Page 10A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Obama halts new coal leases on federal land
Stock market slides;
worst ever start to a year
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The
Obama administration is
imposing a moratorium on
new coal leases on federal
lands, arguing that the $1
billion-a-year program must
be modernized to ensure a fair
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and address climate change.
The program has remained
largely unchanged for more
than 30 years and requires a
comprehensive review, Inte-
rior Secretary Sally Jewell
said Friday in announcing
the halt. The move drew
praise from environmental
groups and Democrats, but
condemnation from Repub-
licans who called it another
volley in what they assert is
a “war on coal” being waged
by President Barack Obama.
“It is abundantly clear that
times are different than they
were 30 years ago, and the
time for review (of the coal
leasing program) is now,”
Jewell told reporters in a
conference call.
She called the morato-
rium, effective immediately
and expected to last through
the remainder of Obama’s
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step to hit pause.”
At least 30 mining appli-
cations in nine states would
be blocked under the direc-
tive, according to a Bureau
of Land Management list
obtained by The Associated
Press. Some of the largest
projects are in the Powder
River Basin of Wyoming and
Montana, the nation’s top
coal-producing region.
The federal program to
lease coal-mining rights to a
single bidder has remained
largely
unchanged
for
decades, despite complaints
that low royalty rates and a
near-total lack of competition
AP Photo/Matthew Brown
In this 2013 photo, coal is loaded onto hopper cars at the Spring Creek Mine near
Decker, Mont.
have cost the government
hundreds of millions of
dollars a year.
More than 40 percent
of U.S. coal production,
or about 450 million tons
a year, comes from public
lands in Wyoming, Montana
and other Western states,
bringing in more than $1
billion in annual revenue.
Nearly 90 percent of coal
tracts leased by the Interior
Department receive just a
single bid, and royalty rates
have remain unchanged since
1976.
The lack of competition
and other problems in the
program have cost the
government as much as $200
million a year in lost revenue,
according to a 2014 report by
the Government Account-
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Coal reserves already
under lease can continue
to be mined, and a limited
number of sales will be
allowed, Jewell said.
It’s unclear what impact
the moratorium will have on
overall U.S. coal production,
given declining domestic
demand and the closure of
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plants around the country.
Coal companies have already
stockpiled billions of tons
of coal on existing leases in
Wyoming, Montana, Colo-
rado, Utah and New Mexico.
Even so, environmental
groups cheered the announce-
ment. The groups have
long said the government’s
12.5 percent royalty rate for
coal mining on federal land
encouraged production of a
“dirty” fuel that contributes
to global warming.
Sen. Maria Cantwell,
D-Wash., said taxpayers are
being shortchanged on royal-
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true costs of mining, both in
terms of its economic value
to mining companies and its
Wal-Mart to shutter 269 stores
Closures hit Portland,
Lake Oswego
NEW YORK (AP) —
Wal-Mart is doing some rare
pruning.
The
world’s
largest retailer is closing
269 stores, including 154 in
the U.S. that includes all of
its locations under its small-
est-format concept store
called Wal-Mart Express.
The other big chunk is in
its challenging Brazilian
market.
The stores being shut-
tered account for a fraction
of the company’s 11,000
stores worldwide and less
than 1 percent of its global
revenue. Wal-Mart Stores
Inc. said the store closures
will affect 16,000 workers,
10,000 of them in the U.S.
Its global workforce is 2.2
million, 1.4 million in the
U.S. alone.
The store closures will
start at the end of the month.
The
announcement
comes three months after
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO
Doug McMillon told inves-
tors that the world’s largest
retailer would review its
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of becoming more nimble
in the face of increased
competition from all fronts,
including from online rival
Amazon.com.
“Actively managing our
portfolio of assets is essen-
tial to maintaining a healthy
business,” McMillon said in
a statement. “Closing stores
is never an easy decision.
But it is necessary to keep
the company strong and
positioned for the future.”
when they’re uncertain
they’re scared.”
Crude oil has dropped
Never before has Wall below $30 a barrel from a
Street gotten off to a worse high of over $100 during
the summer of 2014, evis-
start to a year.
The stock market capped cerating energy company
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with a steep slide Friday Cos. led a slide among oil,
that sent the Dow Jones gas and mining companies,
industrial average down falling $2.19, or 12 percent,
to $16.10.
nearly 400 points.
Investors also got some
All three major stock
economic
indexes — the Dow, the discouraging
Nasdaq composite and the news on Friday: The
Standard & Poor’s 500 — Federal Reserve said U.S.
production,
are now in what’s known as industrial
a correction, or a drop of 10 which includes manufac-
percent or more from their turing, mining and utilities,
dropped in December for
recent peaks.
The market has been on the third month in a row.
a stomach-churning ride And another government
since the start of the year, report indicated U.S. retail
wrenched up — but mostly sales dipped last month.
Many investors had
down — because of alarm
over a slowdown in China welcomed the new year
and the plunging price of with fairly high hopes. They
oil to its lowest level in 12 expected oil prices would
years. Investors are already stabilize. After a market
seeing damage to U.S. correction in August, few
FRUSRUDWH SUR¿WV SDUWLFX- forecast it would happen
again so soon. And the
larly at energy companies.
