Federal Coal Program Programmatic EIS Scoping Report

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is conducting a comprehensive review of the Federal coal program via a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). This scoping report identifies key areas for reform, including increasing royalty rates to ensure fair market value, accounting for greenhouse gas emissions through carbon budgets or royalty adders, and improving lease process efficiency. The document summarizes extensive public input and proposes several combination packages of policy options to be analyzed in the Draft PEIS, alongside 'no action' and 'no leasing' alternatives.

• The Federal coal program has not undergone a comprehensive review since the mid-1980s, and most regulations date back to the late 1970s, leading to calls for modernization regarding climate change, fair return to taxpayers, and process efficiency.
• The BLM manages coal leasing on approximately 570 million acres of Federal land, with 306 active leases covering over 475,000 acres across 10 states, containing an estimated 7.4 billion tons of recoverable coal.
• Coal-fired electricity generation in the US declined from 50 percent of total generation in 2005 to 33 percent by 2015, contributing to a steep decline in coal production.

APA

Earthjustice (2017). Federal Coal Program Programmatic EIS Scoping Report. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/coalpeis_rptsscoping_vol1_508.pdf

Chicago

Earthjustice. Federal Coal Program Programmatic EIS Scoping Report. 2017. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/coalpeis_rptsscoping_vol1_508.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Earthjustice |title=Federal Coal Program Programmatic EIS Scoping Report |date=January 2017 |url=https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/coalpeis_rptsscoping_vol1_508.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{earthjustice2017federal, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{Federal Coal Program Programmatic EIS Scoping Report}}, institution = {Earthjustice}, year = {2017}, month = jan, url = {https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/coalpeis_rptsscoping_vol1_508.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }