Good news for Colorado mining, and no, this isn’t a joke — the BLM is giving the Colowyo Coal mine the go-ahead for the Collum Area Development Project, which means 220 jobs for folks in the Northwest part of the state.

The feds say they will issue a finding of “no significant impact” on the project, but won’t give the full go-ahead until all of the Astroturf lobbying comments submitted by environmentalists have been reviewed.

The final decision will be made before President Obama leaves office at the end of the year, which means we expect there will be a lot of additional hoops the company will have to jump through before it’s all over and done with, because grouse.

Sage grouse.

The company has agreed to provide new habitat for the bird, which is probably why the feds are letting them move ahead with the new mining project.

The polite term, we believe, is extortion wildlife mitigation.

It’s what all those crazy kids are having to submit to nowadays in order to keep the lights on.