The Guardian excoriates Obama’s decision to expand coal mining

The Guardian’s Glenn Hurowitz denounced the Obama administration’s plan to open up new land to coal mining.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced on Tuesday that the Bureau of Land Management will be holding competitive lease sales for the Powder River Basin tracts in Wyoming. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Powder River Basin contains an estimated 758 million tons of low sulfur coal and lease payments should generate $13.4 to $21.3 billion.

Hurowitz says the decision is an extreme about face for the administration:

In other words, despite his administration’s rhetorical embrace of clean energy, Obama is effectively using modest wind and solar investments as cover for a broader embrace of dirty fuels. It’s the same strategy BP, Chevron, and other major polluters use: tout modest environmental investments in multi-million dollar PR campaigns, while putting the real money into fossil fuel development.

Michael Allan McCrae wrote this story. You can contact him at [email protected]or @michaelmccrae.