Six AGs Sent Comments to BLM on the Impacts of Ending Coal Leasing Moratorium

JUNE 15, 2023

California Attorney General Rob Bonta led a coalition of 18 AGs and three cities in sending comments responding to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement analyzing the potential environmental effects from maintaining the bureau’s coal leasing moratorium. In the comments, the AGs urged BLM to fully consider all costs—social and environmental; direct, indirect, and cumulative—of resuming the coal leasing program. Specifically, the AGs stressed the negative effects ending the moritorium would have on federal efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the disproportionate harm that continued coal leasing would have on low-income communities, communities of color, and tribal and indigenous communities.