In one of its biggest steps yet to keep fossil fuels in the ground, the Biden administration announced Thursday that it will end new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, which produces nearly half the coal in the United States.
Climate activists have long pushed
the Interior Department to stop auctioning off leases for coal mining
on public lands, and they celebrated the decision. It could prevent
billions of tons of coal from being extracted from more than 13 million
acres across Montana and Wyoming, with major implications for U.S.
climate goals. ...
Last year, the Powder River Basin generated 251.9 million tons of coal, accounting for nearly 44 percent of all coal produced in the United States. Under the bureau’s [Bureau of Land Management] determination, the 14 active coal mines in the Powder River Basin can continue operating on lands they have leased, but they cannot expand onto other public lands in the region. ...
The Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign estimates that 382 coal-fired power plants have closed down or proposed to retire, with 148 remaining. ...
Trump ... pledged to immediately end the Biden administration’s freeze on permits for new liquefied natural gas exports
in a second term . . .. He also pledged to
start auctioning off more leases for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico
and to lift restrictions on drilling in the Alaskan Arctic.
