Fate of National Coal Leasing Program Gets Day in Court

A central piece of President Donald Trump’s pro-coal platform will be tested Dec. 13 in a federal court in Montana.

Hanging in the balance: the fate of the national coal leasing program. The Obama administration put new leases on hold in early 2016 while it studied the program’s environmental and economic effects. The Trump administration restarted the program two months after taking office.

Now, a coalition of environmental groups will claim in oral arguments Dec. 13 that Trump’s restart was improper because it bypassed an environmental review they said was required under the National Environmental Policy ...