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Guest Column: The Keystone XL Pipelines And Coal Hollow Mines Of America

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Is it appropriate to place a coal surface mine within 10 miles of Bryce Canyon National Park? Kurt Repanshek photo.

Editor's note: The U.S. Bureau of Land Management earlier this month released a draft Environmental Impact Statement examining expansion of the Coal Hollow Mine near Bryce Canyon National Park to more than 3,500 acres. In this guest column, RL Miller, a California-based attorney who keeps watch on public lands issues, questions the wisdom of such an expansion. We welcome other viewpoints on this issue.

The Keystone XL pipeline symbolizes our national debate: a governmental policy to be made that will set policy, for good or bad, for years to come: claimed energy security (access to friendly North American oil) and jobs vs environmental ruin and carbon bomb continuing our addiction to cheap-ish fossil fuels.

Keystone XL is a huge decision to be made at a Presidential level.

However, all across America, similar decisions are being made: fossil fuel production is being expanded with the blessing of the federal government.

Consider Alton Coal.

But first, consider Bryce Canyon National Park.

Bryce Canyon is best known for its hoodoos, but the park is also the last grand sanctuary of natural darkness.

High and dry on the edge of a huge plateau, Bryce has wide open skies; its isolation means no light pollution (light from human activity) and very little air pollution. The park’s Dark Rangers give over 100 astronomy programs each year. Arriving from the west via Las Vegas or Salt Lake City, a Bryce visitor probably passes through Panguitch, an Old West town of 1,600 heavily dependent on tourism - 70 percent of Garfield County’s economy is tourism-based.

What a great place for a coal mine!

Until now, Alton Coal Development, LLC has mined 635 acres of private land in Coal Hollow. It wants to expand on to 3,576 acres of federally owned land, administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM’s draft environmental impact statement, released November 4, considered three alternatives: full-bore production of 2,000,000 tons/year, operating 24 hours a day, 6 days a week; a limited mine on less land with seasonal closures to protect sage grouse and other threatened animals; and no mine at all.

Anyone who thinks the BLM seriously considered all three alternatives needs a reality check. The BLM prefers to expand a strip mine near a national park.

What’s wrong with expanding one strip mine? Everything that’s wrong with Keystone XL, and fossil fuels policy in America, that’s what.

-- dangerous transport: coal trucks traveling 110 miles from mine to a railhead at Cedar City, along U.S. Highway 89,  local roads, and currently unimproved dirt roads, through Panguitch, 24 hours a day, 6 days a week

-- puffed up jobs claims: the mine is said to generate 100 mining jobs and an additional 60 truckers’ jobs. I haven't seen any numbers to rebut this, but I'm skeptical given that strip mining is relatively automated compared to underground mining.

-- impact on federally protected land of great scenic value: the mine will affect Bryce’s clear dark skies, both in creating light pollution (lights will be on at the mine 24 hours a day - the EIS acknowledges a “perceptible increase in nighttime skyglow”) and air pollution

-- corruption of public officials: Alton Coal gave Governor Herbert $10,000 the same day its principals met with him to complain about slow approval of their permit - and the permit was immediately fast-tracked

-- fossil fuel regulatory capture: one alternative presented to the BLM was to develop wind, solar, and other renewable sources, but the BLM refused to consider it as outside the scope of Alton Coal’s request.

-- shipping fossil fuel far away: the coal will fuel the Intermountain Power Plant, which provides 75% of its electricity to the power grid fueling Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Southern Californians are demanding that the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power move beyond coal and phase out reliance on the Intermountain Power Plant by 2020.

-- economics that make no sense: while Alton Coal desires to open this mine, Arch Coal is reducing production at another Utah coal mine due to continuing weakness in coal demand in the region

-- increased carbon emissions: the BLM report estimates that the 2 million tons of coal/year emit 4.8 million tons (4.4 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide/year; for perspective, the United States in 2009 emitted 5,505 million tons of carbon dioxide. On the one hand, the EIS argues that Alton Coal mine is only 0.014% of the world’s 30,377 million tons of carbon dioxide/year. The relative size of any project compared to global emissions is the same argument being used by project proponents all across America, including Keystone XL itself.

