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Arch Coal and Forest Service Decline To Appeal Ruling

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Arch Coal and the Forest Service will not be appealing a decision that revokes the company's expansion lease, as well as vacating an exception in the ColoradoRoadlessRule that allows for expanded mining in the North Fork. 

Arch Coal and Forest Service Decline To Appeal Ruling
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Back in 2013, a few different environmental groups sued Arch Coal and the Forest Service, claiming that the Forest Service didn’t account for the cost to global climate change when calculating it’s environmental impact assessment.  This spring a judge agreed, and recently ruled that the lease is revoked, and got rid of an exception in the Roadless Rule that would have allowed for the creation of mining roads in otherwise roadless areas. 

Ted Zukoski is an attorney with Earth Justice in Denver, the legal group representing the environmental groups.

"It was rather anticlimactic," says Zukoski, "it was the dog that didn't bark.  The Forest Service and Arch Coal had 60 days to appeal that decision from Judge Jackson, and they did not appeal, which means that decision will remain in effect.  If Arch Coal and the Forest Service want to go forward with the expansion, they will have to redo their environmental review so that it takes into account things that it did not, like climate pollution."

Arch Coal can still reapply for the lease, start back from step one and try to get approved again.  Zukoski doesn’t know though if they’ll get approved.

"That will be up to the Forest Service and the BLM and those decision makers," says Zukoski, "the public will certainly be interested, and I think you'll see an engaged public again if the Forest Service goes forward once more.

"The impacts of climate change, the damage it can cause in terms of public health, sea level rise, private property...those are all impacts that concern everyone across the globe.  It's encouraging to know that the administration in this decision will be factoring those damages in when they make decisions that could release millions of tons of carbon pollution into the atmosphere."

Arch coal released a statement saying the ruling was unfortunate, and that they urge the agencies to move to get the roadless rule exception put back in.

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