Daines Urges Overturn of Biden Anti-Coal Rule to Unleash Montana Energy

• October 7, 2025

U.S. SENATE - U.S. Senator Steve Daines today delivered a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate urging his colleagues to vote for his pro-mining legislation that would remove a harmful Biden-era rule that restricts coal mining in Eastern Montana.

Watch Daines' remarks HERE.

Read Daines' remarks as prepared for delivery below.

Mr/Mdm. President, today the Senate will vote to proceed to my joint resolution to congressionally disapprove and officially roll back President Biden's anti-coal rule in Montana.

H.J.Res.104 is supported by the entire Montana delegation.

I want to thank Congressmen Downing and Zinke for leading this resolution in the House and Senator Sheehy for joining me in the Senate.

The Resolution is also supported by many, many Montanans, including:

• Governor Gianforte
• The Mayor of Colstrip
• Montana Coal Council
• Montana Electric Cooperatives
• Northwestern Energy
• Local Counties
• Both of the affected coal mines
• And many more.

I want to explain quickly what we are doing today.

Today we will take the first step in overturning the Miles City Resource Management Plan Amendment that prohibits new coal leasing in Eastern Montana.

I want to be clear, this resolution only overturns the anti-coal amendment issued by the Biden Administration in the final days of his term.

No action taken today affects the underlying Miles City Resource Management Plan or how the BLM manages recreation, conservation, and other energy development in the state.

Future coal development will be managed under the existing RMP as it had for years before Biden added his amendment.

Now why is this important for Montana?

The Biden amendment prohibits all new coal leasing in eastern Montana.

Eastern Montana and Wyoming are home to the Powder River Basin - the largest coal reserves in the United States.

The Biden Administration prohibited new coal development in the America's largest coal reserve.

BLM's resource management plans are meant to be a bipartisan process, taking in feedback from folks on the ground and implementing the multiple use mission of the BLM.

The Biden administration took this process and flipped it on its face, disregarding Montana voices.

We are going to right that wrong now.

We are going to give Montana a voice in the process.

Overturning this partisan rule will grow Montana energy jobs and help our rural communities.

According to the Montana Coal Council, coal supports over 890 high paying jobs in Montana and has provided $2.7 billion in federal, state, private, and tribal royalties.

And in a letter from the Governor, he states the Biden RMPA, "amounts to a loss of $4.32 billion in future revenue to State trust land beneficiaries, which include K-12 public education."

I urge my colleague to support Montana jobs and communities and vote yes on today's motion.

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Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins