"Zinke Ends Coal Ban, Creates Panel To Review Royalties"

"Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke today ordered that coal leasing be restarted in the United States but announced that his agency will continue reviewing whether federal royalty rates need to be raised.

Zinke followed through on President Trump's executive order yesterday tasking him with taking 'all steps necessary and appropriate' to end the three-year ban on new coal leasing imposed by President Obama in January 2016.

Hailing Trump's 'bold stroke' to promote energy production and jobs at home, Zinke signed a secretarial order ending the coal moratorium today at a ceremony in Interior headquarters.

He also declared that an Obama-ordered review of the federal coal program is dead. But Zinke will re-establish a federal advisory committee made up of states, tribes and other advocacy groups to study whether Americans are getting a fair return on coal as well as oil and natural gas."

Dylan Brown reports for Greenwire March 29, 2017.