January, 20 2016, 03:00pm EDT
![Center for Biological Diversity](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012680/origin.jpg)
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Ted Zukoski, Earthjustice, (303) 996-9622, tzukoski@earthjustice.org
Nathaniel Shoaff, Sierra Club, (415) 977-5610, Nathaniel.shoaff@sierraclub.org
Marissa Knodel, Friends of the Earth, (202) 222-0729, mknodel@foe.org
Shelley Silbert, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, (970) 385-9577, shelley@greatoldbroads.org
Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians, (303) 437-7663, jnichols@wildearthguardians.org
Alli Melton, High Country Conservation Advocates, (970) 349-7104 ext. 2, alli@hccacb.org
Matt Reed, High Country Conservation Advocates, (303) 505-9917, matt@hccacb.org
Michael Saul, Center for Biological Diversity, (303) 915-8308, msaul@biologicaldiversity.org
Rosalind Jackson, Vote Solar, (415) 817-5061, rosalind@votesolar.org
Erin Overturf, Western Resource Advocates, (303) 918-051, Erin.overturf@westernresources.org
Matt Sandler, Rocky Mountain Wild, (303) 579-5162, matt@rockymountainwild.org
Anna McDevitt, Environment Colorado, (952) 454-6867, anna@environmentcolorado.org
150,000 Comments Oppose Coal-mining Loophole on Colorado Forest
Subsidies to Arch Coal Slammed, Renewable Energy Groups Join Wildlife, Climate Advocates in Opposition
DENVER
More than 150,000 people, including thousands of Coloradoans, called on the U.S. Forest Service today to prevent a bankrupt coal company from bulldozing nearly 70 miles of roads through pristine national forest in Colorado's backcountry.
The comments came in response to a Forest Service draft environmental analysis on a proposal to reinstate a loophole in a rule that protects Colorado's roadless national forest lands. Allowing mining operators to build roads through 20,000 acres of roadless forest would permit mining of 170 million tons of coal. Burning that coal would unleash 130 million tons of CO2, about as much as all climate emissions from all human sources in Colorado for a year.
The Forest Service also estimated that burning the coal would cause billions of dollars in damage to the environment and the world's economy.
"The public has spoken loud and clear: the Forest Service's plan threatens our children's future on a livable planet, our wild forest, our wildlife, and our beautiful areas to hunt, fish, and hike," said Earthjustice attorney Ted Zukoski, who represented the conservation groups in federal court.
Coal in the North Fork Valley contains huge amounts of methane (natural gas), which mining companies simply waste rather than capturing. The Forest Service's analysis found that mining the coal in the roadless area would unleash enough methane to overwhelm nearly all of the climate benefit of Colorado's 2014 oil and gas rules, one of Gov. John Hickenlooper's signature achievements in limiting climate pollution.
The Forest Service's analysis also showed dumping the 170 million tons of coal on the market would undermine the nation's transition to clean energy by displacing 40,000 gigawatt hours of renewable power. By one measure, that would have the same effect as having about 140,000 homes use 100 percent coal rather than 100 percent clean energy each year for 38 years.
"The loophole could cost the global economy over $12 billion in carbon impacts and keep renewable energy off the grid," saidNathaniel Shoaff, staff attorney with the Sierra Club's Environmental Law program. "The Forest Service should listen to President Obama and reject the Arch Coal loophole: it is time to use our public lands to incentivize the future rather than subsidize the past."
The fact that expanded coal mining would undercut renewable energy prompted several local solar companies and renewable energy supporters including Western Resource Advocates and Vote Solar to oppose the loophole. Interwest Energy Alliance, a western regional renewable energy trade group, expressed concerns about the proposal's impact.
"It's important to consider the impact additional coal mining will have on the broader electricity market, and whether artificially low coal prices supported through federal leasing will displace cleaner resources that we could be using instead," saidErin Overturf, staff attorney at Western Resource Advocates. "According to the Forest Service's analysis, that damaging displacement is exactly what will happen here."
