"Public Lands: Judge: Trump Can't Lift Coal Ban Without NEPA Review"

"The Trump administration must complete an environmental analysis to support its decision to lift an Obama-era moratorium on coal leasing on public lands, a federal judge ruled Friday.

Judge Brian Morris for the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana stopped short of requiring the broad programmatic environmental impact statement that Obama Interior Secretary Sally Jewell had begun, but he ordered Trump officials to initiate some level of National Environmental Policy Act review.

The decision is a major blow — the latest of many — to the Trump administration's efforts to expand fossil fuel production."

Pamela King reports for EnergyWire April 22, 2019.

SEE ALSO:

"Judge Delivers Major Setback to Trump Policy to Increase Coal Mining on Federal Land" (New York Times)