Mountain communities are feeling the impacts of a changing climate. From reduced snowpack and protracted droughts to increased flood risk and more severe wildfires, towns and taxpayers across the West are bearing the growing financial costs of adapting to a changing climate.

And while taxpayers in mountain communities are absorbing the costs of carbon pollution, coal companies who are mining and causing pollution on nearby federal lands are able to pay below market rates for taxpayer-owned resources. Tax loopholes and outdated federal royalty policies have allowed the coal industry to cheat American taxpayers out of more than $1 billion a year in revenues — revenues that could instead have helped our Western communities to deal with the costly challenges of a changing climate, and supported our schools, roads and other essential priorities.

VIEW FULL REPORT HERE.