The Trump administration is investigating how much coal is under federal lands, but whether that translates to more mining has yet to be seen.
A new U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report says there are about 4 billion U.S. tons left at existing mines and another 356 billion that could be developed in new areas in lower 48 states.
About half of those undeveloped resources are in Wyoming. The others are in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Utah.
The minerals are all under land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies. “Very little” is under national parks or monuments, according to report co-author and coal geologist Brian Shaffer, deputy Science Center director for the USGS’s Denver-based Central Energy Resources Science Center.
He said a lot of the information in the report isn’t new or surprising, though it’s the first time the agency has brought it all together since the 1970s. The Trump administration specifically called for it in a 2025 executive order, “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry.”
The takeaway?
“There are plenty of reserves left for the existing mines that are operating, and the potential is there for the development of new mines, new operations and new areas of coal,” said Shaffer.
However, that doesn’t mean all that coal is developable or that there’s a demand for it.
Though the Trump administration is extending the lives of coal plants — and power hungry data centers could be helping — the industry has been in decline for almost two decades.
“It certainly does not appear that there's much of a market right now,” said Donna Birkholz, executive director of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a nonprofit that represents residents in northeast Wyoming and statewide.
The report found about half of potential coal resources in the lower 48 — more than 180 billion U.S. tons — are in the Powder River Basin, which is shared with Montana.
Birkholz said residents are concerned about future mining.
“Decisions are being made from D.C. and large corporate boardrooms that don't really take into consideration the life lived by a rancher who's just trying to make sure that his land is healthy and that he's got enough grass for his cattle this year while we're in drought,” Birkholz said.
She added they’re worried new coal development could hurt the water, air and land, as well as grazing rights.
New coal leasing in the Powder River Basin unofficially ended in 2012. President Donald Trump signed legislation last year reopening the area to new development. Lease sales in Montana and Wyoming late last year garnered low-ball bids and a delay for the Wyoming parcels.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
