Conservation groups sued the U.S. Forest Service today to stop exploratory drilling in California’s eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains that threatens an endangered fish and a dwindling population of bi-state sage grouse. “This drilling project will cause exactly the kind of noise and commotion that make bi-state sage grouse abandon their habitat. The Forest Service should absolutely know better,” said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s appalling that the Forest Service is willing to push these beautiful dancing birds closer to extinction for a toxic mine. We’ll do everything possible to prevent another species from being lost forever, but we urgently need the court’s help.”
Responding to continuing pressure from community groups, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement (OSMRE) announced its formal determination that West Virginia is violating the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) by failing to ensure that funds will be available to reclaim coal mines in the state.
MISSOULA, MT— The federal district court in Montana on Tuesday invalidated the federal government’s approval of the first phase of the Rock Creek Mine, a major copper and silver mine proposed beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness in northwest Montana.
This afternoon, a bankruptcy court issued a ruling that allows the Blackjewel coal company to immediately abandon cleanup obligations at 33 coal mines in Kentucky. An additional 171 Blackjewel permits in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia will be placed into a legal limbo to potentially make them available to new ownership. Any of those permits that do not transfer to new owners in the next six months will also be abandoned. Since Blackjewel failed to complete reclamation at these mines, and the regulators failed to require adequate reclamation bonds, these abandonments mean millions of dollars in outstanding costs may fall on taxpayers and local communities. This is a potentially precedent-setting ruling at a time when several coal mining companies are nearing bankruptcy amid declining demand for thermal coal.
Phase 1 of the exploratory mining project has exceeded permitted acreage and wrongly characterizes the drilling site as containing “low archaeological sensitivity.”
BISHOP, CA — A Canadian gold exploration company, K2 Gold, has completed Phase 1 of an exploratory drilling project on traditional homelands of the Paiute-Shoshone and Timbisha Shoshone, on the doorstep of the area commonly known as Death Valley National Park.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The US House of Representatives today passed legislation to finally reform the Mining Law of 1872. The legislation provides the first update to the mining laws since the time of pick and shovel miners.
Today a House Natural Resources Subcommittee is holding a hearing on the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act. The bill would permanently protect 1 million acres of public lands around the Grand Canyon from new uranium mining claims. It follows the release late yesterday of recommendations from Trump’s Interior Department that clear the way for a vast expansion of dangerous mining on public lands.
Today, Sierra Club joined U.S. Representative Raúl Grijalva, Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee; leaders from Indigenous nations; local elected officials; veterans; and conservation groups in supporting H.R.1373 - Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act. The Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act, will make the 20-year mining moratorium established in 2012 permanent. All told, the legislation would protect approximately one million acres of public lands north and south of the Grand Canyon from toxic mining.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Representative Raúl M. Grijalva and Senator Tom Udall today introduced legislation to finally reform the Mining Law of 1872. The legislation would be the first update to the mining laws since the time of pick and shovel miners.
Today, Diné (Navajo) community organizations Tó Nizhóni Ání and Black Mesa Water Coalition, along with Sierra Club, filed a notice of intent (NOI) to sue Peabody Western Coal Company, a subsidiary of Peabody Energy, for failing to disclose the upcoming closure of its Kayenta coal mine in its permit renewal application. The 44,000-acre Kayenta coal mine is on track to end operations when the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) -- the mine’s only customer -- closes on December 22, 2019.