Brief to Forest Service on Expansion of Colorado's West Elk Coal Mine

The Institute for Policy Integrity asserts that the U.S. Forest Service's final approval of the West Elk coal mine expansion ignores significant climate costs. While the agency quantified the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, it provided only a generic description of climate effects rather than monetizing the damages, which the author claims would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. The document argues this omission is arbitrary and illegal, noting that as recently as 2017, agencies used the Interagency Working Group’s social cost of greenhouse gases for similar decisions.

• The U.S. Forest Service's final environmental impact statement for the West Elk coal mine expansion quantifies the increase in greenhouse gas emissions but fails to quantify or monetize the resulting climate damages, providing only a generic description of climate change effects.
• The failure to monetize climate impacts is presented as a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, especially since the agency monetized the economic benefits to the industry for the coal leases.
• Prior to this case, government agencies had utilized the Interagency Working Group’s estimates of the social cost of greenhouse gases for similar resource management decisions as recently as 2017.

APA

Institute for Policy Integrity (2018). Brief to Forest Service on Expansion of Colorado's West Elk Coal Mine. https://policyintegrity.org/projects/update/brief-to-forest-service-on-expansion-of-colorados-west-elk-coal-mine

Chicago

Institute for Policy Integrity. Brief to Forest Service on Expansion of Colorado's West Elk Coal Mine. 2018. https://policyintegrity.org/projects/update/brief-to-forest-service-on-expansion-of-colorados-west-elk-coal-mine.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Institute for Policy Integrity |title=Brief to Forest Service on Expansion of Colorado's West Elk Coal Mine |date=27 March 2018 |url=https://policyintegrity.org/projects/update/brief-to-forest-service-on-expansion-of-colorados-west-elk-coal-mine |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{instituteforpolicyintegrity2018brief, author = {{Institute for Policy Integrity}}, title = {{Brief to Forest Service on Expansion of Colorado's West Elk Coal Mine}}, publisher = {Institute for Policy Integrity}, year = {2018}, month = mar, url = {https://policyintegrity.org/projects/update/brief-to-forest-service-on-expansion-of-colorados-west-elk-coal-mine}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }