Latest news with #USInteriorDepartment
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Trump Administration Coal Mine Expansion: Trump administration approves coal mine expansion to boost Asia exports, ET Manufacturing
Advt Advt The US Interior Department approved a plan by Signal Peak Energy to expand coal mining, providing exports for Japan and South Korea, the agency said on Friday, as it responded to President Donald Trump's energy-emergency approval authorizes the Montana-based coal company to recover 22.8 million metric tons of federal coal and 34.5 million tons of adjacent non-federal coal and extend the life of the Bull Mountains mine by nine Secretary Doug Burgum, who is also co-chair of Trump's Energy Dominance Council, said unlocking more federal coal enables the US to bolster ties with allies abroad."President Trump's leadership in declaring a national energy emergency is allowing us to act decisively, cut bureaucratic delays and secure America's future through energy independence and strategic exports," he January 20, Trump declared an energy emergency to speed permitting, roll back environmental protections and withdraw the US from an international pact to fight climate Peak had initially sent its plan to expand its mining operations to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement in 2020, but it has been under federal review and subject to litigation since Interior Department completed the environmental impact statement for the mine expansion according to its new policy to speed such reviews to a maximum of 28 this week joined Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in Alaska to promote an LNG project, as well as other energy exports destined for Asian Bull Mountains mine in Montana, located in Musselshell and Yellowstone counties, employs over 250 workers and primarily supplies Japan and South groups have tried to block the expansion of the mine over concerns about its water use and greenhouse gas emissions."It's utter hogwash that we have to sacrifice the climate, water resources, wildlife and area ranching operations in order to send coal overseas to be burned by foreign countries," Anne Hedges, executive director of the Montana Environmental Information Center, said in a statement.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Trump administration approves coal mine expansion to boost Asia exports
The US Interior Department approved a plan by Signal Peak Energy to expand coal mining, providing exports for Japan and South Korea, the agency said on Friday, as it responded to President Donald Trump's energy-emergency directives. The approval authorizes the Montana-based coal company to recover 22.8 million metric tons of federal coal and 34.5 million tons of adjacent non-federal coal and extend the life of the Bull Mountains mine by nine years. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who is also co-chair of Trump's Energy Dominance Council, said unlocking more federal coal enables the US to bolster ties with allies abroad. "President Trump's leadership in declaring a national energy emergency is allowing us to act decisively, cut bureaucratic delays and secure America's future through energy independence and strategic exports," he said. On January 20, Trump declared an energy emergency to speed permitting, roll back environmental protections and withdraw the US from an international pact to fight climate change. Signal Peak had initially sent its plan to expand its mining operations to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement in 2020, but it has been under federal review and subject to litigation since then. The Interior Department completed the environmental impact statement for the mine expansion according to its new policy to speed such reviews to a maximum of 28 days. Burgum this week joined Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in Alaska to promote an LNG project, as well as other energy exports destined for Asian markets. The Bull Mountains mine in Montana, located in Musselshell and Yellowstone counties, employs over 250 workers and primarily supplies Japan and South Korea. Environmental groups have tried to block the expansion of the mine over concerns about its water use and greenhouse gas emissions. "It's utter hogwash that we have to sacrifice the climate, water resources, wildlife and area ranching operations in order to send coal overseas to be burned by foreign countries," Anne Hedges, executive director of the Montana Environmental Information Center, said in a statement.
