Biden Gives Wyoming A Kick in the Butt on His Way Out the Door with An Attempt to Kill Its Coal Industry

It’s a maddening report from the Bureau of Land Management, which is based wholly on specious arguments set forth by Joe Biden’s puppeteers in an Executive Order canceling out coal leases in Wyoming. It ought to be quickly reversed by Trump but that won’t be easy.

From cover of BLM report

The story may be found here and the following are some key excerpts (emphasis added);

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it will end coal leasing on federal lands in the Powder River Basin, the single largest source of coal in the U.S., as the administration looks to limit greenhouse gas emissions, including from the dirtiest fossil fuel.

The decision was issued Thursday by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, and will ban leasing on more than 13 million public acres in the Powder River Basin, which spans Wyoming and Montana and accounts for nearly 50% of all U.S. coal production…

A federal court in 2022 upheld the BLM’s complaint that two public lands management plans drafted under then-President Donald Trump had failed to properly account for climate change or environmental harm caused by coal mining, and tasked them with creating a new Environmental Impact Statement for coal mining in the region.

In its final assessment Thursday, BLM said that continuing to lease federal acres for coal mining in the Powder River Basin would cause “significant harm” to public health and the climate…

In total, the decision stands to affect 14 total coal mines in the Powder River Basin, which produced a combined 260 million short tons of coal in 2022, or 44% of total U.S. production, according to data from the Energy Information Administration…

[Lawmakers say] the BLM is refusing to acknowledge mining on its so-called multiple use framework under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act — a 1976 law that requires BLM to balance uses of public land for recreation, energy, mining, and agricultural interests in their states.

“At a time of deteriorating grid reliability, soaring electricity demand and ongoing concern about global energy shocks, proposing a plan of no new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin is outrageous,” Rich Nolan, the CEO and president of the National Mining Statement, said in a statement Thursday. “This damages American energy security and affordability and is a severe economic blow to mining states and communities.”

Yes, it's pretty disgusting and, if you read the report incorporating the decision it's even more revolting. Consider the following paragraph regarding the objections of Wyoming's governor:

The Wyoming Governor identified 11 inconsistencies between the Proposed RMP Amendment/Final Supplemental EIS and Wyoming’s constitution, statutes, and policies as well as with the Campbell and Johnson Counties Natural Resource plans during his consistency review. The Governor’s review was provided in accordance with 43 CFR 1610.3-2(e). The State Director decided not to accept the Governor’s recommendations as the Proposed RMP Amendment is consistent with federal policies and programs. The Governor appealed the State Director’s decision to the BLM Director who determined that the Governor’s recommendations were not in balance with the national interest.

The arrogance of that statement indicates the decision was no more than an exercise in raw bureaucratic power. Everything the elected governor of the state had to say was dismissed in favor of an amorphous "national interest” unmoored from any authority other than the words of an ailing and failing President whose hand is being guided by some unknown political hack of an extremist bent.

Here’s more Fed condescension along the same lines:

The Approved RMP Amendment makes 48.12 billion short tons of coal unavailable for further leasing consideration in order to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as a proxy for climate change…

No further coal leasing also supports the nation’s long term climate strategy (November 2021) of putting the U.S. on a pathway to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050…

Energy storage systems, smart grid technologies, demand response programs, and interconnected grids address renewable production intermittency and provide grid stability (Chomsky 2023). For example, the Texas grid became more stable as its wind capacity sextupled between 2007 and 2020 (Lovins and Ramana 2021). Renewable energy technologies create a system less prone to market shocks and improve resilience and energy security by diversifying power supply options (UN 2024).

These statements are pure bollocks, of course. Net zero is a fantasy based on a completely arbitrary and unscientific goal of keeping temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees. It has no merit whatsoever, and the UN propaganda suggesting renewables yield energy resilience has been subsequently proven wrong in a big way in Texas, after fact the BLM blithely ignores.

Biden and BLM aren't necessarily the worst villains in the debacle, though. Let’s not forget Brian Morris, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Montana, appointed by Barack Obama, of course. That’s where the problem started and Biden, the environmental extremists and the BLM bureaucrats merely took advantage of it. So many of our troubles begin with agenda-driven judges, don't they?

#Wyoming #BLM #Biden #Coal #Montana #Obama #Governor