The United States is about to have the greatest sales of government in more than a decade, even if demand decreases

Sales are an element of signing the ambitions of President Donald Trump so that companies can dig more coal from federal land and burn it for electricity. However, most of the power plants served by these mines plan to stop burning coal completely in the 10 years, according to an analysis of the associated data of the press.

Three other mines ready for extensions or new leases under Trump are also faced with the drop in demand while power plants use less coal and, in some cases, have closed, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration and the world’s non -profit energy monitor.

These realities of the market raise a fundamental question about the pressure of the republican administration to relaunch a highly polluting industry which has long been in decline: who will buy all this coal?

The question looms the enthusiastic embrace of the coal administration, a leading contributor to climate change. It also shows the uncertainty inherent in the integration of these policies on the markets where energy producing customers make long -term decisions with massive implications, not only for their own viability, but for the future of the planet, in a constantly evolving political landscape.

Rush to approve projects

Sales of upcoming leases in Montana and Wyoming are in the Powder river basin, which houses the most productive American coal fields.

Officials say they will go ahead from Monday despite the government’s closure. The administration was exempt from contributing workers who treat fossil fuels and leases permits.

Democratic president Joe Biden acted last year to block future coal leases in the region, citing their potential to worsen climate change. According to a carbon carbon formula, generating the coal of the two to come would generate more than a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide to warm the planet.

Trump rejected climate change as a “con” during a September 23 speech at the United Nations General Assembly, an assessment that disagrees him with scientists. He congratulated coal as “beautiful” and boasted of the abundance of American supplies while deriving solar and wind energy. Administration officials said on Wednesday that they canceled $ 8 billion in grants for clean energy projects in 16 states won by Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

In response to a Trump prescription on his first day of mandate in January, sales of coal rentals which had been interrupted or blocked were relaunched and precipitated at approval, considering the rejected greenhouse gas emissions. Administration officials have extensions of advanced coal mine and rental sales in Utah, Northern Dakota, Tennessee and Alabama, in addition to Montana and Wyoming.

Interior secretary, Doug Burgum, said on Monday that the administration opened more than 20,000 square miles (52,000 square kilometers) from federal mining lands. It is a larger area than the New Hampshire and the Vermont combined.

The administration has also greatly reduced the charcoal fees for federal lands, ordered a coal -fired power station in Michigan to stay open in the expected retirement dates and promised $ 625 million when it comes to replacement or modernize coal power plants in the middle of electricity demand from artificial intelligence and data centers.

“We are putting the work of American minors,” said Burgum, flanked by coal minors and republican politicians. “We have a request curve that happens to us in terms of electricity request that literally crosses the roof.”

The request of the coal falls

The conclusion of the AP according to which power plants served by mines on public land burns less coal reflect a drop in the industry level that started in 2007.

Energy experts and economists have not been surprised. They expressed the doubt that coal would never recover domination in the energy sector. Officials of the Interior Department did not answer questions about the future request for public lands.

But it will take time for more electricity to the projects provided for natural gas and solar to put yourself online. This means that Trump’s actions could give a short -term bump to coal, said Umed Paliwal, an electricity market expert at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“Finally, coal will be expelled from the market,” said Paliwal. “The economy will simply eat the generation of coal over time.”

Coal sales in Montana and Wyoming were requested by the Navajo National Society. The Navajo Transitional Energy Co. (NTEC) has been one of the largest players in the industry since the purchase of several large mines in the Powder river basin during an auction in 2019. These mines provide 34 power plants in 19 states.

Twenty -one of the factories should stop burning the coal over the next decade. They include the five plants using charcoal from the Ntec Spring Creek mine in Montana.

In deposits with federal officials, the company said that the fair market value of 167 million tonnes of federal coal next to the Spring Creek mine was just over $ 126,000.

It is less than a tenth of one sou per tonne, a fraction of what the coal brought to its peak. In comparison, the last large -scale rental sale in the Powder River basin, also for 167 million tonnes of coal, attracted an offer of $ 35 million in 2013. Federal officials rejected this as too low.

NTEC said low value was supported by previous government exams predicting fewer coal buyers. The company said taxpayers would benefit from the operated coal royalties in the years to come.

“The coal market will decrease considerably over the next two decades. There are fewer coal mines expanding their reserves, there are fewer buyers of thermal coal and there are more regulatory constraints,” said the company.

Wednesday, in the center of Wyoming, the government will sell 440 million tonnes of coal next to the Ntec Antelope mine. Just over half of the 29 power plants served by the mine should stop burning the coal by 2035.

Among them is the Rawhide plant in northern Colorado. It is due to leaving the coal in 2029, but will continue to manufacture electricity with natural gas and 30 megawatts of solar panels.

Aging plants and optimism

The largest American coal company has offered a more optimistic vision of the future of coal. Because the new nuclear and gas power plants are in the years, Peabody Energy suggested in September that the demand for coal in the United States could increase 250 million tonnes per year, almost 50% compared to current volumes.

The projection of Peabody was based on the premise that existing power plants can burn more coal. This amount, known as the factory capacity, has dropped by about half in recent years.

“American coal is clearly in return mode,” said Peabody president James Grech at a recent conference call with analysts. “The United States has more energy in its coal reserves than any nation in a single source of energy.”

No large coal-fired power plant has been posted in the United States since 2013. Most existing factories are 40 years old or over. The money promised by the administration to renovate older plants will not go very far given only one boiler component in a factory can cost $ 25 million to replace, said Nikhil Kumar with Gridlab, an energy consulting group.

This brings back to the question of who will buy coal.

“I do not see where you get all this coal consumed in the remaining installations,” said Kumar.