This story is part of our Quick Hits series. This series will bring you breaking news and short updates from throughout the state.
Congress is one step closer to opening up the option to lease new tracts of land for coal mining in the Powder River Basin; however, it’s unclear if the market demand exists.
The House of Representatives, led by Wyoming’s delegation, passed H.J. Res. 130 on Tuesday, Nov. 18. The senate followed suit on Thursday, Nov. 20. If signed into law by the president, it would allow Congress to reverse the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Buffalo Field Office Resource Management Plan (RMP), which was put in place under the Biden administration in 2024.
Field offices typically update their RMP’s every 10 to 20 years. The 2024 Buffalo RMP ended all new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, which stretches from northeast Wyoming into southeast Montana and produces the majority of the country’s coal. At the time, the BLM cited climate change as the top reason.
According to the 2024 RMP document, the agency made “48.12 billion short tons of coal unavailable for leasing consideration in order to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as a proxy for climate change.”
The BLM added that resources for current permissible coal mining in the region would dry up by 2041.
When the RMP was adopted by the BLM late last year, Wyoming’s top political leaders were horrified. Gov. Mark Gordon said the lack of new coal leasing would have “devastating economic impacts” to the state.
Although the RMP officially ended new coal leasing in the region, it had unofficially ended in 2012. That was the last time Wyoming successfully sold any new federal coal leases. An attempt at a sale in October was postponed shortly after a sale in Montana flopped with a low bid that was ultimately rejected by the federal government. The attempt at a sale was allowed under the current Buffalo RMP because plans for the sale had preceded the 2024 RMP.
But, if the bill that is now headed to Pres. Trump’s desk is signed, the Buffalo Field Office would revert to the previous resource management plan, which allowed new coal leasing if there was market interest. It also would prevent the BLM from putting in place a similar RMP in the future. The bill leans on the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to get involved with final rules from federal agencies.
In an emailed press release, Gordon applauded the move as “taking steps to protect Wyoming mining industry.”
However, under Pres. Trump several separate moves have been made that undermine the Wyoming mining industry. Like, shrinking the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), which was formed in 1977 to enforce safer working conditions for miners. Also, the federal government has delayed enforcing a new federal rule meant to protect trona and coal miners from exposure to toxic silica dust, which can cause the most severe stage of the deadly black lung disease.
