US Pledges to Ease Pain of Closing Coal Mines in Shift to Clean Energy

"For the past five years, President Obama has denied the Republican charge that he is waging a war on coal. On Friday, with the Obama administration’s announcement that the Interior Department will halt new coal leases on public lands, Mr. Obama acknowledged that his climate change polices are hurting American miners and began offering ways to ease that economic harm.

As Mr. Obama has sought a legacy in tackling climate change, his top target has been the burning of coal for electricity — the nation’s largest source of planet-warming emissions. New rules could freeze construction of new coal plants, shutter existing plants, limit United States investment in foreign plants — and with Friday’s move, keep coal in the ground.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced that her agency would begin a three-year review intended to overhaul the federal government’s program for leasing coal on public land, with an eye to raising the costs paid by coal companies to mine on public land, and ultimately to slow down production. The agency also announced a moratorium on new federal coal leases while those reviews and changes take place."

Coral Davenport reports for the New York Times January 15, 2016.