County supports Mountain Coal’s West Elk Mine expansion

An obligation to develop responsibly

The Board of County Commissioners has thrown its support behind the Colorado Roadless Rule and proposed lease modifications to Mountain Coal Company’s West Elk Mine in Somerset, Colo.

The May 1 decision to send letters of support on both matters to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, came just one day before Vilsack and Governor John Hickenlooper upheld the Colorado Roadless Rule.
Under the Rule, Mountain Coal Company has the ability to carry out proposed modifications to the mine’s lease. The company asked the Commissioners to support the Rule because those same lease modifications would not be possible under the National Roadless Rule.
At the May 1 meeting Matt Reed, public lands director for High Country Citizens’ Alliance (HCCA), urged the commissioners to remember that the Colorado Roadless Rule has implications that go beyond North Fork Coal Mining.
“The Colorado Roadless Rule is more than the North Fork coal issue. There are liberal exemptions for logging, for water conveyance structures. HCCA is of the belief, as many conservation organizations are, that the Colorado rule… is significantly weaker than the national rule on many issues, “ Reed said.
One of the biggest questions Reed said surrounds gap leases issued during the gap between the implementation of the 2001 National Roadless Rule and the present. The terms of many of the leases do not prohibit road construction in roadless areas. Reed said there are at least 56,000 acres of gap leases but has seen figures as high as 85,000 acres; many of the leases are in the Gunnison and White River National Forests, and many are controlled by S.G. Interests. The Colorado Roadless Rule would potentially allow those leases to be developed in roadless areas without roadless protections. The May 2 announcement that upheld the Colorado Roadless rule may have addressed some of these concerns, but it is still undetermined.
Ohio City resident Warren Wilcox, who is running for a county commissioner’s seat this fall, said that he also had concerns with the Colorado Roadless Rule.
“It appears to me as a citizen that a lot of this roadless thing has cherry-picked areas of high commercial value for natural resources, and I think that creates some big questions in my mind. We’re in an era of energy need, and I think the most efficient handling of energy is very important to our survival, and public lands still are public to me, not federal. I have some severe issues with how it’s being handled,” Wilcox said.
“I understand what Matt [Reed] is saying, but frankly I support the Colorado Roadless Rule because I think there are some issues within the North Fork that … it would beneficial for,” said Commissioner Phil Chamberland, who felt the Roadless Rule made it possible for mining operations to follow safety measures and access coal. “The fact that it also affects other areas, I would assume it would affect them in the same way.”
But Richard Karas, a Gunnison Valley resident and former chairman of the Gunnison County Planning Commission, spoke up in support of Reed’s comments. He also called into question the contradiction between supporting coal mining and working toward a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020.
“These measures are in support of actions that will exactly contradict and fly in the face of that objective,” Karas said. He also argued that the mine extension only postpones the inevitable—the mines will run out of coal in the next several years, and the positive economic impact will not be around for the long run.
“I’m not asking you to oppose the mine, I just don’t think the county needs to take a position here,” Karas said.
Commissioner Paula Swenson said she understood Karas’ concerns about carbon emissions, but assured him the county is on track toward meeting its goal. The fact remained that, “Gunnison County has natural resources, and we need to responsibly develop them. This is a responsible development of those natural resources, and we also have to understand our coal is still some the of cleanest in the world.
“We are still dependent on coal as a resource, and our coal helps meet emissions across the country to make a more clean burning coal. I would love to say we’re going to be in wind and solar energy in the next five years, but the reality is we’re not,” concluded Swenson.
Phil Chamberland added, “I understand that these mines are going, whether it’s 2017 or 2022. To me, that is a big difference.” Commissioner Hap Channell was not in attendance.