Comments on Forest Service’s West Elk Mine Environmental Impact Statement

The Institute for Policy Integrity, alongside several environmental organizations, argues that the U.S. Forest Service's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the West Elk coal mine expansion is deficient because it does not monetize greenhouse gas emissions using the social cost of carbon and methane. The authors contend that since the Forest Service used a cost-benefit analysis to list federal revenue increases, it is required to monetize climate damages using the best available data, especially as the expansion could represent "1.67% of all federal coal produced nationally".

• The U.S. Forest Service's new Environmental Impact Statement for the West Elk mine expansion fails to monetize climate damages in its cost-benefit analysis, despite a 2014 U.S. District Court of Colorado ruling that previous plans had "inadequately disclosed the effects of greenhouse gas emission".
• The Forest Service justifies the lack of monetization by claiming the methods are inappropriate at the project level, that a previous court ruling no longer applies due to an executive order withdrawing federal guidance, and that other benefits or costs were also not monetized.
• The authors argue that monetization is required because the Forest Service used cost-benefit analysis to calculate federal revenue and that the project's scale is significant, potentially representing "1.67% of all federal coal produced nationally".

APA

Institute for Policy Integrity (n.d.). Comments on Forest Service’s West Elk Mine Environmental Impact Statement. https://policyintegrity.org/what-we-do/update/comments-on-forest-services-west-elk-mine-environmental-impact-statement

Chicago

Institute for Policy Integrity. Comments on Forest Service’s West Elk Mine Environmental Impact Statement. n.d. https://policyintegrity.org/what-we-do/update/comments-on-forest-services-west-elk-mine-environmental-impact-statement.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Institute for Policy Integrity |title=Comments on Forest Service’s West Elk Mine Environmental Impact Statement |url=https://policyintegrity.org/what-we-do/update/comments-on-forest-services-west-elk-mine-environmental-impact-statement |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{instituteforpolicyintegrityndcomments, author = {{Institute for Policy Integrity}}, title = {{Comments on Forest Service’s West Elk Mine Environmental Impact Statement}}, publisher = {Institute for Policy Integrity}, url = {https://policyintegrity.org/what-we-do/update/comments-on-forest-services-west-elk-mine-environmental-impact-statement}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }