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The Bureau of Land Management is holding a listening session on the federal coal program on Thursday, August 13, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Campbell County Library in Gillette. The session is being held to seek information from the public about how the BLM can best carry out its responsibility to ensure that American taxpayers receive a fair return on the coal resources managed by the federal government on their behalf. The meeting will have a livestream option for people to view remotely at www.blm.gov/live. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell called for a dialogue on the federal coal program in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies earlier this year. “It's important to have an honest and open conversation about modernizing the federal government's coal program," said Jewell. “I have heard many concerns about how the federal government leases coal, the amount of royalty charged and whether taxpayers are getting a fair return from public resources. These listening sessions are an opportunity to better understand how taxpayers, stakeholders and local communities perceive the federal government's coal program today and how we can improve and strengthen it for future generations." The BLM currently manages 310 active coal leases covering about 475,000 acres in 10 states. Roughly 40 percent of the coal produced in the United States comes from federal coal resources. Additional information on the Gillette and remaining listening sessions follows: August 13, 2015, 1:00-4:00 pm, Campbell County Library, 2101 4-J Road, Gillette, WY 82718 August 18, 2015, 1:00-4:00 pm, Marriott Denver West, 1717 Denver West Blvd, Golden, CO 80401 August 20, 2015, 1:00-4:00 pm, Courtyard Marriott, 560 Scott Avenue, Farmington, NM 87401 All listening sessions are being livestreamed at www.blm.gov/live on the dates and times listed above. Previously held listening sessions were recorded and are also available at the same web location. Comments will be accepted until September 17, 2015. Comments can be e-mailed to blm_wo_coal_comments@blm.gov. Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you may ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. All submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individual identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations or businesses, are made available for public inspection in their entirety.