By Benjamin Alva Polley EBS COLUMNIST
Coal remains among the dirtiest, most destructive energy sources we have. Yet this news release from the Department of the Interior touts hundreds of billions of tons of coal under U.S. federal lands as if that’s a blessing, not a warning. Framing this as “energy dominance” ignores the mounting climate crisis, public health harms and economic realities of a world rapidly shifting away from fossil fuels.
Start with the numbers. The release boasts of 356 billion short tons of coal resources on federal lands, and even more in places like Alaska, claiming this is enough to power the U.S. for 600 years at current consumption. On its face, that sounds reassuring. But it quietly assumes we should continue burning coal at today’s pace for centuries. That vision is flatly incompatible with any serious attempt to limit global warming and avoid the worst climate impacts already battering communities with extreme heat, fires, floods and storms that ravage the nation.
Coal is the most carbon-intensive of the major fossil fuels. Per unit of electricity generated, it produces far more CO₂ than natural gas, and vastly more than renewables like wind and solar, which effectively emit nothing once installed. Locking in hundreds of years of coal combustion would lock in centuries of rising seas, destabilized weather patterns, and growing climate chaos. That’s not a plan for prosperity; it’s a plan for permanent crisis.
The news release dresses this up with rhetoric about “beautiful clean coal” and “energy security.” But there is nothing clean about the full life cycle of coal. Mining scars landscapes, contaminates waterways, and endangers workers. Burning coal fills the air with fine particulates, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and heavy metals. These pollutants contribute to heart disease, asthma, premature death and developmental problems in children. Communities downwind of coal plants have lived with this burden for decades.
Calling this “energy security” also misreads where security truly comes from. Real energy security today means resilience, diversification, and independence from volatile global fuel markets. Wind and solar power draw from free, domestic resources that never run out and never spike in price because of a distant conflict or OPEC decision. Energy efficiency reduces demand altogether. Investing public lands and public money into prolonging coal dependence crowds out the very investments that would make our system more resilient and more affordable in the long run.
The release leans heavily on coal’s contribution to local economies, especially in states like Wyoming. That concern is real – but doubling down on coal is not an act of compassion for coal communities. It is a false promise. Global power markets are turning away from coal not because of ideology but because cleaner alternatives are now cheaper in many cases. Utilities are accelerating coal plant retirements. Banks and insurers are tightening standards. Building policy around a fuel the market is already abandoning sets workers and regions up for a harder fall later.
If we truly care about miners, their families, and the towns built around this industry, the honest conversation is about transition, not entrenchment. That means using federal policy and federal lands to create new opportunities in clean energy, reclamation, infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing—not pretending that a 600-year coal future still exists.
The report’s call for more mapping to identify additional coal resources in understudied areas like Alaska also sends the wrong signal. At a time when science is screaming for rapid decarbonization, mobilizing geologic expertise to locate yet more coal reserves is like commissioning detailed blueprints for new cigarette factories in the middle of a lung cancer epidemic. It is the opposite of what responsible stewardship of public lands and public health demands.
We do not lack fuel. We lack political will to accelerate the transition away from fuels that are destabilizing our climate and harming our health. The real question before us is not how many centuries’ worth of coal we can dig up, but how quickly we can build an energy system that no longer relies on it.
Public lands belong to all of us, and to future generations. Using them as a warehouse for a dying, dirty industry is shortsighted. Instead of celebrating vast coal deposits, federal leaders should be planning—urgently—for the day when we no longer burn coal at all.
Benjamin Alva Polley is a place-based storyteller. His words have been published in Rolling Stone, Esquire, Field & Stream, The Guardian, Men’s Journal, Outside, Popular Science, Sierra, and WWF, among other notable outlets, and are available on his website.
