[Editor’s note: President Trump signed an executive order today lifting many restrictions on coal plants]
Department of Interior Press Release
Actions will restore coal industry’s role in powering the economy, protecting jobs and strengthening national energy security
04/08/2025
Last edited 04/08/2025
Date: April 8, 2025
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior is reaffirming its commitment to the Trump administration’s goal of American Energy Dominance with a renewed focus on coal. Through an Executive Order by President Donald J. Trump, the Department will implement a series of bold policy moves and regulatory reforms to position coal as a cornerstone of the nation’s energy strategy by ensuring federally managed lands remain open and accessible for responsible energy development.
“The Golden Age is here, and we are starting to ‘Mine, Baby, Mine’ for clean American coal,” said Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “Interior is unlocking America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development to make life more affordable for every American family while showing the world the power of America’s natural resources and innovation.”
In support of the Trump administration’s pursuit of Energy Dominance, the Department is actively working to revitalize the coal mining industry through a series of decisive actions. By expanding access to coal reserves, such as the recent approval of the Spring Creek mine expansion in Montana, and streamlining permitting processes, the administration is removing long-standing regulatory barriers that have undermined American coal production. These efforts support high-paying mining jobs and rural economies, while strengthening U.S. energy independence by reducing reliance on foreign energy sources. Coal is a critical component of a secure, stable and diversified American energy portfolio.
Ending the coal leasing moratorium
The Department will officially end its moratorium on federal coal leasing, a move that aligns with President Trump’s priority of “Unleashing American Energy” by reducing regulatory barriers and promoting energy independence.
Over the past nine years, the status of actions related to a federal coal leasing moratorium has been left unclear. In 2016, President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell ordered the BLM to pause coal leasing on public lands, with a few exceptions, while the BLM completed an environmental review. In 2017, President Trump’s Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, revoked the order. In 2021, President Biden’s Secretary Deb Haaland rescinded Zinke’s order but did not reinstate the coal leasing moratorium or environmental review. In 2024, a federal appeals court ruled that the 2021 Haaland order reversed the Zinke order, while also ending the moratorium. The court said all actions after the Haaland order were moot and ordered all other court cases dismissed.
To provide clarity and certainty to the nation, the Bureau of Land Management is publishing a notice in the Federal Register that it will not perform an environmental impact statement, or any other environmental analysis of the federal coal leasing program connected to an order from former Secretary Sally Jewell, effectively and finally ending the last remaining open item related to the leasing moratorium.
Reopening federal lands in Montana and Wyoming to coal leasing
In further support of coal leasing, the BLM will pursue the amendment process to the Buffalo and Miles City resource managements plans in Wyoming and Montana. Under the current plans, future coal leasing is heavily restricted, making it much harder for new federal coal projects to get off the ground. Over time, these plans could significantly reduce the availability of federal coal reserves in two of the country’s biggest coal-producing regions. By revising these plans, Interior would create a path forward to access untapped federal coal reserves, especially in high-production areas like the Powder River Basin in Wyoming.
Removing regulatory burdens for coal mines
In accordance with Secretary’s Order 3418, Unleashing American Energy, the Office of Surface Mining and Enforcement will undertake a rulemaking process to revise the Ten-Day Notice Rule of 2024 to largely revert to the 2020 version of the rule, while retaining certain portions of the 2024 rule. This rule making process will help reduce burdensome federal oversight and give more power to the states on how to handle complaints about coal mining violations. By removing some of federal overreach of the 2024 rule, the Department will trust states to do their jobs while avoiding unnecessary federal interference and providing stability to the coal industry.
Providing royalty rate relief
The Department is poised to streamline and speed up the process for reviewing coal producers’ requests to temporarily lower the amount they pay the federal government for extracting coal from public lands. Lower royalty rates can help keeps mines open and maintain local tax revenue.
By expediting royalty relief requests, Interior aims to make it easier for coal operators to stay in business, which supports stable domestic energy production and maximizes long-term resource recovery from federal lands.
As the Department works through the actions above to support the coal industry by continuing to roll back unnecessary regulatory burdens, Interior will advance responsible coal development, high-paying job creation and long-term energy security by opening access to America’s vast energy resources.
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That natural gas has gone up in price may help too. Go coal.
EPA repealing their war on coal regs would be a much bigger boost.
Australia blows up their coal power stations to prevent this from happening.
Now extending the life of Loy Yang in Victoria and Eraring in NSW because they know if they don’t the whole grid will collapse.
