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A huge truck hauls coal from a mine in Wyoming's Powder River Valley.
Stephanie Joyce/Wyoming Public Media
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Stephanie Joyce/Wyoming Public Media
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A huge truck hauls coal from a mine in Wyoming's Powder River Valley.
Stephanie Joyce/Wyoming Public Media
In two controversial environmental decisions, the Biden administration is seeking to end all new coal leases in Wyoming's Powder River Basin and Montana, the largest coal-producing regions in the United States.
The Federal Bureau of Land Management's announcement Thursday is in response to a lawsuit from environmental groups and is expected to face protests from the industry and coal-producing states, including Wyoming. In the agency's final environmental study, the BLM's Buffalo, Wyoming field office ruled that new coal leases would have significant impacts on human health and the climate because the coal would be burned in the power plants.
Environmentalists called the decision a victory, estimating it would leave 6 billion tons of “highly polluted coal” in the ground.
“BLM has announced a common-sense plan that reflects the realities of today’s coal market,” Mark Fix of the Montana-based Northern Plains Resource Council said in a statement.
The new regulations will not shut down the region's coal industry because companies can continue to move to develop federal leases that have already been issued. But it comes at a time when Wyoming's coal industry is struggling to find new markets as many West Coast cities have banned coal-based power generation.
Wyoming is the nation's top coal producer, accounting for 41% of the country's total supply. West Virginia came in second with 14%.
Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso said in a statement that the Biden administration is “waging war on Wyoming's coal communities and families.”
“This will result in lost jobs and could cost Wyoming hundreds of millions of dollars used to pay for public schools, roads and other essential services,” he said.
Thursday's decision follows a court ruling earlier this year that overturned an Obama-era ban on new coal leasing.
Meanwhile, in Wyoming, groups have 30 days left to file formal protests against recent BLM Powder River Watershed decisions.