The Trump administration is advancing another federal coal lease in Wyoming, potentially opening access to 440 million tons in the Powder River Basin.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a final environmental impact statement Friday for the proposed West Antelope III coal lease-by-application project, spanning some 3,500 acres in Campbell and Converse counties.
The lease was originally proposed in 2015 by Cloud Peak Energy, which operated the Antelope mine at the time. But the company filed for bankruptcy and eventually sold to the Navajo Transitional Energy Company, which allowed the lease application to remain in limbo until the firm reactivated the process with the BLM earlier this year.
The size of the lease — 440 million tons — is substantial. The Antelope mine extracts 20-25 million tons annually, according to the company. It’s the third-largest coal mine in the nation in terms of production, federal records show.
Earlier this month, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement approved the West Antelope II South Tract Mining Plan Modification for the same Antelope mine, which will add another 14.5 million tons of reserves. Together, the two leases would add about 18 years of mining to the life of the mine.
Environmental groups say the administration is moving too quickly on both leasing actions at the Antelope mine, as well as a proposed “mining plan modification” at the Black Butte mine in southwest Wyoming.
“At Black Butte, they’re pushing through an [Environmental Impact Statement] in 28 days, which is absolutely insane timing — and it sounds like it’s going to be a similarly fast timeline for [the] Antelope [leases],” said Emma Jones, associate organizer for the Sierra Club’s Wyoming Chapter. “There’s no way that you can have an appropriate amount of real public engagement in such a short timeline.”
The BLM noted in a press release Friday that the West Antelope III coal lease application will move quickly under direction of the Trump administration’s Unleashing American Energy and Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry executive orders. A public hearing on the matter is scheduled for Sept. 3.
Coal advocates, however, say it’s about time the federal government sped up approvals for the coal industry.
“We are pleased to see the administration moving expeditiously!” Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti told WyoFile via email.
The agency has scheduled a public hearing regarding “the project’s fair market value and maximum economic recovery” from 6-8 p.m., Sept. 3, at the Wright Town Hall in Wright.
Go to the BLM National NEPA Register for additional information and planning documents.
The coal leases might exist but whether they will be purchased and used is another story in itself. When there is no market for coal and it decreases daily, the need for additional leases is ridiculous. As for all the needs for electrical energy for the huge computer data centers and AI, I suggest they will be built where access to renewable energy is available. No one is building new coal fired power plants and the existing ones are being taken out of service. They are too expensive and they are environmentally an unsound investment. We should be developing and supporting wind and solar. Thinking the past economic booms are going to return is foolish and detrimental to the future of Wyoming.
All this gruffing and bluster about a “new” federal coal lease getting greenlighted might end up a tempest in a crock pot. Will anyone really buy anywhere near 440 million tons of new coal after 2037 ?
Sure, the Antelope mine presently sells coal to maybe 30 different buyers, mainly older power plants with varying degrees of carbon mitigation and CO2 flatulence. The key point is Antelope’s existing stock and reserves of coal are scheduled out to the year 2037. Yet every year the American power industry buys less and less Wyoming coal on the whole, and the export market is shrinking. Coal use is trending down , not nearly as fast as I would like , but down nevertheless. Wyoming is selling only 38 percent the gross tonnage of coal annually as it did 16 years ago. The surge in demand for more electricity to feed the data centers and the AI beasts will only postpone the inevitable sunset on the coal mines in Campbell County.
Regrettably , the politicians and industry flacks are ballyhooeing this new lease scheme when they should instead be all in on renewables and alternative energy. It’s not as if Wyoming has nothing to offer the electrical grid once the last ton of coal is shipped. The Cowboy State has no shortage of electrical generation opportunities. There are a hundred ways to make electricity. Burning fossil fuel coal is only one way , and frankly the worst of them. Better if we invest in the future , not the past.
And fergawdssakes don’t believe the clueless Trump and his sycophants Barrasso Lummis and Hageman and the duplicitous Guv Gordo et al when they try to say this frankensteined 440 million ton coal lease is a good thing for Wyoming by ” Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry ” ? . It’s really not , in the long term.
But when has anyone in Wyoming leadership ever taken the long term view ?
I worked in Coal plant installing Air Quality Control systems on and off for a decade..here’s the thing..ITS GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ENVIRONMENT. Coal burning plant are simply.WAY to expensive to operate..period
Typical Trump move. Kill any environmental actions that actually help the climate and burn more coal to make things worse. Wonder how much cash the coal industry had to pay him for that decision. Coal helped run our country for many years but it’s time is past. As windy as Wyoming is, wind and solar should be the industries generating power for the state’s future. Time gor Wyoming residents to stand up and decide their future instead of a guy who is always in perfectly air conditioned and heated living spaces and never has to work outside in increasingly overheated conditions.
Drill baby drill
Who says the coal is for Wyoming? May be ideal for export. I’d rather coal be taken out of the ground in the US with its strict laws than in Russia or China. Also, if there isn’t a market for it, it won’t sell
I agree with you and do not believe it’s financially sound for the future. I moved to Gillette in 1976 as part of a federal/state program after graduating from UW, just as the mines were starting up. Even back then, Gary Glass, the Wyoming State Geologist at the time, predicted to our group that the coal rush would last about 50 years.
Interestingly, in April 2017, the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum in Benham, KY, installed solar panels on its roof to replace a broken coal-fired system. The move drew significant media attention because of the museum’s focus on preserving the region’s coal mining history. The decision was widely seen as ironic, given that the museum preserves the history of a dying industry while embracing a future-focused, clean energy source.
Nothing lasts forever. The new age nuclear plant in Kemmerer, along with wind turbines and solar panels—though widely criticized in Wyoming—represent the future.