Tag: coal-mine methane

As an environmental reporter, I’m finishing out this year with a nagging fear. The why, of course, is obvious: The federal government soon will...

Environmental groups trying to compel the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to mitigate the climate change impacts of coal mine methane are encouraged by today's BLM decision to reconsider approval of a mine expansion on Colorado’s Western Slope.

Colorado’s coal industry is on fire lately, going after natural gas producers with gusto in the wake of last year’s controversial Clean Air, Clean Jobs Act, which requires Xcel Energy to convert several coal-fired power plants on Colorado’s Front Range over to natural gas or alternative fuel sources such as wind and solar.

Obviously pleased with last week’s roadless ruling allowing Oxbow Mining to vent more methane at is Elk Creek Mine near Paonia, a company spokesman over the weekend also took the opportunity to skewer environmentalists on the issue of methane capture or flaring.

Rep. Laura Bradford, R-Collbran, has been pressuring the governor’s office and U.S. Rep. John Salazar to continue Bush Administration fast-tracking of the Red Cliff coal mine west of Grand Junction. But her lobbying ignores a couple of fairly glaring and clearly inconvenient truths.