Environews

Environews: Utah moves to prop up coal

By Amy Brunvand

–By Amy Brunvand

Last month the Obama Administration announced a moratorium on new coal leasing on public lands in order to evaluate overall health and environmental impacts.

Also last month, Arch Coal, one of the nation’s largest coal mines with mines in Wyoming, Colorado and elsewhere, filed Chapter II bankruptcy.

As this was happening, the State of Utah acted to prop up the fading coal industry by sneaking approval for a coal liquefaction plant near Price under the radar. The only public notice of the pro­ject was published by the Utah Division of Air Quality in the Sun Advocate newspaper in Price.

Tim Wagner, executive director for Utah Physicians for a Healthy Envir­on­ment, says the project will release significant toxic air pollutants as well as almost 300,000 tons of CO2.

Utah Physicians of a Healthy Environment: uphe.org

This article was originally published on February 4, 2016.