Sept. 2 (UPI) — The Department of the Interior announced Tuesday that it will open lease sales for coal mining projects in Alabama, Montana and Utah as part of the Trump administration’s plans for domestic resource production.
The sales will be completed later this fall and are the latest in a series of sometimes controversial mining projects planned since President Donald Trump signed executive orders intended to make the U.S. “energy dominant.” The orders focus on boosting coal production, unraveling the clean-energy policies of the Biden administration.
“Coal has long been the backbone of America’s energy and industrial strength,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a prepared statement. “By moving forward with these lease sales, we are creating good-paying jobs, supporting local communities, and securing the resources that keep America strong.”
Included in the upcoming leases is the Spring Creek Mine, the largest coal mine in the state and one of the largest in the country. Expansion of the mine had been stymied by the Biden administration and litigation from environmental groups concerned about its air pollution and increased carbon emissions, despite political support from GOP elected officials.
The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees resource extraction on public lands, will offer a lease for the mine covering about 1,262 acres that contain an estimated 167.5 million tons of recoverable coal. The Navajo Transitional Energy Company LLC currently operates the mine. The lease would respond to an application from the company and potentially keep the mine in operation through 2051.
The Interior Department earlier this summer approved an updated plan for the Bull Mountains coal mine in Montana earlier this summer over the objection of environmental groups. The department also allowed the reopening of Montana’s Rosebud strip mine, which has a similarly contentious history over its environmental impact.
In Alabama, the Bureau of Land Management will offer two leases that will cover 14,050 acres located beneath private lands in Tuscaloosa County that contain an estimated 53 million tons of recoverable metallurgical coal, according to the department. The two mines are operated by Warrior Met, a company that has faced thousands of federal safety violations, according to reporting by Inside Climate News.
The smallest of the newly announced leases is the Little Eccles Tract in central Utah, which contains an estimated 1.29 million tons of recoverable coal, according to the department. The lease responds to an application from the Canyon Fuel Company.
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