The Dow slid 390.97 Federal Reserve’s move in
points, or 2.4 percent, to December to raise interest
15,988.08. The average had UDWHV IRU WKH ¿UVW WLPH LQ
been down more than 500 nearly 10 years signaled to
points early in the after- many that the U.S. economy
noon. The S&P 500 ended was healthy.
“The hope was global
down 41.51 points, or 2.2
percent, at 1,880.33. The growth would stabilize,
Nasdaq dropped 126.59 and early in 2016 here, that
points, or 2.7 percent, to has been a disappointment,
too,” said David Chalupnik,
4,488.42.
The Dow and S&P 500 head of equities at Nuveen
have now fallen about 8 Asset Management.
Despite the rough start
percent this year, while
the Nasdaq is off about 10 to the year, Wall Street
watchers are not ready to
percent.
“Oil is the root cause say the bull market is over.
“We don’t believe we’re
of today,” said Dan Farley,
regional investment strat- going into a bear market,”
egist at the Private Client Chalupnik said. “The
Reserve at U.S. Bank. reason for that is the U.S.
“People are uncertain, and economy is sound.”
By ALEX VEIGA
AP Business Writer
Andy Jacobsohn/The Dallas Morning News via AP
Richard Gutierrez loads groceries after shopping with
his mother at Wal-Mart in Dallas, Friday.
Michael Exstein, an
analyst at Credit Suisse,
described the moves as
“baby steps” in his report
published Friday, but he
believes they are positive
ones. He noted that this is
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Wal-Mart has announced in
at least two decades.
“It is a sign that Wal-Mart
has begun the process of
dealing with unproductive
locations in a much more
tangible and coherent way,”
he wrote. “But we continue to
believe that Wal-Mart needs
a much larger restructuring
of its store base in order to
narrow its focus as it seeks to
improve its sales and returns,
especially internationally.”
Wal-Mart has seen sales
perk up for a key revenue
measure for the last few
quarters in its U.S. business.
But it warned last October
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year starting next month
will be down as much as 12
percent as it invests further
in online operations and
pours money into improving
customers’ experience in
the stores. The company
has been building bigger
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to e-commerce orders and
expanding online services.
Of the 154 store closures
in the U.S., 102 of them are
under the Wal-Mart Express
name, which were opened as
a test in 2011. The company
operates more than 5,000
stores overall in the U.S.
Wal-Mart
Express
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entry into the convenience
store arena. The stores,
which sold essentials like
toothpaste, were meant to be
a solution to the threat of the
fast-growing dollar stores.
Wal-Mart Express intended
to be a two-pronged strategy:
stores in small towns that
aren’t big enough to support
a full-size Wal-Mart and
stores in big cities where
building a supercenter was
impractical. But the concept
never caught on as the stores
served the same purpose as
Wal-Mart’s larger Neighbor-
hood Markets.
DISNEY DAYS
impact on the environment.
Getting royalty rates right is
especially important “given
how much coal comes off
federal land,” said Cantwell,
the top Democrat on the
Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee.
“I’m glad to see the
president take this action. We
need to stop the sweet deal
(mining companies) have
been getting,” Cantwell said.
But Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell,
R-Ky., called the announce-
ment “just the latest front in
an ideological war on coal”
that has contributed to the
loss of thousands of jobs in
coal-producing states.
“Americans want this
administration to focus on
building opportunity for
them, not advancing some
regressive war that attacks
middle-class
jobs
and
punishes the poor,” McCon-
nell said.
Burkina Faso hotel attacked by al-Qaida
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP)
— Al-Qaida militants struck an upscale hotel
and nearby cafe late Friday that are popular
with Westerners in Burkina Faso’s capital,
taking an unknown number of hostages and
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and explosions rang out. Commandos used
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Burkina Faso’s communications minister
says about 30 hostages have been freed from
the upscale hotel.
The hostages were freed by Burkina Faso
security forces backed by French troops who
are trying to secure the four-story hotel.
It was not immediately known how many
people may have been killed during the siege,
though one survivor estimated as many as
20 people were dead inside, according to
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It was not immediately known how many
people may have been killed during the
siege, though a survivor told hospital director
Robert Sangare he estimated the toll could be
as high as 20. At least 15 other people were
seriously wounded by bullets and undergoing
treatment at the Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital,
he said.
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AQIM claimed responsibility online as
the attack was ongoing, according to SITE
Intelligence Group.
In a message posted in Arabic on the
militants’ “Muslim Africa” Telegram
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restaurant of one of the biggest hotels in
the capital of Burkina Faso, and are now
entrenched and the clashes are continuing
with the enemies of the religion.” Fighters
who spoke by phone later “asserted the
fall of many dead Crusaders,” AQIM said,
according to SITE.
Witness Vital Nounagnon told the AP
that he saw four men wearing turbans attack
the hotel and neighboring Cappuccino Cafe
about 7:30 p.m. Another witness who gave
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they turned around rather than confront the
attackers.
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