Dump trucks haul coal and sediment at the Black Butte coal mine outside Rock Springs, Wyoming, U.S. April 4, 2017.
The Wyoming sale, originally scheduled for Wednesday morning, involved 3,508 acres of federal coal reserves in Campbell and Converse counties, containing an estimated 365 million tons of recoverable coal. The department said a new sale date would be announced later but did not provide a reason for the delay.
Earlier in the week, on Monday, BLM conducted a coal lease sale for 1,262 acres in Big Horn County, Montana. The auction drew only one bid from the Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC), which operates the nearby Spring Creek Mine. NTEC offered $186,000 for a lease estimated to contain 167.5 million tons of recoverable coal, translating to less than one cent per ton.
Following the low turnout, the Interior Department released a statement attributing the limited participation to the lingering effects of policies from previous administrations. “While we would have liked to see stronger participation, this sale reflects the lingering impact from Obama and Biden’s decades long war on coal which aggressively sought to end all domestic coal production and erode confidence in the U.S. coal industry,” the statement said. “Fortunately, President Trump and his Administration are rebuilding trust between industry and government as part of our broader effort to restore American Energy Dominance.”
During the administrations of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the U.S. government had implemented stricter environmental standards on coal operations to reduce emissions and encourage renewable energy development. Those policies led to a decline in new coal projects and reduced interest in federal coal leases.
The BLM has not yet approved NTEC’s bid, as the agency must first evaluate whether the offer meets the fair market value requirement under the federal leasing process. In documents submitted for the sale, NTEC argued that the fair market value of the lease area was close to the minimum legal bid of $100 per acre. The company has not commented publicly on the outcome of the auction.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to revitalize coal leasing on federal lands, positioning coal as an essential part of the U.S. energy mix. He has also stated that coal could play a larger role in meeting the nation’s increasing electricity demand, particularly as industries linked to artificial intelligence and advanced computing continue to grow.