"Solar and other renewable energy sources are ready to meet our power needs reliably and cost-effectively. Our state and our nation should be investing in the clean energy sources of today, not more of the harmful, polluting and increasingly obsolete fossil fuels of the past," said Adam Browning, executive director of Vote Solar, a national solar advocacy organization. "Given the negative impacts that increased coal extraction would have on community health, climate stability and continued solar progress, we urge the Forest Service to protect Colorado's roadless lands from coal mining."
The loophole opens the door for bankrupt Arch Coal to expand its underground West Elk mine in an area of crucial wildlife habitat. The Forest Service estimated mining coal in the area could result in the bulldozing of 67 miles of road and the construction of 450 drilling pads throughout nearly 20,000 acres of publicly owned roadless forest. That forest now provides habitat for black bear, elk, Colorado River cutthroat trout, goshawk and lynx.
"The Forest Service should not allow our pristine national forests to become energy sacrifice zones for the dying coal industry," said Marissa Knodel, with Friends of the Earth. "Now that Arch Coal has declared bankruptcy, investing in the expansion of its West Elk mine makes no sense. For a resilient and healthy future for our forests and climate, the time when coal companies could profit off the destruction of our national heritage is over, and the time for keeping dirty fossil fuels like coal in the ground is now."
"Roadless areas provide important habitat to many species including the Federally listed Canada lynx," said Matt Sandler with Rocky Mountain Wild. "Jeopardizing these intact refuges to appease the coal industry is a bad decision."
"It's simply ludicrous to make an exception for a bankrupt company to carve roads through prime wildlife habitat in our national forests and spew billions of cubic feet of methane into the air. There is no value here for the American public," said Shelley Silbert, executive director of Durango-based Great Old Broads for Wilderness. "It's urgent that we make our public lands part of the solution to climate change."
"We need the Forest Service to show leadership and choose to keep the coal in the ground," said Alli Melton, public lands director at High Country Conservation Advocates. "The roadless forests of the Upper North Fork Valley are a Colorado treasure, and are part of what makes our state such a great place to live and visit. Scraping over 60 miles of new roads and hundreds of methane drainage wells across this pristine landscape is not in the best interest of the public or the environment."
"President Obama just announced a much-needed and long-overdue halt to new federal coal leasing in order to look seriously at the climate costs of the program," saidMichael Saul with the Center for Biological Diversity. "It makes no sense to undermine this bold step by rushing through a costly, unneeded, and polluting loophole to allow more coal mining in Colorado's roadless forests."
"With Colorado already feeling the impacts of a changing climate, we should be doing everything we can to cut global warming pollution and boost renewable energy sources," said Anna McDevitt, lead organizer with Environment Colorado. "States are formulating efforts to comply with the Clean Power Plan - the nation's first-ever limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. A mining project that will spew additional carbon pollution and displace 40,000 gigawatt hours of renewable energy from the grid is counterproductive to both state and federal priorities."
In 2014, Earthjustice, representing local and national organizations, won a court decision to block the loophole in the U.S. District Court of Colorado. The court decision permitted the Forest Service to revive the loophole if the agency undertook a new analysis that adequately disclosed the climate pollution the loophole would cause.
A final decision on the loophole is expected in the spring of 2016. The Interior Department's "pause" on coal leases announced last week specifically exempts Arch Coal's proposed expansion plan.
"The gift of our public forest to a bankrupt coal company is just another wasteful and disgraceful subsidy," saidJeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardian's climate and energy program director. "It's time we stopped financing the destruction of our forests and our climate."
Nichols cited Forest Service documents showing the agency will spend half a million dollars in taxpayer funds on the rulemaking to open forests to Arch's coal mining. He also noted that from 2010-2015, the BLM cut Arch Coal's royalty payments for the West Elk mine by up to $7 million in order to encourage coal mining. During just one year of that five-year period (2014), Arch Coal's CEO salary was $7 million.
Rejecting the coal mine loophole would have no immediate impact on Arch's West Elk Mine, which has a decade of coal already under lease according to the Forest Service.
Those submitting comments against the proposal included supporters of Earthjustice (50,000), Sierra Club (50,000), Friends of the Earth (33,000), Climate Reality Project (12,000); WildEarth Guardians (6,000); and Center for Biological Diversity (1,000).
