Congress has voted to overturn part of the federal management plans for millions of acres of BLM lands in eastern Montana.
The Bureau of Land Management’s Miles City Field Office manages almost 3 million acres of public lands. That’s just on the surface. The office is also responsible for more than 12 million acres below ground in mineral rights.
In 2024, the Miles City Field Office decided to stop selling new coal leases. The agency at that time cited declining demands for coal, and the goal of reducing planet-warming emissions
But Wednesday, the U.S. Senate concurred with a previous House vote to overturn that policy, as part of President Donald Trump’s push to revive fossil fuel power. Montana’s Republican Congressional delegation all voted in favor of the change. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines was critical of the field office’s 2024 decision.
"This means that the BLM prohibited all new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin. By the way, that is the home of the largest coal reserves in the United States," Daines said.
Active mines in the region with existing coal leases would not have been impacted.
Resource Management Plans guide how BLM lands are used and managed. They are drafted using feedback from all the people that use these lands. The development of the Miles City plan involved mineral owners, natural resource industry groups, landowners, ranchers, farmers, hunters and 17 tribal nations.
Jeanie Alderson was directly involved with developing the 2024 plan. She’s a sixth-generation rancher in southeastern Montana, and the BLM owns mineral rights under her land. Alderson says this change overrides local voices.
"To have all those years of all of us working on this – it's the best of our, sort of, democratic process, and with people who have to live with the results and the actions. But to have it done from Washington, D.C., just foisted on us, is really unfortunate."
It’s the first time the Congressional Review Act has been used to overturn a land use plan. Congress is now considering overturning management plans in other states, too.
