Federal civil servants took a first step on Monday to reopen large areas of public property in two western states Expand the US production of fossil fuels.
The indoor department’s proposal is carried out according to the bidges management, citing climate change, citing climate change, tried to end the sale of the fuel From the nation’s most productive carbon fields – the Powder River Basin in the northeast of Wyoming and the southeast of Montana.
Instead, the Trump administration considers the sale of rental contracts for coal mining to more than 2,600 square kilometers (6,800 kilometers) federal state in this region, as shown by documents that were published by officials. This is an area that is greater than Delaware.
The reversal of the development course when using public properties to increase them Fights of the US coal industry comes from an Executive order signed by Trump on his first day. It is part of Trump’s broad advance to increase oil, gas and coal extraction from publicly obsessed countries and water in the United States, even as a Republican Back the support for renewable energies Projects.
The tax bill that Trump signed last week reduced the license fees from 12.5% to 7% for companies that report coal in public countries. The invoice also has a mandate that is available for leasing of 16,200 square kilometers – a size that is larger than connecticut.
A spokesman for the agricultural office of the Interior Ministry said that the announcement on the leasing of the Powder River Basin on Monday was temporary and could change after a public comment period. The agency declined to say how much interest you can expect from mining companies or how quickly new mines could be opened.
Ashley Burke from the National Mining Association said that coal companies “had a clear interest in additional leasing”, but declined how much cultivation area they could buy.
“When we see that our network, which increases with the energy requirement, increases to its limits, we have to acknowledge our energy, which means that the former poorly designed and punitive policy is reversed,” she said about leasing changes under Trump.
The Biden administration had calculated that an end to the coal sale of the federal government would reduce emissions by 293 million tons (266 million tons) carbon dioxide per year. This is comparable to the emissions of around 63 million petrol -free vehicles according to a state analysis.
“It is not just a new coal injury with the imperative to arrest the progress of climate change, the coal -fired power plants that used to burn Powder River Basin Coal come onto the market as more affordable, clean energy,” said Jenny Harbine with the Earthjustice environmental law firm.
Scientists say that greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal are a leading driver of the climate change caused by humans, which makes the weather extreme, with the end of the term, with free and destructive water supply.
A federal judge blocked the attempts that were made during Trump’s first term in order to change the government’s management plan for the Powder River Basin, and said that the officials had not adequately analyzed the potential Health effects due to burning coal.
Fourteen active coal cemines in the region made up about 40% of the total US carbon production in 2022.
Some mines closed In recent years, when the supply companies have turned less so -used natural gas to generate electricity. Companies have reduced 512 million tons (464 million tons) coal last year, the lowest volume since 1964.
But Burke with the Mining Association pointed out two recent positive indicators for the industry: received more US coal Exported overseas and an increase in the crowd Electricity By burning coal in the first four months of 2025 compared to the same period of the previous year.
