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Trump administration auctions coal leases in Alabama,

Utah,

Wyoming and Montana

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Coal production dropped 40% from 2013 to 2023, EIA reports

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Environmentalists criticize coal leasing amid climate

change

concerns

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Industry body expects strong demand for new federal leases

Sept 30 (Reuters) - The Trump administration will

auction off coal leases on federal lands in four U.S. states in

the coming days, a key test of mining industry interest in its

efforts to revive a sector in decline.

The sales in Alabama, Montana, Utah and Wyoming will be the

first since President Donald Trump's administration rolled out

measures to support the coal industry with increased access to

federal lands and hundreds of millions of dollars for more

coal-fired power plants.

U.S. coal production dropped 40% between 2013 and 2023,

according to the Energy Information Administration, due to

stepped-up environmental regulation and competition from natural

gas. During the same period, federal acreage under lease for

coal mining fell 11%.

Former President Joe Biden's administration stopped issuing

new coal leases on federal lands. Trump has vowed to revive the

program so coal can fuel more of the nation's soaring

electricity demand tied to artificial intelligence.

If leases are issued, companies will pay a 7% royalty rate

to the federal government, down from either 12.5% or 8% prior to

passage of Trump's tax law earlier this year.

The National Mining Association, an industry trade group,

said the sales were expected to attract significant interest.

"With energy needs only accelerating, and an administration

in place that properly values reliable, affordable fuel sources,

American coal producers are well positioned to make the most of

new leasing opportunities to answer the call for increased

domestic coal," NMA spokesperson Ashley Burke said in an email.

The competitive sales will kick off on Tuesday with the

offer of two leases in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. The leases

are for the right to mine underneath 14,050 acres (5,686

hectares) of private land and are estimated to contain 53

million tons of metallurgical coal used in steelmaking.

The tracts are adjacent to two mines owned by Warrior Met

Coal ( HCC ), which first applied to lease the additional areas

in 2009.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management will

follow the Alabama sale with one in Utah on Wednesday. The

Little Eccles Tract spans 120 acres in Emery County and holds an

estimated 1.29 million tons of recoverable coal. The planned

sale responds to an application by Canyon Fuel Company, which

operates the adjacent Skyline Mine.

On October 6, the BLM will offer 1,262 acres in Montana with

an expected 167.5 million tons of recoverable coal. Two days

later it will auction 3,508 acres in Wyoming with an estimated

365 million tons of recoverable coal. The Navajo Transitional

Energy Company, which is owned by the Navajo Nation, operates

mines in those areas and applied to BLM to offer the leases.

Environmentalists criticized the administration's push to

accelerate coal leasing amid rising concern about fossil fuels'

contribution to climate change.

"What these new leases are doing is they're really only

working to prop up a dying industry by locking in coal reserves

that won't even be mined until we're well into the second half

of the century," said Emma Yip, an attorney with the Center for

Biological Diversity.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)