On Wednesday evening, the Carbon County Commission discussed Executive Order 14008, Section 208 from the new presidential administration that freezes new federal coal, oil and gas leases.
Commission Chair Larry Jensen stated that there are three coal mines in the area that have permits with the federal government for the expansion of their coal leases. All three of those are now frozen and all future permits for oil and gas drilling on federal grounds are frozen as well.
Commissioner Jensen said that this will put a bind of the potential future of coal miners if these mines are unable to expand and continue mining operations the way that they have in the past, which could be detrimental in the long-term.
With this in mind, the State of Utah, the Governor’s Office and Utah officials that are in Washington have sent a letter to President Joe Biden’s administration. The letter states that this order is a mistake that is harming those already hurt by the pandemic, emphasizing that the energy industry is among the hardest hit by COVID-19.
The letter encourages the president to reconsider the counter-productive step and also states that punishing the rural economy is not helpful. The commissioners are doing similar actions to try and send the message to Washington and condemn the executive order as harmful to the area’s economic wellbeing.