House Republicans Launch Drive to Restore Powder River Basin Coal Leases

With the adoption of a House resolution seeking to rescind the Biden administration’s termination of coal leases in Montana’s Powder River Basin, Rep. Harriet Hagemann (R-Wyo.) is calling for a similar measure to restore coal leases in the basin’s Wyoming span.

“When the Powder River Basin turns off, so does America,” Hageman said from the floor during Sept. 3 debate on HR 104. “Energy security is national security. By restricting access to our own resources, it pushes America towards greater dependence on foreign nations, including our adversaries.”

HR 104 “overturns the Biden Administration’s onerous Miles City Field Office RMPA [Resource Management Plan Amendment] that hamstrings coal production in the Treasure State, protecting Montana jobs and promoting domestic energy independence,” sponsor Rep. Troy Downing (R-Mont.) said in a Sept. 2 Facebook post.

The resolution passed in a partisan 211-208 vote and now moves on to the Senate.

The measure would nullify the Bureau of Land Management’s May 2024 decision to end leasing access to 11.7 million acres of subsurface coal across 17 eastern Montana counties in the bureau’s 2.7-million-acre Miles City resource management planning area.

The bureau issued a similar May 2024 amendment to its 780,000-acre Buffalo resource management planning area spanning three northern Wyoming counties, terminating future lease access to 4.73 million acres of subsurface coal.

The Miles City and Buffalo resource management areas encompass the Power River Basin, the United States’ largest coal-producing region containing more than 30 percent of the nation’s coal reserves.

“These Biden-era plans lacked balanced resource management and, in fact, are mineral withdrawals in disguise, which runs contrary to federal law,” Hageman said. “They lock up America’s resources, kill jobs, and undermine energy security.”

HR 104 was adopted under the Congressional Review Act, which the longtime Wyoming water rights attorney said would make revisions and repeals of federal agency resource management plans less vulnerable to litigation.

“Wyoming knows this fight all too well, where the Buffalo [BLM] field office was hit with the same environmentalist-driven lawsuits and agency overreach with bureaucrats pushing no leasing alternatives that amount to nothing more than backdoor energy bans,” Hageman said.

Congressional action is needed to remedy the plans despite President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 National Energy Emergency declaration and April 8 ‘Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry’ executive order.

Trump’s coal executive order designated coal as a “mineral,” directed agencies to identify coal resources on federal lands, and ended “the coal leasing moratorium” on federal lands imposed during President Joe Biden’s administration.

The July 4 adoption of HR 1, The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, gave the Department of Interior 90 days to kick-start pending environmental reviews and renew the permitting process for proposed extensions or expansions of existing coal leases.

In response, the bureau announced July 7 it was “advancing a key coal project in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin that could unlock access to more than 440 million tons of federal coal” in advancing the West Antelope III lease-by-application filed by the Navajo Transitional Energy Co. in 2015.

The company, owned and operated by the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, is seeking to lease 3,500 acres next to its existing Antelope Mine in northeast Wyoming’s Campbell and Converse counties, the third-largest open-pit coal mine in the United States that produced 15 million tons in 2024 and employs more than 350 workers.

The application seeks to access more than 300 million tons of in-place federal coal, although the bureau estimates the additional area could contain up to 50 percent more than the company’s projection.

The bureau staged a Sept. 3 public hearing in Wright to vet views related to the proposal. Comments are being accepted until Sept. 21, with the draft Environmental Impact Statement set for final publication on Oct. 31.

The company is also seeking to expand its Spring Creek Mine in Montana with a proposed 150-acre modification containing an estimated 6.9 million tons of coal within its 1,262-acre lease-by-application containing approximately 170 million tons.

Wyoming has been the nation’s leading coal producer since 1986, providing about 40 percent of America’s coal with 15 active mines, including 10 in the Powder River Basin.

Powder River Basin coal is sub-bituminous, which makes it the best option for the nation’s 401 coal-fired power plants because it contains less sulfur and is “cleaner burning” than other types of coal.

According to America’s Power, which advocates on behalf of the nation’s coal-fired power plants, coal generates 16 percent of the nation’s electricity and is used in 40 states.

“There’s still demand for coal energy and the market will show that so long as the government doesn’t get in the way,” Downing said on the floor during the Sept. 3 debate on HR 104. “We continue to innovate and make things cheaper, more competitive [with] different sources to compete.”