Republican Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale wants Congress to block the Bureau of Land Management from implementing a land-use plan that would end new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin.
Rosendale’s bill, H.R. 9883, targets a proposed plan for BLM’s Miles City Field Office that would stop new coal leasing in the eastern Montana section of the basin that dominates U.S. coal production.
The bill would block the Interior secretary from taking steps to “finalize, implement, administer, or enforce” the plan unveiled in May that would reverse a Trump administration land use decision that opened leasing for coal development projects.
The revised plan for the Miles City Field Office outlined in a final supplemental environmental impact statement would not end coal production in the basin, with BLM determining that existing coal mines will continue operating for decades.
