By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News | Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management
The sale of federal land, which contained an estimated 6.3 million tons of recoverable federal coal, has been rejected by the federal government. The lease, which sits near the Skyline Mine along the Manti La-Sal National Forest, was rejected because it did not meet the requirements of the Mineral Leasing Act, agency spokesperson Alyse Sharpe said Thursday.
This rejection is the third coal sale from public lands this month, marking a setback to President Donald Trump’s push to revitalize the coal mining industry.
The Mineral Leasing Act requires that companies pay fair market value for coal mined on public lands. The sole bid received covered two tracts of federal coal reserves along the Manti La-Sal containing an estimated total of 6.3 million tons of coal. A spokesperson for the agency declined to disclose the amount of the rejected bid.
The Associated Press reports that,” Three other coal lease sales from public lands under Trump were successful. The largest, in Alabama, involved 54 million tons of coal used in steelmaking that sold last month for $46 million, or about 87 cents per ton. Two recent sales in North Dakota of leases containing a combined 30 million tons of coal brought in $186,000 total, or less than a penny per ton.”
The tracts were requested by a subsidiary of Wolverine Fuels LLC, which operates not only the Skyline mine, but two other active mines across central Utah.
The tracts were subject to the first expedited coal lease action under the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Act when in August, an environmental review for the tracts was approved in a move which acting Assistant Secretary for Lands and Minerals Management Adam Suess called “a critical step in unleashing the full economic potential of our coal resources and delivering reliable, affordable energy to American families.”
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that in 2023, fossil fuels accounted for 60% of utility-scale net electricity generation, while coal contributed 16.2% to that total.