Trump Move to Increase Coal Mining in the Powder River Basin Will Worsen Climate Change, Experts Warn

Scientists and environmentalists say such a decision harms human health and the environment, and is unnecessary.

The Trump administration—ignoring decades of climate science and downward economic trends—has begun the process of reopening millions of acres of public land to coal mining in the Powder River Basin, the nation’s largest coal deposit.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), in response to executive orders signed by President Donald Trump, published notices Tuesday asking for public comment on proposed updates to two resource management plans, one in the Miles City office in Montana, the other in the Buffalo, Wyoming, office. The plans currently prohibit new coal mines in the basin.

Wyoming and Montana are home to the Powder River Basin, where communities rely on tax income from extractive industries, and many there were frustrated by BLM’s moratorium on new coal leases under former President Joe Biden. The move by the Biden administration was heralded by environmentalists as forward-thinking and practical at a time when the federal government was working to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions to reduce the future consequences of climate disasters, from deadly floods to extreme heat. 

Since Trump returned to office, environmentalists in the plains of eastern Wyoming and Montana have moved to defend the resource management plans in court.

U.S. coal mine production and employment have declined for years, undercut by cheaper natural gas and renewable energy. Burning coal is harmful not only for the climate but also for the health of people breathing the air pollutants the energy source emits. 

But the Trump administration has committed to reviving the resource. The new BLM move comes on the heels of coal companies receiving significant tax breaks as part of the spending bill congressional Republicans passed last week.

The BLM declined to comment about whether the agency would consider the impacts of greenhouse gases from coal as part of its review. 

“The administration is pursuing yet another unwarranted coal giveaway by moving to reopen the Powder River Basin to new coal leasing,” Jenny Harbine, a managing attorney for Earthjustice, an environmental nonprofit, said in a statement. “The administration’s efforts to expand coal mining on our public lands are no more justified now and will sell out our communities to further enrich coal industry executives.”

According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the country already has 20 years’ worth of recoverable coal in operating mines across the country. 

In Wyoming and Montana alone, there are about 108 billion short tons of estimated recoverable coal. At 2023’s production rate of about half-a-billion short tons annually, there is enough accessible coal in the Powder River Basin to mine for roughly 194 years. But demand for coal is plateauing globally, and has already peaked in advanced economies, according to the International Energy Agency. 

“From a climate perspective, it’s a really bad idea, and we’re going to be in a lot of trouble” if new mines get opened in the Powder River Basin, said Steve Clemmer, director of energy research at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Phasing out coal as rapidly as possible is really a key for limiting the worst impacts of climate change, and has enormous environmental and public health benefits.”

Proponents of coal say that the flurry of deregulation and lower royalty rates implemented by the Trump administration has boosted the industry’s outlook. Travis Deti, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, said he was “pleasantly surprised” by how quickly the administration has moved to make it easier for coal companies to mine and market their product as cost-effective.

With all the new changes, “Powder River Basin coal in Wyoming automatically becomes significantly more competitive,” Deti said. 

According to a recent study by Energy Innovation, an energy and climate policy think tank, all but one coal-fired power plant in the U.S. are costlier to operate than local wind, solar and battery storage options. Clemmer noted that environmental deregulation would also favor oil and gas, likely making it even more difficult for coal to compete.

“We can’t [keep using coal] and expect that we’re going to reduce the impacts of climate change,” Clemmer said. “It’s just not going to happen.”

Cover photo:  An aerial view of a surface coal mine in the Powder River Basin. Credit: Bureau of Land Management Wyoming