Desperately need to build a couple of new coal fired power stations on the east coast NEM until nuclear can be properly installed.
And the UK
This is a good start now let’s get going with nuclear, time to stop talking and start building.
Build both.
Undoing perverse incentives to favor wind over coal plants would matter more, as current accounting allows writing off the expense of new wind, and ignores dispatchablity.
The long term would be somehow spiking the expectation that Democrats would try to destroy any investment in new coal if returned to power.
Yes, the special pricing and incentives given to wind and solar should be stopped. This is the reason for higher electricity prices. Wind and solar are a cancer on electrical grids. They cause high prices and potential catastrophic blackouts.
Climate Alarmists are stuck with Wind and Solar so they keep pushing them along to the detriment of everyone.
My, Tom how the tables have turned globally in only a few months due to trump’s climate /energy policies! His zeal and determination to put this critical matter right has astonished everyone, but it should be remembered, the stupidity of these policies was becoming evident to the general public, despite the crazy desperate propaganda by the orthodoxy represented by the UN IPCC and the EU political cliques to hold the NZ line. The world just cannot afford NZ if we want to retain prosperous growing economies to hold off the might of the Asian economic revolution and a say in our future.
In the end the scientific truth about AGW and the lack of a climate crisis will finally come out to embarrass the post-modern progressives and alarmist environmentalists who invented it. They aimed to scare the world and gain central power allowing these elites to prosecute their dystopian population reduction, anti-growth measures to be carried out as part of a UN led green world government. Well Amen to that I say!
Good comment, Bob.
Aaaargh! That awful Trump man is a raving lun…..err….let me think about that….
UK considers taking over China-owned British steel to save plant
Starmer seems to get it. Hang on to that steel production.
Now if ole Starmer would just stop being enamored of windmills and solar, maybe the UK could make some progress.
Ditch the wind and solar, Starmer. They are breaking your back. If you fear CO2, then go with nuclear electricity production. That’s your way out of this dilemma.
It assumes that Starmer has a functioning brain. He is too busy trying to tie the british boat to the ukrainian sinking ship and preparing war speeches while making sweet love to wee Napoleon Macron.
But that is what failed leaders do..go to war. I often wonder what Trump might do when his policies fail. A war w Iran might be a step too far. Yemen has backfired already. Probably starts bickering about Canada and Greenland and changing names of whatever bay of..
He is addicted to attention. The irony is that i now long f a bit of the Biden days with overall steady madness. Fed up w Trump antics. What a disaster..
Looking forward to all the Trump hero worshippers and negatives..😁
“But that is what failed leaders do..go to war.”
So what do leaders like Putin do?
Here’s what Putin’s right-hand man said was the reason for Putin going to war with Ukraine (before Putin murdered him for saying it).
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4064431-wagner-chief-says-russias-war-in-ukraine-intended-to-benefit-elites-accuses-moscow-of-lying/
Pure Greed. That’s why Putin attacked Ukraine. He’s a greedy, murderous bastard.
You seem to think Starmer should capitulate to Putin’s greed and murderous behavior.
Greedy bastards like Putin don’t stop being greedy when they manage to steal something. They always want more, because they are greedy bastards.
What will Putin want to steal next after success in Ukraine?
T-shirt idea: “I Really Dig Coal“. .
It’s Mine!
So good that — You’re nine (9) years late. ‘Trump Digs Coal’ T-shirts, hats etc. date to 2016 election year
Next Trump should restore the timber industry by reopening 24 million acres locked up by the Clinton/Gore Northwest Forest Plan.
Well Drax needs the waste chips for sustainability offsets in between replantings wot will be shorter with the fossil fuels. Offsets101.
They get most chips from private forestry down in Dixie.
“Next Trump should restore the timber industry”
I think Trump has every intention of doing that, from the way he talks.
I think that was done recently. Much of it anyway.
Off topic but I’m having trouble logging in with Firefox. I mistakenly logged off- then couldn’t log back in. The button to click to log in after giving email address and password ain’t working- it remains grey. So I logged in with the MS browser, which I don’t like.
No, it hasn’t “been done”. There’s no change in the USFS leadership or policies. The new Sec Ag is a fluff. There will.be massive megafires next summer. Trump 45 did nothing about the NWFP, and 47 won’t either unless the sky falls.
The U.S. Forest Service is cutting down more trees, despite their ability to hold carbon
https://lailluminator.com/2025/03/07/trees-carbon/
also, the Presidents message:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/immediate-expansion-of-american-timber-production/
Here’s the beginning of it.