Two key differences between Alton Coal and Keystone XL are the size of the project, and the amount of public scrutiny each has received.

Keystone is the XL-sized carbon bomb, while Alton Coal is more of an IED: sufficient to inflict collateral damage, but not enough to get extra-large public scrutiny. The pipeline has become a signature environmental issue of the Obama administration, and a decision whether to approve it will be made by the President. On the other hand, the expansion of Alton Coal is being made by lower-level bureaucrats, without much public comment, and without any national policy weighing renewable energy against the fossil fuels that are slowly poisoning the planet.

Public comments will be taken at various Utah locations, including Cedar City on December 6 and Salt Lake City on December 7.

This column was originally posted to Climate Hawks on Tue Nov 08, 2011, and also republished by Public Lands and Community Spotlight.

Comments

Ah, thank you NPT staff for including the "corruption of public officials" item here.

This article is definitely a partisan view of things, but unless partisans have the courage to make material like this available to the general public through all kinds of media, the public may lose out completely.  There are simply not enough dollars available now to fight back against the literally billions of dollars the coal companies and other corporate interests can throw in to television propaganda campaigns.  And thanks to the Citizens United decision, that is now being reflected in our political arena, too.


So where are the negatives?  See nothing here but unsubstantiated accusations and meaningless triflings.


What kind of seeing eye dog do you have leading you?


I'm guessing ecbuck has a See Eye Wolf, grounded in reality, leading his way.  Oddly we don't see more of them. 


I would like to see the author substatiate his claims versus throwing hyprebole. He even admitts he cannot substantiate his claims. This is pathetic pandering. The article assumes several things:
1) Global warming garbage (junk science constantly being disproved). The sun and its cycles are the number one contributor to cliamte change, not man.
2) It's all or nothing. Why not compromise? Why not work with the coal company and governmetn to shut down the mine lights at night? Why not work towards transportation issue solutions? Instead, it is framed as all or nothing. Instead, all fossil fuel energy is labeled as bad and demonized. 
3) Assumption is that alternative energy can match the energy production of coal. Most of the people I know are not anti-alternative energy, we simply understand that despite the billions wasted by government on researching alternative energy, those technologies are not sufficient yet. Solar panels are still way too costly and ineefective, for example. People who are honest know we are not even close to being at a place where we can transition away from coal.
Polarization has got to stop. most americans are not either for the parks and against business or heartless, greedy, capitalists. Most of us have the common sense to realize you have to strike a balance and reach compromise. This article, however, is typicial of far-left politics that paint everything in extremes with broad strokes, insist on everything going their way, and demonizing those who disagree. I love the parks.However, I realize there will be no funds left to support and maintain the parks if our economy continues to tank, that is unless one of you have discovered the elusive money tree growing in a remote corner of Capitol Reef National Park.


Keystone XL thought they were all approved here in Nebraska and now our State Legislature may reroute them and put them back a couple of years. This is thanks to many enviromental groups who put pressure on elected officials to think twice. I do not think the same can happen with the low level bureaucrats and a paid off Governor. Our Governor here in NE got behind the environmental veiw only after State wide polls turned against the pipeline route.


I don't know if any of you caught the image of an endangered Black Rhino being airlifted to a sanctuary because of poaching and the dollar value put on their body parts.  I continue to get reminded of the repercussions of a distressed economy.  It just might be the best path for all those in the extreme anti-capitalist camp to embrace a bit of it if saving the environment and wild things are at the top of their priorities.  The Keystone decision is so obviously an election issue and not about doing right by the country.  Selfish crap, I despise selfish c--p from anyone but especially those elected.  Guess we're the dumb ones, really.


"Polarization has got to stop." Given the rest of See the Parks' post, the irony!


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