US government to auction 600 million tonnes of coal: Who will buy? Climate concerns also loom

In the coming days, US authorities will conduct the nation’s largest coal auctions in over a decade, offering 600 million tonnes from state-owned reserves adjacent to strip mines in Montana and Wyoming. The leases, located in the Powder River Basin—the country’s most productive coal region—were expedited following a January executive order by President Donald Trump. While the auctions align with Trump’s goal of increasing coal extraction from federal lands for power generation, an Associated Press analysis shows that many power stations served by these mines plan to stop using coal within a decade. The forthcoming sales will go ahead despite the government shutdown, as workers handling fossil fuel permits and leases are exempt from furlough. Then-President Biden had attempted to bloc