Trump Revives Sales of Coal from Public Lands, but Buyers Are Few

U.S. officials are set to hold the government’s largest coal sales in more than a decade, offering 600 million tons from publicly owned reserves adjacent to strip mines in Montana and Wyoming, Matthew Brown and Mead Gruver reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Three other mines slated for expansion or new leases under Trump’s plan also face shrinking demand as utilities rely less on coal or shut down entirely

The sales are a centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s push to expand coal mining on federal lands and burn more of the fuel for electricity.

However, an AP data analysis shows that power plants served by those mines plan to stop burning coal altogether within the next decade.

Three other mines slated for expansion or new leases under Trump’s plan also face shrinking demand as utilities rely less on coal or shut down entirely, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the nonprofit Global Energy Monitor.

Those market realities raise a fundamental question about the Republican administration’s efforts to revive a heavily polluting industry that has long been in decline: Who will buy all that coal?

The question hangs over Trump’s renewed embrace of the fossil fuel, which worsens climate change, and highlights the uncertainty of injecting pro-coal policies into markets where utilities make long-term energy decisions with major economic and environmental implications, Susan Montoya Bryan also reported for AP.