Billed as a merger of equals, Pittsburgh-based coal giant Consol Energy is acquiring St. Louis-based coal giant Arch Resources in an all-stock deal. The combination is valued at a market capitalization of about $5.2 billion. The new firm – Core Natural Resources – will be based in Canonsburg, Pa., southwest of Pittsburgh where Consol is… More Combination and consolidation in coal country
It was a low key announcement from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management last week (May 16). Implementing a recent federal court ruling from Montana, BLM proposed to end new leases for existing mines in the Powder River Basin (PRB) in Wyoming and Montana. The reaction from coal states and coal industry interests was… More Commentary: Coal interests cry crocodile tears
A federal appeals court has struck down a moratorium on new leases for mining coal on federal land that goes back to the final days of the Obama administration. The decision is unlikely to have much impact in light of the diminishing role of coal in the U.S. economy. In an unpublished decision, a three-judge… More Court ends federal coal leasing moratorium—ho,hum
A federal court judge has overturned a plan to expand Montana’s only underground coal mine, ruling that the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) repeated approvals, the most recent in 2020, of the 7,100-acre, 175-million-ton expansion plan by Signal Peak Energy for the Bull Mountains Mine No. 1 near Roundup, Montana,… More Court Orders New Environmental Review for Notorious Montana Coal Mine
A federal judge has rejected the Biden administration’s plan for resuming sale of leases to mine coal on federal land in the vast Powder River Basin (PRB) in Wyoming and Montana, the largest coal reserve in the nation and among those in the rest of the world. The PRB’s subbituminous coal accounts for 85% of… More PRB coal leasing: déjà vu all over again?
(A three part series) The controversial 922-page “Project 2025: Presidential Transition Project, the Heritage Foundation blueprint for a far-right Trump government is political prescription for various reforms of energy and environmental programs in the Department of Energy, the Interior Department, and the Environmental Protection Agency. While Donald Trump has tried to distance himself in the… More Project 2025 part 2: the U.S. Department of the Interior
Amid a wave of opposition in the Senate, the Trump administration says it will withdraw the nomination of William Perry Pendley to head the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, in September. But Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who named Pendley to the role of acting BLM director in 2019, says he will stay in the… More Commentary: William Perry Pendley has no place in government