Via onenewsnow.com:

The so-called war on coal continues, especially in the wake of a recent announcement from the Obama administration.

The Obama administration is imposing a moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands, as he argues that the program has remained largely unchanged for more than 30 years and requires a comprehensive review. According to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, the coal leasing program must be modernized to ensure what she calls a fair financial return to American taxpayers and account for what the administration describes as climate change.

“This is the latest of a series of very costly and foolish regulations by this president, whose intention is simply to drive American coal out of the marketplace,” comments Luke Popovich of the National Mining Association (NMA).

While the Obama administration is dead set on alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar, Popovich asserts that coal is one of the most affordable, abundant, and reliable forces of electricity generation in the United States.

“This is going to hurt virtually everyone across the board, [including] high-wage jobs. It’s going to make electricity possibly more expensive,” he laments. “It’s going to hurt the states that use the tax revenue from the federal coal lease program. So altogether, it’s just another front on the war on coal that this president is insisting on waging.”

Popovich goes on to describe how much coal this move involves.

“He is going after about 42 percent of the entire coal production of the United States. He’s going after the source of 42 percent of it,” the NMA communications director reports. “He claims that he is only imposing this moratorium on future coal leases, not on current ones. But of course that certainly affects the marketplace. It will certainly create enormous litigation that will tie up coal production from states like Colorado, Wyoming, Montana — even in the South where federal lands produce coal,” Popovich concludes.

See the article here.