A group of snowsports enthusiasts recently launched a video featuring members of the WORC network.
Protect Our Winters is an organization founded by professional snowboarder Jeremy Jones. In the video, they thank the Department of Interior for pausing leases of federal coal pending a program review. The last major revision of the federal coal program came almost three decades ago, and our understanding of the environmental and social effects of coal leasing and mining has greatly improved since.
To explain federal coal leasing, Protect Our Winters features Steve Charter, former chair of the Northern Plains Resource Council, and Shannon Anderson, staff attorney and organizer at Powder River Basin Resource Council. In response to the announcement of the pause, Steve Charter highlighted the importance of taking a pause in leasing to evaluate the broken program:
“There have been more than 15 investigations from both inside and outside the government, and all of them have found massive costs to taxpayers from mismanagement of the federal coal program. Public lands and public resources should be managed for the public good—not for the bottom lines of private corporations. I’m glad to see the Administration taking a step toward ensuring that taxpayers receive a fair return on coal that we all own.”
To hear more, watch the video below. Enjoy!