Photos of the roadless areas at risk: https://earthjustice.org/features/photos-sunset-roadless-area
Photos of Arch Coal's bulldozing and drilling: https://earthjustice.org/features/colorado-forests-and-coal
ONLINE VERSION OF STATEMENT: https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2016/150-000-comments-oppose-coal-mining-loophole-on-colorado-forest-0
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
(520) 623-5252LATEST NEWS
House Dems Unveil Sweeping Bill to Protect Worker Rights and Safety
"This bill will help level the playing field and, once again, restore the balance of power between workers and their employers," said Rep. Bobby Scott.
Jul 26, 2024
A group of Democratic U.S. House members on Friday unveiled legislation "aimed at bolstering protections for America's workers and ensuring accountability for employers who flout labor and employment laws."
The Labor Enforcement to Securely (LET'S) Protect Workers Act was introduced by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.)—the ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce—and House Labor Caucus Co-Chairs Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), and Steven Horsford (D-Nev.).
The bill's sponsors said their legislation is based on the premise that "employment laws are a promise to our nation's workers" meant to "secure the most basic rights of work."
"That promise is broken," they contended. "Recent shocking revelations about massive increases in the number of children illegally overworked and trafficked into dangerous jobs—just over 85 years since the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which was enacted to eliminate that very problem—is the latest example of the ways that this promise to America's workers is broken."
Across the U.S., Republican state lawmakers have been advancing legislation to remove restrictions on child labor, despite several high-profile workplace deaths of minors. At the federal level, Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) and Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) last year introduced a bill that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work in the logging industry.
The LET'S Protect Workers Act sponsors highlighted rampant wage theft and overtime violations, workplace injuries, and union-busting by employers who "know that even if a resource-starved Department of Labor catches a violation, the penalties are a mere slap on the wrist."
"People should be able to come home at the end of the day—alive, well, in one piece, and with all the wages they worked hard to earn," the lawmakers asserted. "Children should be in schools, not dangerous workplaces, and workers should be able to organize a union without interference or the threat of retaliation from their employers."
According to House Education and Workforce Committee Democrats, if passed, the LET'S Protect Workers Act would:
- Increase civil monetary penalties for violations of child labor, minimum wage and overtime, worker health and safety, and farmworker protection standards;
- Improve mine safety and reliable funding of black lung benefits through new and increased civil monetary penalties and the option to shut down scofflaw operators;
- Set new penalties for retaliation against workers who exercise their family and medical leave rights;
- Strengthen enforcement of mental health parity requirements for employer-sponsored health plans;
- Close a loophole that allows employers to escape penalties for failing to keep records of workplace injuries if [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] does not detect the violation within six months; and
- Create new penalties for violations of the National Labor Relations Act, consistent with the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.
"Every American should be fairly compensated and be able to return home safely at the end of the day," Scott said in a statement Friday. "Unfortunately, shortcomings in our labor laws enable unethical employers to exploit workers, endanger children, and suppress the right to organize—with little accountability."
"That's why I'm proud to introduce the LET'S Protect Workers Act, which will hold bad actors accountable and strengthen penalties for labor law violations," he added. "This bill will help level the playing field and, once again, restore the balance of power between workers and their employers."
In a joint statement, Dingell, Horsford, Norcross, and Pocan said that "the lack of meaningful enforcement makes it all too easy for bad faith actors to get away with illegally violating workers' rights—from firing workers for organizing a union, to allowing children to work overnight shifts, or jeopardizing workers' safety by ignoring workplace regulations."
"We're proud to join Ranking Member Scott in introducing this bill to crack down on unscrupulous employers and to ensure that workers receive the protections they deserve," the lawmakers added.
Earlier this month, nearly 50 labor organizations led by the AFL-CIO and representing a wide range of U.S. workers urged congressional Democrats to resist Republican efforts to roll back rules enacted by the Biden administration to protect worker rights amid relentless attacks by abusive employers.
Specifically, the labor groups warned that Republicans are trying to use the Congressional Review Act—which was enacted to strengthen oversight of federal rulemaking—to overturn pro-worker rules enacted by the Department of Labor and other government bodies.
Meanwhile, Republicans including former President Donald Trump—the 2024 GOP nominee—have been trying to woo U.S. workers with proposals including a tax exemption for tipped employees panned as a "
hollow promise" by experts and by inviting Teamsters president Sean O'Brien to speak at the Republican National Convention last week.
