Republicans vote to roll back Biden-era restrictions on mining and
drilling in 3 Western states
[October 10, 2025] By
MATTHEW BROWN and MATTHEW DALY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Republicans have voted to roll back
restrictions on mining, drilling and other development in three Western
states, advancing President Donald Trump's ambitions to expand energy
production from public lands.
Senators voted 50-46 Thursday to repeal a land management plan for a
large swath of Alaska that was adopted in the final weeks of Democratic
President Joe Biden’s administration. Lawmakers voted to roll back
similar plans for land in Montana and North Dakota earlier this week.
The timing of Biden's actions made the plans vulnerable to the
Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to terminate rules that
are finalized near the end of a president’s term. The resolutions
require a simple majority in each chamber and take effect upon the
president's signature.
The House approved the repeals last month in votes largely along party
lines. Trump is expected to sign the measures, which will boost a
proposed 211-mile road through an Alaska wilderness to allow mining of
copper, cobalt, gold and other minerals.
Trump ordered approval of the Ambler Road project earlier this week,
saying it will unlock access to copper, cobalt and other critical
minerals that the United States needs to compete with China on
artificial intelligence and other resource development. Copper is used
in the production of cars, electronics and even renewable energy
technologies such as wind turbines.
The road was approved in Trump’s first term, but was later blocked by
Biden after an analysis determined the project would threaten caribou
and other wildlife and harm Alaska Native tribes that rely on hunting
and fishing.
The Biden-era restrictions also included a block on new mining leases in
the nation's most productive coal-producing region, the Powder River
Basin in Montana and Wyoming. On Monday, the Trump administration held
the biggest coal sale in that area in more than a decade, drawing a
single bid of $186,000 for 167.5 million tons of coal, or about a tenth
of a penny per ton.
Trump has largely cast aside Biden's goal to reduce climate-warming
emissions from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels extracted from
federal land. Instead, he and congressional Republicans have moved to
open more taxpayer-owned land to fossil fuel development, hoping to
create more jobs and revenue. The Republican administration also has
pushed to develop critical minerals, including copper, cobalt, gold and
zinc.
A decision on whether to accept the recent bid from the Navajo
Transitional Energy Co. is pending, and the lease cannot be issued until
the Montana land plan is altered. The dirt-cheap value reflects dampened
industry interest in coal despite Trump's efforts. Many utilities have
switched to cheaper natural gas or renewables such as wind and solar
power.
[to top of second column] |
The Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, where the Ambler
Road project would pass through, is visible from Ambler, Alaska,
Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
 Administration officials expressed
disappointment that they did not receive “stronger participation” in
the Montana sale. In a statement, Interior Department spokesperson
Aubrie Spady blamed a “decades long war on coal” by Biden and former
Democratic President Barack Obama.
Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana said the repeal of the
land-management plan in his state was “putting an end to disastrous
Biden-era regulations that put our resource economy on life
support.”
Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska called the Biden-era plan for
13 million acres in the central Yukon region “a clear case of
federal overreach that locks up Alaska’s lands, ignores Alaska
Native voices ... and blocks access to critical energy, gravel &
mineral resources.”
The GOP legislation “restores balance, strengthens U.S. energy &
mineral security and upholds the law,” Sullivan said in a statement.
Democrats urged rejection of the repeals, arguing that Trump’s
fossil fuel-friendly agenda is driving up energy prices because
renewable sources are being sidelined even as the tech industry’s
power demands soar for data centers and other projects.
“We are seeing dramatic increases in the price of energy for
American consumers and businesses and the slashing of American jobs,
so that Donald Trump can give an easy pass to the fossil fuel
industry,” Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said Wednesday on
the Senate floor.
Last week, the administration canceled almost $8 billion in grants
for clean energy projects in 16 states that Democratic presidential
candidate Kamala Harris won in the 2024 election.
Ashley Nunes, public lands specialist at the Center for Biological
Diversity, an environmental group, said Republicans were unleashing
“a wholesale assault on America’s public lands.” Using the
Congressional Review Act to erase land management plans “will sow
chaos across the country and turn our most cherished places into
playgrounds for coal barons and industry polluters,” she said.
___
Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
