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BLM Postpones Greens Hollow Coal Lease Sale On Environmental Groups' Petition And Appeal

Phil Douglas, UTAH DIVISION OF WILDLIFE RESOURCES
Greater Sage Grouse

The coal lease auction of 6200 acres scheduled for Thursday has been postponed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management Salt Lake City office.

An official from the BLM says in a statement a stay petition and appeal filed by four conservation groups requires them to hold off on the Greens Hollow coal lease sale. The climate and energy program director for WildEarth Guardians, one of the groups behind the petition, is Jeremy Nichols. He says the nearby sage grouse habitat is among their primary concerns.

“The last thing you want to do when you have a population there that is still hanging on," says Nichols, "the last thing you want to do is add any more disturbance that could push it over the brink.”

BLM rules force an automatic stay for 45 days while it’s being reviewed by the Interior Board of Land Appeals. Nichols says this is just the beginning of the process.

“The message we’re trying to send to the Bureau of Land Management is that ‘you’re not going to be able to sell this coal without a fight,’ and we obviously have won this round and we’re going to continue to engage to ensure that we win in future rounds,” Nichols says.

Joining WildEarth in the petition and appeal are Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust and Sierra Club. There’s expected to be nearly 56,000,000 tons of usable coal in Greens Hollow.

Bob Nelson is a graduate of the University of Utah with a BA in mass communications. He began his radio career at KUER in 1978 when it was still in Kingsbury Hall. That’s also where he met his wife, Maria Shilaos, in 1981. Bob left KUER for commercial radio where he worked for 25 years, and he is thrilled to be back at KUER. Bob and his family are part of an explorer group, fondly known as The Hordes and Masses, which has been seeking out ghost towns and little-known places in Utah for more than twenty years.
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