Court Rejects Plan to Expand New Mexico Coal Mine
An Environmental Article from All-Creatures.org

From

Center for Biological Diversity
March 2015

Last week U.S. District Judge John L. Kane said the Office of Surface Mining's assessment of the expansion ignored the toxic impacts of burning the coal at the nearby Four Corners Power Plant, one of the most polluting coal plants in the United States.

In a crucial win for both people and wildlife, a federal judge has rejected an Obama administration plan to expand coal mining at the 13,000-acre Navajo Mine near the San Juan River in northwestern New Mexico.

The plan would have allowed strip mining of 12.7 million tons of coal.

The Center joined conservation and tribal allies in fighting the 2012 plan. Last week U.S. District Judge John L. Kane said the Office of Surface Mining's assessment of the expansion ignored the toxic impacts of burning the coal at the nearby Four Corners Power Plant, one of the most polluting coal plants in the United States.

"Coal pollution problems in the San Juan Basin are extreme. Air is polluted, water is poisoned, and endangered species are being driven to extinction," said the Center's Taylor McKinnon.

"We won't rest until these problems are solved."

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