The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has started the process to reopen federal land in the Powder River basin to new coal leasing.
BLM on 7 July said it is seeking public comment on potential amendments to resource management plans for the agency's Buffalo, Wyoming, and Miles City, Montana, field offices. Notices of intent to prepare the amendments were published in the Federal Register today.
The agency is "considering updates to identify areas that may be suitable for future coal leasing," within the footprints of the Buffalo and Miles City field offices, it said yesterday. This would reverse plans finalized last year under the administration of former president Joe Biden that block new coal leasing on federal land in the Buffalo and Miles City regions, but allow existing leases to remain in effect until they expire.
BLM's notices of intent are among steps the agency is making to comply with an executive order from president Donald Trump in January as well as an order from Interior secretary Doug Burgum in February aimed at expanding domestic energy production.
The PRB is the largest coal-producing region in the US and a significant part of the basin's output is from mines on federal property. In the first half of this year, production from Wyoming and Montana mines accounted for about 41pc of all US output, according to US Energy Information Administration estimates.
Both amendments BLM is working on would potentially revert plans to previous versions.
For the Buffalo field office resource management plan, BLM will compare reopening 481,000 acres of land to leasing, as it had done in 2019, to maintaining the 2024 plan. In Montana, the proposed amendment focuses on going back to a 2021 plan for the Miles City field office that allowed leasing of an additional 1.2mn acres of federal land.
BLM said it is seeking public comments, coal resource data and input on planning criteria and potential alternatives through 7 August.
The National Mining Association said it will submit formal comments, emphasizing that "federal coal leasing remains an important part of the US energy mix, particularly as electricity demand rises and grid reliability becomes more critical."
The Navajo Transitional Energy Company, which has mines that could be affected by the 2024 ban on new federal coal leasing, also voiced support and said that it plans to submit a formal comment.
But the plans also are likely to face opposition and possibly legal challenges.
Jenny Harbine, managing attorney for environmental group Earthjustice's northern Rockies office, on 7 July criticized BLM's actions as "pursuing yet another unwarranted coal giveaway".
