Film icon Robert Redford and environmentalists got what they lobbied for in President Obama’s Friday decision to block new coal leases, but said the president didn’t go far enough.
Natural Resources Defense Council President Rhea Suh said in a message to activists that “just two days ago, my friend and NRDC trustee Robert Redford asked you to call on President Obama to end all new leasing for oil, gas and coal on America’s public lands.” And Friday, “after months of deliberation, the president responded boldly on the coal front, announcing a moratorium on all new coal mining on federal lands,” she said.
“This will protect our climate and millions of acres of wildlands from the ravages of coal mining,” Ruh added.
The environmental group has been accused by Republicans of colluding with the administration on the development of climate regulations and other environmental rules. Republican lawmakers slammed Friday’s decision after passing GOP-backed bills in the House aimed at hobbling activist influence on regulations.
But even though Ruh said the group was pleased with Obama’s latest step in his climate change agenda, she said the announcement has some holes in it.
“Once again, the president has shown tremendous leadership in the fight against climate change,” she said. “But there is a catch: This moratorium is temporary, in place only for the next three years while the Interior Department finalizes its policy” on new leases.
Ruh said, disappointedly, that the decision “applies just to coal, leaving dirty fracking wells to continue sprouting up across our western wildlands like weeds.” She asked activists to begin pressing the administration to expand the moratorium to oil and gas.
She said the plan also would leave some national parks open to coal mining and the devastation that brings. Although it does stop mining in some “natural treasures” such as Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, “it leaves open to plunder such awe-inspiring gems as Utah’s Desolation Canyon where the Interior Department has approved a plan for 1,300 new oil and gas wells.”
The Interior Department also “rubberstamped” 240 fracking well proposals for Chaco Canyon National Historic Park, she noted.
