A federal watchdog group said the U.S. Interior Department didn鈥檛 give an adequate reason for cancelling a study on the health impacts of coal mining last year.
At the time, federal officials said the study wouldn鈥檛 yield any new findings.
But the U.S. Office of the Inspector General the agency couldn鈥檛 provide any evidence to back up that assertion.
The Inspector General鈥檚 office also said Interior wasted almost $500,000 by ending the study early.
鈥淢y first thought is that this is completely typical of Secretary Zinke鈥檚 war on science,鈥� said Aaron Weiss, a spokesperson for the environmental group Center For Western Priorities.
Weiss believed the U.S. Interior Department is burying scientific studies like this that don鈥檛 fit its pro-energy extraction narrative.
In a statement, Interior spokesperson Heather Swift said the coal mining study was a 鈥渄uplicative and wasteful taxpayer-funded project.鈥�
The study was launched by the Obama administration. It hoped to explore the health impacts of removing mountaintops to mine the coal within.
The investigation into the project鈥檚 cancellation was initially requested by a ranking U.S. House Democrat.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and 糖心vlog传媒 in Colorado.
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