BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials rejected a mining company’s bid for more than 6 million tons of coal beneath a national forest in Utah, marking the third proposed coal sale from public lands in the West to fall through this month, the Interior Department disclosed Thursday.
The failed sales mark a setback in Republican President Donald Trump’s push to revive a coal mining industry that’s been in decline for almost two decades. Emissions from burning coal are a leading driver of climate change that’s raising sea levels and making weather more extreme.
The Interior Department rejected the sole bid it received for two tracts of federal coal on the Manti-La Sal National Forest because it did not meet the requirements of the Mineral Leasing Act, agency spokesperson Alyse Sharpe said.
The leasing act requires companies to pay fair market value for coal mined on public lands. Sharpe declined to say how much was bid.
The coal tracts near central Utah’s Skyline Mine were requested by a subsidiary of Wolverine Fuels LLC, which operates Skyline and two other active coal mines in the area, employing 950 people, according to its website. The Associated Press left voicemails and electronic messages seeking comment from the company.
The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management offered a lease on one tract, with 1.3 million tons of coal, during an Oct. 1 competitive sale. The other tract, with 5 million tons of coal, was a proposed expansion of an existing lease held. The rejected bid covered both tracts, Sharpe said.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said two weeks ago that the government will open 13 million acres of federal lands for coal mining. But it’s unclear who would want that fuel as utilities turn to cheaper natural gas and renewables such as wind and solar to generate electricity.
On Oct. 6, a coal sale from public lands in Montana that would have been the largest by the government in more than a decade drew a single bid of $186,000, or about one-tenth of a penny per ton of coal, and was later rejected. That lease held 167 million tons of coal in southeastern Montana near the Navajo Transition Energy Co.'s Spring Creek mine.
Two days later the Interior Department postponed an even bigger sale — 440 million tons next to the Navajo Nation-owned company's Antelope Mine in Wyoming.
Sharpe repeated the Trump administration's assertion that the policies of former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama were to blame for the failed sales, saying they tried "to dismantle domestic production and shake investor confidence in the industry."
Both Democrats attempted to curb sales of coal from public lands, only to have those policies reversed by Trump.
Three other coal lease sales from public lands were successful under Trump. The largest, in Alabama, involved 54 million tons of higher quality coal used in steelmaking that Warrior Met Coal Mining bought for $46 million, or about 87 cents per ton. Two recent sales in North Dakota of leases containing a combined 30 million tons of coal brought in $186,000 total, or less than a penny per ton.
“As demand for reliable, dispatchable power grows, coal remains a critical component of ensuring affordable and dependable energy for the American people,” Sharpe said in a statement.
Industry analysts and economists say the biggest driver of coal's retreat has been market forces that make other energy sources more economical. Many coal plants served by large mines on public lands in the West are nearing retirement.
Environmentalists fought for years against the expansion of Utah's Skyline Mine. Emma Yip with the Center for Biological Diversity described the bid rejection as “yet another face-plant for the Trump administration" as it tries to prop up a dying industry.
“Coal is among the dirtiest energy sources on Earth and burning it continues to sicken and kill Americans. There’s no defensible reason to keep it on life support when absolutely nobody wants it,” Yip said.
Shrinking coal demand in the U.S. has prompted mining companies to seek out customers overseas, including in Asia where consumption has continued to rise. Wolverine Fuels, Warrior Met Coal Mining and Navajo Transitional Energy Co. export some of their coal.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said during a Thursday conference call with reporters that coal remains the largest source of electricity globally and predicted that U.S. exports of the fuel would increase. Prior efforts to boost exports were hobbled by a lack of U.S. port capacity.
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Associated Press reporter Matthew Daly contributed from Washington.