A Colorado coal mine is up against climate change and the clock, after an environmental group got a judge to order a federal agency to re-do the permit it issued eight years ago, setting such an "unrealistically" short deadline that backers fear the operation will be shut down for good on a technicality.
The Colowyo mine, which provides hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars to the economy of the town of Craig, has been open since 1977. But the expansion permit it sought and received from the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) in 2007 did not take climate change into account, according to a lawsuit brought by WildEarth Guardians. That, the environmental group said, violated the 2006 National Environmental Policy Act. A federal judge agreed and, on May 4, gave the agency 120 days to redo the review.
The company that owns the mine and many of the families of workers fear the agency won't complete the review in time, or, if it does, may reach a different conclusion. Either could mean the mine is shut down for good.
"At the end of the day, it’s the families of northwestern Colorado that will be hurting."- Lee Boughey, Colowyo Mine Co.
"It would devastate my family,” Colowyo employee Jim Hatfield told Steamboat Today. "We’d probably be forced to move.”
Christopher Holmes, spokesman for the federal agency, told FoxNews.com the office intends to finish the process before the deadline, but completion does not guarantee the mine will stay open. The company that owns the mine, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, is appealing District Judge R. Brooke Jackson's order, even as it has asked for a stay of execution, claiming it will suffer irreparable harm if the mine closes because of an elapsed deadline.
Via: Fox News
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