Letter to the Governor regarding BLM decision

Governor Mark Gordon,

As you know, President Biden’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced last week its intention to end all future coal leasing in the Powder River Basin– a decision in pursuit of the Biden Administration’s anti-American, anti-energy “climate crisis” agenda.

The BLM’s Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) refers to the shuttering of the nation’s largest coal producers as “the no-leasing alternative,” which the agency chose while rejecting the slate of other alternatives before it (including “no action” and “limited leasing” alternatives).

According to the agency, the “no-leasing alternative” was chosen after considering air quality, greenhouse gasses, climate change, public health, socioeconomics, and “environmental justice.”

In the SEIS analysis of the socioeconomic impacts of the “no-leasing alternative,” the BLM admits that millions of Americans presently rely on coal from the Powder River Basin for energy, and even notes that global market coal demands, especially in Asia, are expected to increase.

Nevertheless, the BLM still chose to eliminate the nation’s largest producers of affordable, plentiful, and clean energy. In justifying the decision, the agency cited Wyoming’s failure to secure a coal export terminal in Washington State:

“A new coal port terminal on the US West Coast is unlikely, as illustrated by the 2021 denial of the US Supreme Court’s acceptance to hear … Wyoming’s complaint that Washington State interfered with their lawful interstate commerce by failing to permit a proposed coal export terminal.” (United States Bureau of Land Management (May 2024). Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) and Proposed Resource Management Plan Amendment, Buffalo Field Office, ES-12).

Wyoming’s appeal was denied by the US Supreme Court not on the merits, but on procedural grounds– the State, at your direction, filed our case too late for it to be heard in a timely manner.

This came two years after your veto of a 2018 bill to initiate litigation against Washington State for blocking access to the pacific markets who desperately wanted our clean coal.

As a cooperating agency under the National Environmental Policy Act, Wyoming has the legal ability– and duty– to resist the BLM’s radical move to destroy Wyoming as we know it.

We implore you to step up, fight back, and protect Wyoming, first and foremost by filing a protest with the Bureau of Land Management, and by preparing for a full-fledged legal battle now– not later.

Sincerely and for Wyoming,

Representative Bill Allemand, Representative John Bear ,Representative Jeremy Haroldson, House District 58, House District 31, House District 4

Representative Scott Heiner, Representative Ben Hornok, Representative Chris Knapp, House District 18, House District 42, House District 53

Representative Chip Neiman, Representative Pepper Ottman, Representative Sarah Penn, House District 1, House District 34 , House District 33

Representative John Winter, House District 28

Representative Rachel Rodriguez, Representative Daniel Singh, Representative Allen Slagle Williams, House District 61, House District 2, House District 50

Representative Scott Smith, Representative Tomi Strock, Representative Jeanette Ward, House District 5, House District 6, House District 57