Piles of coal wait to be loaded into trucks at the Sufco Coal Mine, 30 miles east of Salina, Utah, on May 28, 2014. George Frey/Getty ImagesThe Trump administration’s drive to boost United States’ coal production is gaining momentum with coal lease bids awarded in Alabama and Utah, new mine permits issued in Tennessee and Wyoming, and late-September’s opening of more than 13.1 million acres of federal mineral estate across six western states to coal-mining.

President Donald Trump’s January “National Energy Emergency Declaration” and “Unleashing American Energy” executive orders, and his April “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry” executive action, have loosened regulations, streamlined permitting, and classified coal, a sedimentary rock, as a critical mineral.

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