CHARLESTON, W.Va.— A federal court ruled today that the federal government’s attempts to undercut Endangered Species Act protections for the sake of coal mining were illegal. Coal mines will now be required to follow the law and ensure their activities don’t harm protected plants and animals.

“This is an incredibly important victory for the streams and rivers of Appalachia and the people and wildlife who rely on them,” said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “For too long regulators have allowed coal mining to devastate wildlife. This decision will require coal mines to fully account for their threats and harms and do more to ensure that imperiled wildlife aren’t pushed to extinction for dirty fossil fuel profits.”

The decision was issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and invalidates the federal government’s unlawful attempt to streamline how coal mines comply with the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity and Appalachian Voices sued the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2023 for failing to protect highly imperiled wildlife from the devastating harms of coal mining. The court today agreed, finding the agencies failed to implement required protections for species, putting wildlife at great risk.

Coal mines had been allowed to rely on a watered-down process that did not require an analysis of the harm they actually cause and were operating without limits on the extent of that harm. The Endangered Species Act requires such analyses to ensure that wildlife won’t be lost forever. The court found that the government’s process wasn’t consistent with the law and vacated the nationwide biological opinion that coal mines in many states used to avoid the more thorough analysis and implementation of mitigation measures that are essential to protect wildlife.

“The Endangered Species Act only works if federal regulators properly enforce it,” said Willie Dodson, coal impacts program manager for Appalachian Voices. “The judge made the right call. The 2020 biological opinion set up a ludicrous and extra-legal scheme enabling coal companies to evade the law and engage in wildly destructive surface mining in watersheds where species like the Guyandotte River crayfish and the candy darter are just barely hanging on. These species are bellwethers for all of us. They need clean water. We need clean water.”