Thanks for providing the truth, Joseph.
Some people just can’t see past their TDS.
I don’t have TDS. I voted for 45 and 47. Although 45 did nothing to end the NW Forest Plan, and so far neither has 47. His EO is inadequate and insufficient.
The NWFP is a product of the USFWS owl endangerment finding. It’s an ESA thing. The USFS complied. However, over the last 30 years the spotted owl population has crashed from ~24,000 to ~500. In other words, the NWFP failed to save the species.
Ten years ago the USFWS and USFS hit on the idea of killing barred owls. All the twinky scientologists blamed the barred owl even though there is zero proof they predate spotted owls. The idea is contrary to everything we know about predator population dynamics. Owls don’t eat owls. But never mind, thousands of barred owls (allegedly) have been shotgunned. That campaign has also failed to save spotted owls.
Meanwhile the USFS has dumped the whole notion of owl protection. The new NWFP Amendment (in process) doesn’t even mention spotted owls! How about that! It’s all about saving “late successional forests”. Which is a euphemism for old-growth. But due to the No Touch Let It Burn de facto policy of the last 30 years fully 30% of PNW old-growth has burned up with 100% mortality.
Continued…
To make it short, the EO will be ignored and/or litigated because the NWFP is still in place. That litigation will drag on for years, even decades. Until and unless the NWFP is terminated, by everyone involved including Congress, there will be no fuel treatments (much less commercial timber harvest) across 24 million acres of the most productive forests in America (and the world).
There will be megafires, though. Fuel loads today exceed 250 tons per acre, a greater density of biomass than at any time in the Holocene. The fuel is contiguous. The fire access roads have been ripped up to comply with Roadless Area demands. The stage is set. Wishing won’t change anything.
I respect that outsiders have no idea of what, how, and why this situation arose. It’s something only insiders of long experience understand. Trump and Rollins don’t get it. Few do. Regardless, an EO is not going fix anything. I’m far more sorry about that than most people.
Ok. I apologize for assuming TDS.
I see your concern is about saving wildlife, and that is what you were complaining about. Not enough action to help the critters.
I’m with you on that. I just hate the thought of windmills slaughtering birds and bats, especially since windmills are not necessary to our survival.
So keep up the good work you are doing. 🙂
For many years working at nuke plants, I was anti coal based on legacy environmental impacts.
By 1990, I consider coal clean and a very important assets in the US.
Being anti-nuclear and anti-coal is a complete loser for our energy dominance. I once asked for a microwave potato at a potato restaurant that cooks potatoes the old fashion way–they were out of cooked potatoes. The attendant said, “You want to ‘nuke’ a potato?” I then realize that “she” had no clue about microwaves. Microwave ovens do not “nuke” things.
To “nuke” food or warm a beverage is common vernacular.
For any real environmentalist of the old school (“conservationists” we were called back then), burning coal is a win-win. We get to use the energy, and the byproduct is life-giving carbon dioxide that will liberate the carbon from its inert state in the ground and make it bioavailable to become plants and animals, cycling repeatedly through the biosphere and increasing the total biomass. This is great for the Earth and great for humanity.
The byproducts of coal combustion are also useful in construction.
Way back in the 60’s, an Ohio farmer I knew had over 20 acres stripped. Under the contract, topsoil was replaced and he got the only level land on the farm out of it.
In addition to coal plant construction, there are coal-fired plants right now, which are only being used for emergencies. That is dumb. Fire those babies up!
“Fire those babies up!”
Trump is doing just that.
Now, the next thing Trump needs to do is sign an Executive Order abolishing windmill farms and industrial solar, by abolishing their taxpayer subsidies and special pricing. Since windmills and solar are not economically viable without taxpayer subsidies and special pricing, this will bankrupt them and they will go away and not bother our grids, or bank accounts anymore.
Not seeing yet, but hopefully. The one in Bow NH still sits there, spinning its wheels. Plenty of coal on hand. Eversource is firmly entrenched in the Green scam though.
Some things, like revocation of the “Inflation Reduction Act” require Congress to get off their sorry asses and get to work.
“abolishing windmill farms and industrial solar,”
Since these are imported from China and the EU, his tariffs may well have effectively done that. 🙂
Let’s hope!
Fantastic news.
It will be of limited use. Coal is a 50 year investment, and Trump is a 4 year president. Congress has to pass legislation that can give the economy stability for multiple generations to come with insurances that if the government changes course and makes their investments worthless, the government would be forced to make them whole or something along those lines.