the market over the lifetime of the project.
President Obama has made significant strides in promoting clean energy solutions and making the United States a global leader on climate. Approving the Arch Loophole would be a dangerous gift to Big Coal, a terrible trade off for the American people, and a big step backwards for this Administration. With a climate denier poised to take over the White House, it's as important as ever to ensure President Obama's climate mandate is being carried out at all levels of government.
Take action now to tell President Obama to protect our forests, reject the Arch Coal Loophole, and keep 170 million tons of taxpayer-owned coal in the ground where it belongs!
Subject: President Obama: Please don't jump-start a climate catastrophe
Dear President Obama,
Please reject the U.S. Forest Service's proposal to reopen the coal mining loophole in the Colorado Roadless Rule.
Reopening the loophole will undercut your climate legacy by paving the way for mining more than 170 million tons of dirty coal. The Forest Service’s own analysis concludes that this could add hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane pollution to the atmosphere and cause as much as $3.4 billion in damage to the world’s economy and environment. The climate costs of this proposal are simply too high.
Further, President-elect Trump has promised to unravel your climate achievements from his first day in office. Please don't jump-start his climate-damaging policies by unlocking these huge coal reserves.
The loophole will also set the stage for bulldozing up to 65 miles of road on 30 square miles of roadless forest, degrading habitat for black bear, elk, goshawk, lynx and cutthroat trout. Recreation and hunting areas valued by the public will be scarred for years.
As you have stated, if we want to halt the worst potential damage from climate change, we must keep some of the world's known fossil fuel reserves in the ground. Please draw the line here, where mining coal will spew huge amounts of methane and destroy wild forest.
Please keep the Colorado Roadless Rule as it is. Reject the coal mining loophole to the Colorado Roadless Rule.
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