Countdown for northwest Colo.

The clock runs out this weekend on a federal judge’s extraordinary order giving the Interior Department just 120 days to fix what he said were flaws in an environmental analysis of an eight-year-old expansion permit for the Colowyo coal mine in northwestern Colorado.

At the request of WildEarth Guardians, a group opposing all fossil fuel extraction in the West, Judge R. Brooke Jackson mandated the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) take a closer look at “the direct and indirect environmental effects of the Colowyo mining plan revisions” and wrap it up by Sept. 6.

The indirect effects include the effects of burning coal.

If Interior fails to satisfy the judge and he were to close the mine, it would amount to a heavy economic blow of more than $200 million to Moffat and Rio Blanco counties — not to mention the very personal trauma to 220 employees who could lose their jobs.

It would also be a blow to common sense. The mine has been operating in compliance with all relevant safety and environmental regulations since the permit’s approval. And while the effects of coal combustion are real, they are dealt with through a variety of environmental policies and regulations that govern how it is used in power plants. The Obama administration’s recent Clean Power Plan goes further than ever in pushing states to transition from coal to other energy sources.

But coal will remain a part of America’s energy portfolio for many years and it has to come from somewhere. And the existence of a mine presupposes the product will be used. As attorneys for Colowyo Coal Co. noted in a legal filing, “Combustion of the mined coal is a necessary and foreseeable consequence of granting a federal coal lease.”

It’s unfortunate that Interior Secretary Sally Jewell decided against appealing Jackson’s ruling, but she has also said federal officials were “doing everything we can” to avoid a mine shutdown.

And she may be right. On Tuesday, OSMRE released a revised environmental assessment in what may be record time for such a document, as well as an official finding of no significant environmental impact. We hope it will be enough to satisfy the judge.

The economic health of northwestern Colorado depends on it.