Judge nixes return of coal moratorium

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit from a coalition of states, environmental groups, and American Indians that sought to revive an Obama-era moratorium against U.S. government coal sales on public lands in the West. The judge said the Federal Government had fixed its initial failure to consider the climate change impacts of ending the moratorium.

Opponents of the leasing program included the Democratic attorneys general of California, New York, New Mexico, and Washington state.

The mining industry and two coal states, Wyoming and Montana, joined the case on the side of the federal government.