A federal appeals court in San Francisco has lifted a longstanding moratorium on federal coal leasing in Wyoming and elsewhere that could spur a mining bonanza.
The ruling is significant for Wyoming, which is home to the coal-rich Powder River Basin that stretches across northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana.
Coal leasing on federal land in the PBR could potentially bring in billions of dollars in lost revenue to Wyoming and its coal mining industry, as it supplies roughly 40% of the thermal coal needed by power plants owned by electric utilities in the United States.
“This ruling is an unequivocal win for our coal industry and a reminder that the Biden administration has to follow the law,” said Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon in a Wednesday statement.
“The Department of Interior now has one less excuse to thwart its federal coal leasing responsibilities,” Gordon said.
Roller Coaster Ride
The Wednesday ruling from the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco eliminates a leasing moratorium imposed during the waning days of the Obama administration in 2016.
A group called Citizens for Clean Energy argued in favor of keeping the moratorium in place.
The National Mining Association, and states of Montana and Wyoming were defendants, arguing in favor of the continuation of the federal coal leasing program.
The litigation grew complicated over time because the coal leasing program had been challenged by a shifting cast of leaders at the U.S. Department of Interior over the past eight years as administrations changed from one to the next.
The U.S. Department of the Interior, led by Sally Jewell in the Obama years, got things started in 2016 when she imposed the first moratorium because of the administration’s belief that steps were needed to limit climate change and other harmful effects caused by coal mining.
In 2017, Trump’s Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, restarted coal leasing and abandoned efforts to reform the federal coal program.
In 2021, the Biden administration’s Interior secretary, Deb Haaland, revoked the Zinke order and reimposed the moratorium.
That’s when the status of the moratorium grew messier because of a 2022 lower court ruling that required more environmental studies, so the status quo was kept in place until things could be sorted out.
Wyoming Mining ‘Applauds’ Ruling
The federal court of appeals ruling Wednesday wipes the slate clean by lifting the moratorium on coal leasing and eliminating what it called “duplicative” environmental studies under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.
The 54-year-old NEPA law is designed to evaluate the environmental impacts of the government’s actions and decisions.
“The Wyoming mining industry applauds the court’s decision that the moratorium was unlawful,” wrote Travis Deti, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, in a statement to Cowboy State Daily. “We would hope that the [Bureau of Land Management] would now actually do its job and let Wyoming producers lease federal coal again.”
A spokesperson with the BLM was not immediately available for comment.
In Wyoming, the BLM manages about 18 million acres of public lands and nearly 43 million acres of federal land with mineral deposits. Wyoming supplies about 40% of America’s coal through the top 10 producing PBR mines.
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
