HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen filed a lawsuit against a Biden administration plan that will halt federal coal production in Powder River Basin, which accounts for 85 percent of all coal produced on federal land, and effectively kill Montana's coal industry. This is the 59th lawsuit Attorney General Knudsen has filed against the Biden administration.
Enacted by Congress, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA), provide clear requirements for the BLM to follow when working alongside states to manage federal lands within their borders. While the federal government has historically followed Congress' directive and worked with states to manage federal lands within their borders, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently unlawfully scrapped those requirements.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming, asks the court to vacate and set aside the Bureau of Land Management's unlawful federal land-use plans.
"The Biden administration's plan will effectively kill our nation's coal industry by halting new federal coal leasing in the Powder River Basin which produces roughly 85 percent of federal coal. In Montana, we need coal - it fuels our economy and heats our homes in the winter in subzero temperatures," Attorney General Knudsen said. "Rather than do what is best for Montanans and constituents across the country, Biden is catering to radical environmentalists."
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