The Trump administration is considering reversing a Biden-era policy that blocked coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, the nation’s largest coal-producing region.
The Bureau of Land Management on Monday said it’s planning to conduct environmental reviews to decide whether to allow more leasing within the basin, which spans Montana and Wyoming and is home to 40 percent of U.S. coal production.
In doing so, the agency would further President Donald Trump’s fossil-fuel-charged push for energy dominance while dismantling the Biden administration’s climate legacy.
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The administration has also moved to bolster coal by clawing back regulations, opening more public lands to extraction and ordering aging coal-fired power plants to remain online.
