• The Trump administration is fast-tracking the process after it had stalled due to a bankruptcy by the Antelope mine’s previous owner.

 

By Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile.com

The Trump administration is advancing another federal coal lease in Wyoming, potentially opening access to 440 million tons in the Powder River Basin. 

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a final environmental impact statement Friday for the proposed West Antelope III coal lease-by-application project, spanning some 3,500 acres in Campbell and Converse counties.

The lease was originally proposed in 2015 by Cloud Peak Energy, which operated the Antelope mine at the time. But the company filed for bankruptcy and eventually sold to the Navajo Transitional Energy Company, which allowed the lease application to remain in limbo until the firm reactivated the process with the BLM earlier this year. 

The size of the lease — 440 million tons — is substantial. The Antelope mine extracts 20-25 million tons annually, according to the company. It’s the third-largest coal mine in the nation in terms of production, federal records show.

Earlier this month, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement approved the West Antelope II South Tract Mining Plan Modification for the same Antelope mine, which will add another 14.5 million tons of reserves. Together, the two leases would add about 18 years of mining to the life of the mine.

Environmental groups say the administration is moving too quickly on both leasing actions at the Antelope mine, as well as a proposed “mining plan modification” at the Black Butte mine in southwest Wyoming. 

“At Black Butte, they’re pushing through an [Environmental Impact Statement] in 28 days, which is absolutely insane timing — and it sounds like it’s going to be a similarly fast timeline for [the] Antelope [leases],” said Emma Jones, associate organizer for the Sierra Club’s Wyoming Chapter. “There’s no way that you can have an appropriate amount of real public engagement in such a short timeline.”

The BLM noted in a press release Friday that the West Antelope III coal lease application will move quickly under direction of the Trump administration’s Unleashing American Energy and Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry executive orders. A public hearing on the matter is scheduled for Sept. 3.

Coal advocates, however, say it’s about time the federal government sped up approvals for the coal industry.

“We are pleased to see the administration moving expeditiously!” Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti told WyoFile via email.

The agency has scheduled a public hearing regarding “the project’s fair market value and maximum economic recovery” from 6-8 p.m., Sept. 3, at the Wright Town Hall in Wright.

Go to the BLM National NEPA Register for additional information and planning documents.

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