BILLINGS, Mont. — A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday struck down a moratorium on coal leasing from federal lands in a move that could open the door to future coal sales from vast, publicly owned reserves of the fuel that’s a major source of climate-changing greenhouse gases.
The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a setback for environmentalists and Democratic officials who worked for years to curtail the federal coal leasing program.
Yet it’s uncertain how much demand there will be from the mining industry for new leases: Coal production from federal lands dropped sharply over the past decade after many electric utilities switched to less polluting sources of power generation such as natural gas and renewables.
More than 260 million tons of coal, or almost half of the nation’s total, was mined by private companies from leases on federal land in 2022, the most recent figures available. That compares to more than 400 million tons of coal mined from federal lands in 2014.
Most of the mining occurs in Western states including Wyoming, Montana and Colorado.
The leasing moratorium — originally enacted in 2016 under former President Barack Obama — didn’t halt mining. Rather, it prohibited federal lease sales that are often crucial for companies seeking to expand their operations.
The moratorium was rescinded under the administration of former President Donald Trump, then revived by a federal district judge in Montana, who in 2022 ordered government officials to conduct a new environmental review before they could hold coal sales on federal lands. The order came in lawsuits filed by environmental groups; Democratic officials in California, New York, New Mexico and Washington state; and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, which has fought for decades against coal mining near its southeastern Montana reservation.
But Wednesday’s appeals court ruling said the matter was moot when the 2022 order was issued, because Interior Department officials under President Joe Biden already had revoked Trump’s effort to end the moratorium. The panel of judges noted that a “de facto moratorium” appears to be in place now, since lease sales have diminished.
The ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, said the Biden administration should move leases forward “instead of looking for new excuses.”
“Today’s court decision ending the Obama administration’s nationwide ban on…
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