open-pit coal mining

Supporters of open-pit coal mining say there's a chance new mines could be built in Alberta's Rockies after comments from the province's new premier.

Alberta's energy minister says she has received two reports that will determine the future of coal mining in the province's Rocky Mountain foothills and eastern slopes.

"It was because of the overwhelming response and the need to accommodate that response with extra time that we had to approach the minister with the request for an extension," committee head Ron Wallace said in an interview Tuesday.

Albertans want to talk about a lot more than coal when it comes to development in their beloved Rocky Mountains, says the head of the committee charged with collecting public opinion on the issue.

A municipal council in Alberta Environment Minister Jason Nixon's constituency is the latest in a growing number of communities expressing concern about the province's plan to expand coal mining in the Rocky Mountains.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says Albertans have no cause to worry over his government quietly throwing out a coal policy that protected the Rocky Mountains for more than four decades.

"The government is risking Alberta’s multibillion-dollar tourism industry and the health and well-being of millions of Albertans who live, farm and fish downstream in order to potentially create a few hundred jobs and a pitifully small stream of new royalty revenue," columnist Max Fawcett writes.

Coal mining is already having an impact in Alberta's Rocky Mountains even as debate intensifies over the industry's presence in one of the province's most beloved landscapes.