The Interior Department says a moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands is not being immediately reinstated even though Secretary Deb Haaland
Deb HaalandInterior Department to reconvene council on Native American issues Interior delays consideration of opening public Alaska lands to development Julia Letlow sworn in as House member after winning election to replace late husband MORE has revoked a Trump administration move that reversed it.
The Trump-era order, which terminated the Obama administration’s moratorium on new coal leasing, was one of a dozen such Trump-era moves that Haaland rescinded Friday.
A department spokesperson, however, denied that the move reinstates the Obama era leasing ban, saying the announcement doesn’t immediately take action on coal development, and that the agency is continuing to review a path forward.
The spokesperson declined to answer additional questions.
Sharon Buccino, the senior director of the land division at the Natural Resources Defense Council’s nature program, said the Obama pause has not been reinstated because of the specific language of the 2016 order that says it is effective until “its provisions are amended, superseded, or revoked.”
She argued that when the policy was revoked under then-President Trump
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“It was in fact revoked by Trump, so that basically terminates what Obama did,” Buccino said.
“What Secretary Haaland has done is, she’s rescinded what Trump did and so that clearly paves the way for giving greater scrutiny to new coal leasing, but the Obama moratorium isn’t live anymore … there’s nothing left to reinstate because of that language,” she added.
Even though the administration says it has not paused leasing federal land for coal mining, it has put a temporary pause on new leasing for oil and gas drilling.
Other orders revoked by Haaland on Friday aimed to speed up energy permitting and start developing a five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program.
In a separate memo, Principal Deputy Solicitor Robert Anderson revoked a Trump administration opinion from January that would have required the department to hold at least two offshore drilling lease sales.
