Congress mandates coal mine approval, stripping environmental review
S. 362 — A bill to allow certain Federal minerals to be mined consistent with the Bull Mountains Mining Plan Modification, and for other purposes. · Filed by Steve Daines (R-MT) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Feb 3, 2025 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill authorizes mining of federal coal reserves on approximately 800 acres in Musselshell County, Montana under a previously approved mining plan modification (Bull Mountains Mine). It requires the Interior Secretary to approve the plan within 30 days without modification, and permits mining to proceed for one year from enactment. The bill effectively overrides normal regulatory review by mandating approval of a specific, named mining operation on federal land.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is not to establish mining policy generally, but to legislatively mandate approval of one specific federal coal lease in Montana, stripping the Interior Secretary of discretionary review authority and compressing the approval timeline to 30 days.
What the text implies
- The one-year authorization window creates artificial urgency for extraction, potentially accelerating mining before environmental or climate impacts can be fully assessed or challenged.
- By mandating approval 'without modification or delay,' the bill prevents the Interior Secretary from imposing additional environmental safeguards, reclamation bonding, or operational conditions that would normally be negotiated during plan review.
- The bill applies only to a named federal coal lease (MTM 97988) in a single Montana county, suggesting it was drafted to benefit a specific operator rather than establish general mining policy.
- Federal coal leases are public resources; this bill transfers control of lease terms from the executive branch (which can respond to new environmental data or public input) to a fixed legislative mandate that cannot be modified absent a new statute.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill bypasses standard environmental review and public participation processes by legislatively mandating approval of a specific mining plan without allowing the Interior Secretary discretion to modify or delay it. Citizens lose the opportunity for transparent regulatory scrutiny of a federal coal lease, and the one-year authorization creates pressure for rapid extraction of public resources with minimal oversight.
Who stands to gain
- coal mining operators
- companies holding or operating Federal Coal Lease MTM 97988
Named in the bill
Department of the Interior, Federal Coal Lease MTM 97988, Bull Mountains Mine, Musselshell County, Montana, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Senator Steve Daines (R-MT), Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT)
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Feb 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Feb 3, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Mar 12, 2025 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 119-46”
- Apr 9, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported with an amendment favorably”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $60,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 3 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Steve Daines, the sponsor, reported $901,144 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Sazerac Company, Inc. — $60,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 16, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,195 characters) on May 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jan 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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