Montana Coal Lease Awarded for Less Than a Penny Per ton in Largest Sale in Over a Decade
BILLINGS, Mont. – North American Coal Corporation (NTEC) secured a lease for 1,262 acres of coal near it’s Spring Creek mine in Decker, Montana, bidding approximately $0.008 per ton – teh lowest price in a major U.S. coal lease sale in over a decade. The bid totaled $147 per acre for an estimated 96 million tons of coal. Federal officials have not yet announced whether the offer will be accepted; it was the sole bid received.
The sale took place at the Bureau of Land Management local office in Billings, Montana, with two NTEC representatives present who declined to comment afterward. The outcome contrasts sharply with a 2022 sale in Wyoming, where a Peabody Energy subsidiary paid $793 million, or $1.10 per ton,for 721 million tons of coal.
Demand for the coal is uncertain, as the five power plants currently supplied by the Spring Creek mine are projected to cease coal burning within the next decade, according to an Associated Press analysis. The lease is located in the Powder River basin, the nation’s most productive coal region.
The Biden management previously halted coal lease sales in the region due to climate change concerns,a decision Republicans are attempting to reverse.NTEC justified its low bid by citing government studies predicting a significant decline in coal markets over the next two decades.
Another sale is scheduled for Wednesday in central Wyoming, offering 440 million tons of coal adjacent to NTEC’s Antelope Mine. These sales are proceeding despite the government shutdown because fossil fuel project review personnel were not furloughed under the Trump administration.
Despite President Trump’s efforts to expand coal mining and burning,Harvard University economist James Stock,a former Obama administration official,believes new coal plant construction is unlikely. “I don’t expect these leases to have much real-world impact,” Stock said, suggesting much of the leased coal may remain unmined. Spring Creek currently exports coal to Asia,but industry efforts to increase those shipments have been limited by port capacity.
