US proposes ending new federal leases in nation’s biggest coal region

By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Biden administration has proposed an end to new coal leasing from federal reserves in the most productive coal mining region of the U.S. The move announced Thursday would limit future climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions from burning the fuel. It drew instant pushback from Republicans in Congress who said the administration was trying to destroy the coal industry. The Bureau of Land Management proposal would affect millions of acres of federal lands and underground mineral reserves in the Powder River Basin region of Wyoming and Montana. It follows a 2022 court order that faulted the Trump administration’s management plans for the region as insufficient to protect public health and the environment.