Wyoming’s 440M-ton coal lease is back — but don’t expect a bidding war

A monster coal tract in the Powder River Basin is finally headed to the auction block again. The catch: in today’s market, even coal companies say it isn’t worth what it used to be, Oil City News reports.

The US Bureau of Land Management has revived the West Antelope III lease-by-application — about 440 million tons of federal coal under 3,500 acres in Campbell and Converse counties. The agency is fast-tracking the process and just published a final environmental review that offers two choices: deny the lease or offer it for competitive sale. Public comments on fair-market value and maximum economic recovery are due Sept. 21.

At a BLM listening session, producers all but begged the government to reset expectations.

• Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC) — which runs the nearby Antelope mine — wants the option to expand but only “if the price is right,” Technical Services Manager Blake Jones said.
• CORE Natural Resources told BLM fair-market value is “far below” the old benchmarks that once defined PRB leasing.

“It will take some time to dig out of the current hole,” said Jamie Olson of CORE’s Thunder Basin Coal Co., urging the agency to give “little weight” to past valuations.

Industry backers argue the sticker price isn’t the whole story.

“The other part of the fair-market value is the job component,” said Travis Deti of the Wyoming Mining Association — payrolls, vendors, and tax streams that only show up after coal is leased and mined.

Conservation groups aren’t buying it. With the Trump administration pushing “unleashing energy” directives, they worry BLM will undervalue the tract — and question whether there’s demand to mine it over 20–25 years. Emma Jones of the Sierra Club called the leasing push a “lifeline” to a shrinking industry.

There’s also the revenue math. Even if a company bids, Wyoming stands to collect less per ton than in years past. A provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill cut the federal coal royalty from 12.5% to 7% — an estimated $50 million annual hit to the state — while lawmakers trimmed the state severance tax on surface coal from 6.5% to 6% (about $10 million less in 2026, and likely falling with production).

PRB bonus bids once showered Wyoming schools with money: in the 1990s, winning bids ran $0.11–$0.38/ton; by the early 2010s, they topped $1/ton. One 2012 sale — 721 million tons to North Antelope Rochelle — fetched $793 million. From 1992–2012, coal bonus bids generated about $5.4 billion, roughly half to Wyoming.

Then the market changed. Prices slid, utilities pivoted, and bankruptcies piled up. Cloud Peak Energy nominated West Antelope III in 2015 but collapsed in 2019; its mines went to NTEC. BLM re-engaged NTEC shortly after this summer’s federal policy changes and restarted the lease.

State officials are cheering the speed. Kyle Wendtland of the Wyoming Energy Authority — who worked at Cloud Peak when this tract was first teed up — urged BLM to move forward “based on a fair-market value assessment,” arguing reliable PRB supply still matters for national power markets.

What’s next

• Final EIS published Aug. 15; decision will be to offer or deny the lease.
• Comment deadline: Sept. 21 via the BLM National NEPA Register.
• If offered, the tract goes to the highest sealed bid that meets BLM’s undisclosed fair-market value.

Wyoming’s biggest new coal offering in years is alive again — but with softer demand, lower royalties, and slimmer tax rates, even potential buyers are telling the feds not to expect the kind of blockbuster bids that once defined the Powder River Basin.