President Obama plans to announce Friday changes that will make it harder for the coal industry to get mining leases, in his latest step in fulfilling a broad agenda to address climate change, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The administration is also slated to put in place a limited moratorium on new coal leasing, the newspaper says, citing congressional aides. The moratorium will stay in place until after the Interior Department conducts a broad environmental review, which is expected to include coal mining’s impact on climate change.
Obama hinted at the action during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address.
“Rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future — especially in communities that rely on fossil fuels,” Obama said in his final address to both chambers of Congress. “That’s why I’m going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources, so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet.”
The news was applauded by climate change advocates.
Billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer said the president “has taken an historic step forward in leveling the playing field and ending the fossil fuel industry’s unfair advantage.”
“On the heels of the Paris Agreement and the Keystone XL pipeline rejection, this is another triumph for sensible polices that the American people deserve,” Steyer said in a statement released by his activist group NextGen Climate. “We cannot go back. Our next president must build on this progress and go even further in building a clean energy economy that works for all Americans.”
