Bidding in Montana was about the right to 167 million tons of federally owned coal in the Spring Creek mine. But the only bid was $186,000, reports ABC. This corresponds to just over 1 öre per ton, and in practice means that no one wants to extract the coal.
This can be compared to the last auction of this size in the area, 2012. Then the price landed at $1.10 per ton, about a thousand times higher.
After the fiasco in Montana, the next auction, which was to take place in Wyoming on Wednesday, was cancelled. This writes the news site Wyofile.
"Clean, beautiful"
The Department of the Interior blames the weak result on Trump's predecessors. "We would have preferred greater interest, but this reflects the lingering effects of Obama's and Biden's decades-long war on coal," the department writes to Wyofile.
Despite coal being the most polluting fuel of all, the Trump administration talks about "clean, beautiful coal", and has announced political measures to revive the sector.
Gas, wind and sun
But experts in the energy industry are skeptical that coal has a chance. The curves for coal-fired power in the US have been pointing relentlessly downward for 20 years, even during Trump's previous presidential term 2017-2021. The energy sources that are growing are fossil gas and - despite Trump's skepticism towards green energy - wind and sun.
There is no competition for the coal that is left in the ground, and therefore it is hardly worth any money, says analyst Seth Feaster at the industry organization IEEFA to Wyofile.
The coal sector is a major employer in some states, a public that Trump likes to appeal to. But Feaster does not see how the trend could be reversed.
This points to the fundamental, structural decline that the coal industry is in. That picture has not changed, despite everything they say, he says, referring to the Trump administration.