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
U.S. Takes a Another Step Toward Opening the Seabed for Mining
Commercial mining on the miles-deep Pacific Ocean floor came one step closer to reality with an announcement late Tuesday by the U.S. Interior Department that it would evaluate a request from a California-based company to extract metals off the coast of American Samoa. The move follows an executive order last month that urged government agencies to expedite permits for seabed mining in U.S. territorial waters as well as international waters. Most other nations argue that the United States does not have the legal right to mine the seabed beyond its own territorial waters. Parts of the ocean floor are blanketed by potato-size nodules containing valuable minerals like nickel, cobalt and manganese that are essential to advanced technologies that the United States considers critical to its economic and military security. Supply chains of many of these valuable minerals are increasingly controlled by China. No commercial-scale mining of the seabed has ever taken place. The technological hurdles to seabed mining are high, and there have been serious concerns about the environmental consequences. Yet many countries have been impatient to get started as demand grows for the metals found there. Under a United Nations treaty signed by nearly every country except the United States, mining in international waters is supposed to wait until regulations and environmental protections have been agreed upon. President Trump's executive order last month stirred outrage across a broad swath of governments and activist groups that said permits issued unilaterally by the U.S. government would be in breach of widely accepted international law. The Interior Department's announcement on Tuesday pertains to a request from a company called Impossible Metals to move toward mining in U.S. territorial waters. In early April, before the executive order was issued, the company had requested that the government consider granting it access to nearly 30,000 square miles of those waters. Testifying in front of a congressional subcommittee in April, the company's chief executive, Oliver Gunasekara, said the election of a new, Republican governor in American Samoa last November boded well for their plans. An application made last year by the company to the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management was denied and, shortly thereafter, the previous governor of American Samoa, a Democrat, enacted a moratorium on seabed mining in the territory's waters. American Samoa, which is around 2,600 miles southwest of Hawaii, is not a U.S. state and has no representation in Congress. It is also the only U.S. territory where people born there are not automatically granted citizenship at birth. 'As soon as the executive order came out, that very much directed the different groups to accelerate and prioritize deep-sea mining,' Mr. Gunasekara said in an interview on Wednesday. He added that his company's request was to explore a zone near the United States' maritime border with the Cook Islands. 'It avoids any existing marine sanctuaries, even though there was a recent executive order that rescinded them,' he said, referring to Mr. Trump's opening of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to commercial fishing in April. For decades, negotiators at the International Seabed Authority, an agency affiliated with the United Nations, have been drafting and redrafting a rule book for deep-sea mining that would cover everything from environmental regulations to royalty payments. Despite a pledge to finalize it by this year, negotiators seemed unlikely to meet that deadline. Nevertheless, anticipating that mining would eventually be allowed, a handful of companies have invested heavily in developing technologies to mine the ocean floor. They include ships with huge claws that would extend down to the seabed, as well as autonomous vehicles attached to gargantuan vacuums that would scour the ocean bottom. The furthest along is the Metals Company, a Canadian enterprise that, so far, is the only company to apply for a U.S. permit after Mr. Trump's executive order. Through a U.S.-based subsidiary, the company is seeking to mine in the so-called Clarion-Clipperton Zone, in international waters, about halfway between Hawaii and Mexico, and has spent more than a half-billion dollars preparing to mine. Its application will go through a separate permitting process run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is part of the Commerce Department. The Metals Company has developed an extraction technology that resembles a vacuum attached to an autonomous vehicle that would trundle across the seafloor, sending up nodules to a ship through a pipe. The company proposing to mine near American Samoa, Impossible Metals, says it has a machine that will pick up nodules individually and without actually landing on the seafloor. An Interior Department news release said the department would now begin the process of seeking input 'from the Indigenous Island community, ocean users, industry stakeholders, government agencies and the public,' in its consideration of whether to grant Impossible Metals request. Mr. Gunasekara said this was only the beginning of a 'multiyear process' that he hoped would move from public consultation to exploration to environmental assessments and ultimately a production license.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump approves New York wind turbines that dwarf the Statue of Liberty
Donald Trump has cleared the path for a $5bn (£3.8bn) wind farm off New York that could power half a million homes. The Empire Wind project to build 138 giant wind turbines, each three times the height of the Statue of Liberty, was blocked by the US Interior Department last month. The move infuriated developer Equinor and the Norwegian government, its main shareholder, as it immediately imposed costs of $50m a week to keep its contractors and suppliers on site while doing nothing. Mr Trump has now rowed back and lifted the block after meeting Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norway's prime minister, and Jens Stoltenberg, its finance minister, in Washington. They are understood to have reminded him of the extent of Equinor's investment in the US – mostly in oil and gas. Anders Opedal, the Equinor president and chief executive, thanked the pair 'for their support at a critical time' after they 'raised the situation with the US administration'. The decision to block Empire Wind had caused consternation in the US and in the global renewables