This week, the Bureau of Land Management rejected a request for a royalty rate reduction to the tune of $14 million for a now-defunct western Colorado coal mine owned by a Koch brothers company.
What the Koch brothers are asking for amounts to a taxpayer-funded bailout at a time when many have called for a reexamination of the federal coal-leasing program, which hasn’t been updated for decades.
The Department of Interior has decided to revisit the program exactly because taxpayers haven’t received their fair share. Now we see why: the corporate special interests, like the Koch brothers, believe they’re entitled to exploiting taxpayer resources through a system that hasn’t been updated since the 1970’s.
Over the years, we’ve moved from cassette tapes to mp3s, but haven’t taken steps to update the way the federal government values the coal resources that are extracted from land all Americans own. It’s hard to comprehend opposition to incorporating changes in energy efficiency, demand, prices, and the rise of renewables into America’s energy investment strategy.
Blindly sticking to a course of action without adjusting course when needed is the same as hedging bets on an aging racehorse or on VCRs making a comeback, which we can’t afford to do with America’s energy economy. Although the Koch brothers and the rest of the special interests blocking change believe they can.