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January 15, 2016

Obama Expected to Announce Halt to All New Coal Mining Leases
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The Obama administration is expected to announce plans to halt all new
coal mining leases on public lands. Obama's proposal follows demands by
a coalition of more than 400 organizations that the White House stop
issuing new leases for all fossil fuel extraction on public lands and
oceans. Speaking on Democracy Now!, Tim De Christopher explained the
campaign's significance.

Tim De Christopher: "So there's another 450 gigatons that could be kept
in the ground by ending fossil fuel leasing. So it's a major demand, and
it's something that I think is kind of a new step for the climate
movement, for a lot of the mainstream groups that were a part of this
coalition and are a part of this campaign, that we're saying we're no
longer operating from a paradigm of deviating from the status quo, or
operating from the paradigm of looking at the challenge of climate
change and what's actually necessary, and we're going to find a way to
make that happen."

In response to Obama's planned announcement today to end all new coal
leasing on federal lands, Luke Popovich, a spokesperson for the National
Mining Association, said, "It appears that they're going after the
federal coal leasing program with the intention of keeping coal in the
ground."


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