December 2, 2024 - The Bureau of Land Management has made it official Tuesday — coal leasing will end in the Powder River Basin by 2041.

The move follows a court order in a federal lawsuit, Western Organization of Resource Councils et al. v. Bureau of Land Management. The judge on the case directed the BLM to redo its environmental analysis, and include both no-leasing and a limited coal leasing alternatives. 

As a result of that analysis, the BLM said it has determined that “additional leasing of BLM-administered coal is not necessary, based on the current analysis in the Final Supplemental EIS. The analysis indicates that operating mines in the planning area collectively have existing leases with sufficient coal reserves to maintain project mine production levels into 2041.”

Copies of the complete record of decision are available for inspection at the BLM’s Buffalo Field Office and online.

The decision will block off 48.12 billion short tons of coal on 413,250 acres in the Powder River Basin, and has attracted widespread criticism in Wyoming, including Gov. Mark Gordon, who publicly pledged to fight the decision in court.

All Means Necessary

On Tuesday, Gordon reiterated his intent to fight the decision, which puts a date to coal’s demise in the state. 

Wyoming has already spent $800,000 on a retainer for the high-powered Arlington, Virginia-based law firm of Consovoy McCarthy, which has argued multiple appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Despite Congress’ direction that federal lands under BLM control be managed for multiple uses, the Biden administration’s crusade against responsible coal extraction continues,” Gordon said in a press release. “Coal is a reliable, abundant energy resource. Its continued development is necessary to meet the nation’s ever-increasing energy needs.

“BLM’s decision intentionally ignores both the energy needs of our nation and the devastating economic impacts its decision has on Wyoming and its communities.”

Wyoming, Gordon added, has raised numerous problems with the decision, all of which have been ignored.

“It is apparent BLM has ramrodded this plan through the federal administrative process, rather than addressing legitimate grassroots issues identified by the state and its counties,” he said. “That is not a balanced resource management but an anti-fossil fuel, politically motivated action taken before the door slams on this administration.”

Wyoming isn’t going to sit back and take it, Gordon added.

“(We) will seek every remedy to overturn this decision, including litigation,” he said. “We will also work with the incoming Wyoming congressional delegation and the Trump administration to reverse this foolhardy decision.”

Trump Likely To Try To Help

Many in the Wyoming mining sector are hoping that a Trump administration can pull off a 180-degree turn for the coal industry, among them Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti.

“Obviously, we’re pleased that the governor and the Wyoming congressional delegation are doing what they can to reverse the BLM’s silly, politically driven decision,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday in an email. “With the projected increased needs for electricity o power our country in the near future, to put our vast coal resource off limits makes absolutely no sense. It’s crazy. 

“And the American people said as much on Election Day,” Deti continued. “We’re hopeful for a change of direction in January.”

Trump could have his work cut out for him when it comes to coal. Market forces have been shrinking demand for domestic thermal coal over the last decade, and the basin’s coal production is less than half what it was a decade ago.

Wyoming is expected to produce less than 200 million tons of coal for the first time since 1992, even as it closed in this past July on a huge milestone of 9 billion tons of coal dug up in the past 25 years.

Energy economist and University of Wyoming Associate Professor Rob Godby told Cowboy State Daily that the situation is far more complex than presidential policies.

“In the coal industry, it’s been difficult just due to cost conditions and alternative technologies,” he said. “Market conditions have been very challenging for coal, regardless of regulations.”

And the resource most challenging to coal right now is actually natural gas, which has been quite cheap in the midst of America’s shale oil revolution — which Trump has also pledged to help.

To the extent Trump is successful in that latter pledge, market pressures on coal could increase, rather than decrease, Godby suggested.

“Natural gas is a substitute for coal,” he said. “And often is a cheaper choice in the electricity generation market than coal.”