In response to Republicans' dubious courting of U.S. labor, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas)—who is a co-sponsor of the LET'S Protect Workers Act—recently called for holding what would be a largely symbolic vote on the PRO Act. The bill was revived last year by Scott and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and, if passed, would expand labor protections including the right to organize and collectively bargain.
"If Republicans wanna talk like they're pro-worker, then let's have a vote on the PRO Act next week," Casar
said on social media last week. "Let's see which politicians are for unions and which ones are all talk. Dems are ready to vote, how about you guys?"
Keep ReadingShow Less
Amnesty Urges War Crimes Probe of Landmines in Russian-Occupied Ukraine
"In every region in Ukraine that was formerly occupied by Russia, we have seen evidence of civilians killed and injured by antipersonnel mines left behind by Russian forces," said one researcher.
Jul 26, 2024
Amnesty International on Friday demanded a "prompt, thorough, independent, and impartial investigation" into the use of antipersonnel landmines, "which litter territories in Ukraine formerly and currently occupied by Russian forces."
The Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor says that Ukraine is "severely contaminated" with antipersonnel landmines, which Russia's troops have used since 2014, but particularly since Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
"Landmines have been documented in 11 of Ukraine's 27 regions: Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia," according to the monitor's latest update, published in November. "Russian forces have used at least 13 types of antipersonnel mines in Ukraine since February 2022."
Ukraine is a state party to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on Their Destruction of 1997 but lacks legislation to enforce its implementation. Human Rights Watch last summer gathered evidence of the Ukrainian military's use of the banned mines. Russia is not a party to the treaty.
Patrick Thompson, a Ukraine researcher at Amnesty, said Friday that "in every region in Ukraine that was formerly occupied by Russia, we have seen evidence of civilians killed and injured by antipersonnel mines left behind by Russian forces."
"They are a daily, deadly threat to civilians. Some have been deliberately placed in civilian homes where they maim and kill," Thompson highlighted. "There must be an effective investigation into all such incidents as possible war crimes."
The group shared just one survivor's story of encountering a mine:
In March 2022, Russian forces evicted Oleksandr* (not his real name) and his mother from their flat in Snihurivka, in the region of Mykolaiv. A Russian military unit took over the entire apartment block until it was forced to withdraw following fierce fighting around Snihurivka in November 2022.
After the Russian retreat, Oleksandr returned to the apartment block to assess how badly it had been damaged. Upon entering the basement, he stepped on a disguised PFM-1 antipersonnel mine that had been placed under wooden planks. The mine exploded, Oleksandr fell, and landed on other disguised mines that had apparently, had been deliberately placed to injure or kill anyone entering the building. He lost both his left leg and arm in the incident.
“The deminers working to clear Ukraine of this threat are carrying out painstaking, dangerous work every day," Thompson noted. "While the scale of the problem is undeniably huge, the biggest obstacle to clearing Ukraine of landmines is Russia's ongoing aggression."
Thompson called on the international community to "commit to sustained financial and technical assistance to help Ukraine get rid of a danger that continues to wreck lives and livelihoods," and to continue fighting for an end to the use of the weapons.
"Countries must uphold the ban on the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel mines worldwide," he said. "There must be an end to the use of such indiscriminate weapons."
The most recent report from the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine states that the war has killed at least 11,284 civilians there since 2022 and injured another 22,594—though the actual tallies are believed to be "considerably higher."
"The number of civilian casualties is likely particularly undercounted in cities such as Mariupol (Donetsk region), Lysychansk, Popasna, and Sievierodonetsk (Luhansk region), where there was protracted intensive fighting at the start of the armed attack in 2022," according to the report.
While most of the deaths and injuries in Ukraine are attributed to "explosive weapons with wide area effects," the U.N. report accounts for at least 373 deaths and 855 injuries from "mines and explosive remnants of war."
Keep ReadingShow Less
G20 Nations Take 'Important Step' Toward Fair Taxation of Ultra-Rich
"Our proposal for a common minimum tax on billionaires is now on the map. G20 finance ministers have started to engage with it—and there is no going back," said progressive economist Gabriel Zucman.
