Congress fast-tracks coal leases on public land, bypassing environmental review
H.R. 280 — COAL Act of 2025 · Filed by Harriet Hageman (R-WY) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 9, 2025 · Hearing held
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What it does
This bill requires the Interior Secretary to fast-track approval of all pending coal lease applications on federal land, bypassing normal review timelines and finalizing fair-market valuations immediately. It also voids a 2016 Interior Department order that had restricted federal coal leasing, effectively reopening the federal coal program to new leases without regard to prior policy or judicial decisions.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a mandatory fast-track approval process for coal leases on federal land, coupled with rescission of a prior Interior policy that had constrained federal coal leasing. This is a direct financial benefit to coal companies (access to public resources at accelerated pace) funded by the public (loss of environmental review discretion and climate/environmental costs borne by citizens).
What the text implies
- Voids Secretarial Order 3338 (2016 coal leasing moratorium) via negation chain: 'shall have no force or effect' removes the order's restrictions, reopening federal coal leasing to future applications beyond those currently pending, not just the immediate batch.
- Fair-market-value determination is compressed into 'as soon as practicable' timeline, potentially undervaluing coal reserves and reducing public revenue from a finite public resource.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
coal mining companies; coal lease applicants; coal extraction contractors