Wyoming delegation warns Interior secretary block on coal leasing threatens grid reliability

Wyoming’s Congressional delegation is warning Interior Secretary Deb Haaland that a proposed amendment to the Resource Master Plan (RMP) for the Bureau of Land Management’s Buffalo field office would have dire consequences on the nation’s grid and economy. 

In their letter Tuesday, Rep. Harriet Hagamen and Sens. John Barrasso andCynthia Lummis, Republicans, explained that roughly 40% of all coal mined in the U.S. comes from Wyoming and most of that in the Powder River Basin.

By banning coal leasing in that area, which the RMP amendment proposes doing, the U.S. would be cut off from 48 billion tons of coal. For comparison, the U.S. consumed nearly 516 million tons of coal in 2021. 

“It is widely estimated that U.S. demand for electricity will surge in the coming decades. As that happens,” the letter reads. "It is imperative that we maintain our nation’s baseload coal-fired electric generation.” 

The letter also argues that the proposed amendment directly violates the multiple use mandate that Congress gave the BLM in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which requires the BLM to manage public lands in such a way that “recognizes the nation’s needs for domestic sources of minerals.” 

“We urge you to rescind this amendment,” the delegation stated.