EDITORIAL: Green activists kill jobs

Environmental activists may cost Colorado's economy hundreds of millions of dollars a year with a looming victory in the war on coal. They will cause hardship for more than 200 Colorado families, putting their breadwinners out of work. Here is how much one leading environmentalist cares about those people.

"My initial response is 'tough (expletive)'" said Jeremy Nichols, the energy program director for WildEarth Guardians, as quoted July 13 by the Colorado Independent.

WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit effectively seeking to close the Colowyo Mine near Craig. A federal judge ruled in May the Department of Interior's Office of Surface Mining did not fully comply with federal procedures in approving plans for the mine nearly a decade ago, explains the Colorado Consumer Coalition. Nichols made his "tough (expletive)" comment after the Interior Department refused to appeal the adverse ruling - a decision that reflects the Obama administration's complicit role in the war on coal.

"They [the Interior Department] didn't appeal, and there is nothing they can do about it now," Nichols said of the people who may lose their incomes.

The judge gave the agency 120 days to complete an environmental analysis for Colowyo that conforms to the procedures laid out in the National Environmental Policy Act. The deadline is Sept. 6.

"If the analysis is not completed within the timeframe - a tall task - the mine will be ordered to shut down," says a public statement by the coalition.

The mine's 220 employees earn an estimated $25 million annually. The value of mine's commodity production equals more than $100 million a year. The direct and indirect economic contributions of the mine total about $206.7 million annually, the coalition reports.

It gets worse. The Colowyo Mine supplies the Craig Station power plant, which means a shutdown will adversely affect power consumers in that region. Power generation in the region contributes $441.3 million to the economy, and the Colowyo Mine also provides coal for other residential and commercial consumers throughout the state. In the past, it helped supply Colorado Springs Utilities.

The likely shutdown has united Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, Republican Sen. Cory Gardner and Republican Rep. Scott Tipton in a fight to save the mine from extreme environmental activism.

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This editorial is misguided. The enviros simply went to court to have their legal concerns addressed, and that is not "extreme environmental activism".  No, the editors should aim their arrows at the entire Congress which passed NEPA and watched while the courts have turned this into a paper-pushing albatross around the neck of any federal agency that tries to do anything. And save a few of those literary projectiles for the US Senate, which has confirmed the appointment of judges who write law instead of interpreting it. Aim your armaments at the real culprits.