The BLM makes ridiculous claim that new federal coal leasing won’t affect the climate

The Trump administration is once again pushing to resume federal coal leasing on public lands, which President Obama halted in 2016. To do so, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has released a skimpy environmental assessment that makes the bold claim that federal coal leasing has no impact on climate change. To be clear, we are talking about the potential burning of billions of metric tons of greenhouse gases. The assessment argues that the Obama-era coal moratorium was merely a “pause,” so only delayed emissions rather than prevented them. The courts appear to disagree.