By Sharon St Joan

On Thursday, April 19, the Department of the Interior will hold a public hearing in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the Salt Palace, from 10 am to 4 pm – on the future of coal on public lands. This follows an announcement by the Obama administration in January, 2016, placing a moratorium on new coal extraction on public lands. The moratorium will be up in three years, and these federal hearings, being held in six cities, will help determine coal’s future. Forty percent of U.S. coal is mined on BLM land.

Coal is a dying industry, as is every other fossil fuel sector. Always a finite resource, fossil fuels are now fast nearing their end. We have only to look at the recent demise of the nation’s largest coal companies. Alpha Natural Resources filed for bankruptcy in August of 2015, and Arch Coal followed in January…