Jul 26, 2024
Despite pushback from the United States delegation, finance ministers at a meeting of the G20 countries in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday agreed on the need to develop a global taxation system in which the richest in the world are taxed at a higher rate—potentially unlocking hundreds of billions of dollars annually to help close the international wealth gap.
Ahead of the G20 Summit scheduled for November, which Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government will host, the finance officials met this week to discuss economic issues and ultimately agreed to start a "dialogue on fair and progressive taxation, including of ultra-high-net-worth individuals."
The Lula government pushed for a proposal by progressive economist Gabriel Zucman, who serves as a G20 adviser and is a professor of economics at University of California, Berkeley.
Zucman's proposal calls for a minimum 2% tax on the fortunes of the world's roughly 3,000 wealthiest billionaires, which could raise approximately $250 billion globally per year.
"With full respect to tax sovereignty, we will seek to engage cooperatively to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed," the ministers wrote in a declaration that was viewed by Politico.
"Finally, the richest people are being told they can't game the tax system or avoid paying their fair share. Governments have for too long been complicit in helping the ultra-rich pay little or zero tax."
The agreement to discuss higher taxes for the rich was reached despite objections from Germany and the U.S., whose treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said that "tax policy is very difficult to coordinate globally."
"We don't see a need or really think it's desirable to try to negotiate a global agreement on that," Yellen said at a press conference before the ministers met Thursday evening. "We think that all countries should make sure that their taxation systems are fair and progressive."
Although the agreement only states that countries will discuss the need for the wealthy to pay their fair share to help fight poverty and fund public education and other services, the global anti-poverty group Oxfam International said the meeting represented "serious global progress."
"For the first time in history, the world's largest economies have agreed to cooperate to tax the ultra-rich," said Susana Ruiz, tax policy lead for Oxfam. "Finally, the richest people are being told they can't game the tax system or avoid paying their fair share. Governments have for too long been complicit in helping the ultra-rich pay little or zero tax. Massive fortunes afford the world's ultra-rich outsized influence and power, which they wield to shield, stash, and supersize their wealth, undercutting democracy and widening inequality."
An Oxfam study released ahead of this week's meetingfound that the richest 1% of people in the world increased their fortunes by $42 trillion over the past decade, while taxation fell to "historically" low rates.
Ruiz called on G20 heads of state to "go further than their finance ministers" at the G20 Summit in November "and back concrete coordination: agreeing on a new global standard that taxes the ultra-rich at a rate high enough to close the gap between them and the rest of us."
"Brazil has kickstarted a truly global approach to tax the ultra-rich. But the work is just beginning and international cooperation is crucial," said Ruiz, adding that the task of ensuring the wealthiest people in the world are taxed fairly must not be left up to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—"the club of mostly rich countries."
Zucman expressed hope that the agreement between the G20 finance ministers marked a "historic" moment, and called it "an important step in the right direction."
"Our proposal for a common minimum tax on billionaires is now on the map. G20 finance ministers have started to engage with it—and there is no going back," said Zucman. "In its declaration, the G20 finance ministers commit to important preliminary steps. They need to do more and commit to a coordinated minimum tax on the super-rich. We know that it is practically doable—we know the solutions exist. And I'm confident, because there is overwhelming popular demand everywhere to get there."
"The status quo, in which the biggest winners from globalization are allowed to enjoy the lowest tax rates, is simply not sustainable," said Zucman.
The findings released this week by Oxfam highlighted polling that "consistently" found people across the world support raising taxes on the richest individuals.
"Eighty percent of Indians, 85% of Brazilians and 69% of people polled across 34 countries in Africa support increasing taxes on the rich," said the group. "Nearly three-quarters of millionaires polled in G20 countries support higher taxes on wealth, and over half think extreme wealth is a 'threat to democracy.'"
The Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) applauded the agreement and called on the G20 to "go further in [the] fight to tax the rich."
"To take this forward, G20 should support work on this at the Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation currently being negotiated at the United Nations," said Jayati Ghosh, co-chair of the ICRICT.
A U.N. committee is scheduled to submit "terms of reference" regarding a tax convention framework in August, and a final vote on the framework is expected by the end of 2025.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular