Forest Service Sued Over Wyo. Coal Mine Expansion

MEAD GRUVER

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Environmental groups on Tuesday took their legal fight to rein in carbon dioxide produced from burning Wyoming coal to a new agency, the U.S. Forest Service.

The Forest Service oversees national grasslands and in October signed off on the expansion of the North Antelope Rochelle Mine farther onto the Thunder Basin National Grassland. The surface coal mine is among the world's largest.

The three groups — WildEarth Guardians, the Powder River Basin Resource Council and Sierra Club — say the Forest Service didn't adequately consider how burning the additional mined coal would affect the climate. They sued the Forest Service in U.S. District Court in Colorado.

Burning the additional coal beneath more than 1,600 acres of national grassland would release more than 600 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the annual output from more than 150 coal-fired power plants, the lawsuit said.

The Forest Service seems to have taken climate change seriously in other contexts, Jeremy Nichols with WildEarth Guardians told The Associated Press.

"They've said things like global warming is a serious threat to national forests and grasslands. Well, that's great. Now do something about it," Nichols said.

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Steve Segin said the agency is reviewing the complaint. A spokeswoman for St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp., which owns the North Antelope Rochelle Mine 65 miles south of Gillette, pointed out that the company is not party to the lawsuit and declined to comment.

Environmentalists are seeking all possible avenues to attack the coal industry, said Marion Loomis, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association.

"They're just throwing everything they can at the wall and seeing what sticks. Hopefully the industries and the consumers will be successful in countering their arguments and will continue to rely on coal for many years in this country. Certainly the rest of the world will rely on coal," Loomis said.