PRESS STATEMENT: Westerners disappointed in BLM’s move to reopen coal leasing in response to Trump’s EO
Executive order comes as energy producers in the U.S. are moving away from coal.
Billings, Mont. – This afternoon, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at expanding coal leasing on public land and minerals. The EO directs the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to prioritize coal leasing as the primary land use for public lands with coal resources identified in them. In response to the EO, the BLM announced their plan to reopen federal coal leasing in the Powder River Basin in eastern Montana and Wyoming – the largest coal-producing region in the United States– by undergoing the amendment process to the Buffalo and Miles City resource management plans.
The EO comes at a moment when electricity from coal is dwindling due to the economics of cheaper renewable generation and storage. A mere 15% of energy generated in the U.S. now comes from coal, less than wind and solar, which accounts for 17%. A recent analysis shows that 99 percent of coal plants are more expensive to run than renewable energy generation facilities. Ninety-three percent of new US electricity now comes from solar, wind, or batteries, indicating the market is moving further and further away from coal.
Dr. Barbara Vasquez, Board Chair of Western Organization of Resource Councils, issued this statement in response to the executive order:
“Like his recent tariffs, the executive order that President Trump signed today presumes Americans are living in the distant past. It makes no economic, financial, or market sense and is simply a gift to corporate polluters that rural communities will have to pay for through higher electric bills, worsened air quality, and toxic pollution of public lands and waters.”
Background on coal mining in the Powder River Basin
In 2022, in response to a challenge from conservation groups, including Western Organization of Resource Councils, a federal judge found that the two resource management plans failed to address the public health consequences of allowing massive amounts of coal, oil, and gas production from public lands and minerals in the Powder River Basin over 20 years. The court ordered BLM to redo its environmental analysis.
In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Brian Morris found that BLM failed to comply with a previous court order directing the agency to account for the environmental and human health impacts of burning publicly owned coal. The judge also held that BLM failed to consider alternatives that would limit or end new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.
In 2024 under the Biden Administration, the BLM released a final supplemental environmental impact statement for two Powder River Basin resource management plans, Buffalo and Miles City, finding that there would be significant impacts to our climate, human health, and the environment from continuing to lease the region’s approximately 6 billion tons of low-grade, highly polluting coal. BLM selected a “no future coal leasing alternative,” through which existing mines can develop already-leased reserves but cannot expand with publicly-owned coal reserves.