industry, as it had been approved only after multiple lengthy assessments of its costs and environmental impacts. It suggested no other project was safe from a Trump intervention – a risk too great for many investors. Ørsted, a Danish company with advanced plans for two other windfarms off the US east coast, instantly lost 40pc of its share value – a decrease of $10bn. Mr Trump has repeatedly made the bizarre claim, with no known evidence, that offshore wind turbines are killing whales 'in numbers never seen before' and that they 'kill all the birds'. The US president issued an executive order on his first day in office pausing new leasing and permits for wind projects, which he claimed were ugly, expensive and harmful to wildlife. In April, Doug Burgum, the US interior secretary, told Equinor to also halt construction of Empire Wind – covering 80,000 acres of sea 15 miles south of Long Island. He said the Biden administration had approved it without proper analysis of the environmental impacts. Equinor purchased the Empire Wind lease during Trump's first administration in 2017, and the project was approved under former president Joe Biden in 2023. The project, which will use wind turbines from Vestas, is 30pc complete, according to the company. The machines will rise 900ft above sea level, whereas the Statue of Liberty is just 305ft tall. Equinor generated huge interest from lenders keen to finance the project because of the high and guaranteed returns under the 25-year agreement with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. The deal to supply electricity from Empire Wind to New York, agreed in June 2024, is at a strike price of $155.00 (£116) per megawatt hour – which is far higher than the amounts on offer in the UK. The US has four operating offshore wind farms with three more under construction, besides Empire Wind. Ørsted owns both Sunrise Wind off the coast of New York and Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island. Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is also under way. 'This project delivers on the energy ambitions shared by the United States and New York by providing a vital new source of power to the region,' said Molly Morris, the president of Equinor Wind US. 'Empire Wind brings supply chain investments in states across the nation including New York, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas and South Carolina.' Erik Milito, the president of trade body the National Ocean Industries Association, welcomed the move, saying it would 'activate American shipyards, create high-quality jobs, and accelerate the build-out of infrastructure needed to deliver reliable, domestic energy to the East Coast'. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump approves New York wind turbines that dwarf the Statue of Liberty
Donald Trump has cleared the path for a $5bn (£3.8bn) wind farm off New York that could power half a million homes. The Empire Wind project to build 138 giant wind turbines, each three times the height of the Statue of Liberty, was blocked by the US Interior Department last month. The move infuriated developer Equinor and the Norwegian government, its main shareholder, as it immediately imposed costs of $50m a week to keep its contractors and suppliers on site while doing nothing. Mr Trump has now rowed back and lifted the block after meeting Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norway's prime minister, and Jens Stoltenberg, its finance minister, in Washington. They are understood to have reminded him of the extent of Equinor's investment in the US – mostly in oil and gas. Anders Opedal, the Equinor president and chief executive, thanked the pair 'for their support at a critical time' after they 'raised the situation with the US administration'. The decision to block Empire Wind had caused consternation in the US and in the global renewables industry, as it had been approved only after multiple lengthy assessments of its costs and environmental impacts. It suggested no other project was safe from a Trump intervention – a risk too great for many investors. Ørsted, a Danish company with advanced plans for two other windfarms off the US east coast, instantly lost 40pc of its share value – a decrease of $10bn. Mr Trump has repeatedly made the bizarre claim, with no known evidence, that offshore wind turbines are killing whales 'in numbers never seen before' and that they 'kill all the birds'. The US president issued an executive order on his first day in office pausing new leasing and permits for wind projects, which he claimed were ugly, expensive and harmful to wildlife. In April, Doug Burgum, the US interior secretary, told Equinor to also halt construction of Empire Wind – covering 80,000 acres of sea 15 miles south of Long Island. He said the Biden administration had approved it without proper analysis of the environmental impacts. Equinor purchased the Empire Wind lease during Trump's first administration in 2017, and the project was approved under former president Joe Biden in 2023. The project, which will use wind turbines from Vestas, is 30pc complete, according to the company. The machines will rise 900ft above sea level, whereas the Statue of Liberty is just 305ft tall. Equinor generated huge interest from lenders keen to finance the project because of the high and guaranteed returns under the 25-year agreement with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. The deal to supply electricity from Empire Wind to New York, agreed in June 2024, is at a strike price of $155.00 (£116) per megawatt hour – which is far higher than the amounts on offer in the UK. The US has four operating offshore wind farms with three more under construction, besides Empire Wind. Ørsted owns both Sunrise Wind off the coast of New York and Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island. Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is also under way. 'This project delivers on the energy ambitions shared by the United States and New York by providing a vital new source of power to the region,' said Molly Morris, the president of Equinor Wind US. 'Empire Wind brings supply chain investments in states across the nation including New York, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas and South Carolina.' Erik Milito, the president of trade body the National Ocean Industries Association, welcomed the move, saying it would 'activate American shipyards, create high-quality jobs, and accelerate the build-out of infrastructure needed to deliver reliable, domestic energy to the East Coast'. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
