Tucked into President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that became law this past summer was a section requiring the Interior Department to make at least four million acres of “known recoverable coal resources” available for lease. Perhaps in an effort to preen for his boss (the president), or maybe because he really believes his own “mine baby mine” rhetoric, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced in October that he was making more than 13 million acres of public land available for coal leasing nationwide.

On its face, Utah’s share of the 13 million acres—a modest 48,000 acres compared to 6.7 million acres in Montana—appears relatively insignificant, but upon closer examination we discovered two alarming facts.

First, many of these newly opened lands were immediately adjacent or very close to three national parks (Capitol Reef, Bryce, and Zion) as well as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (see map). If Burgum has his way, the views from both the eastern entrance to Capitol Reef and Yovimpa Point at the southern end of Bryce Canyon’s scenic drive could be marred by industrial development.

Second, the vast majority of those 48,000 acres were identified by the BLM in 2008—under Republican Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne—as unsuitable for coal mining, in part because of their proximity to parks and monuments. Nothing has changed since then, except for Trump and Burgum’s utter contempt for protected western public lands and their insistence on propping up a dying industry.

We’ll be keeping a close eye out for lease applications for any of these 48,000 acres and will work to defeat them.

—Steve Bloch

The above article first appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2025 issue of our Redrock Wilderness newsletter. Become a member to receive our print newsletter in your mailbox 3 times a year.