The Nickel Report

On April 8, President Donald Trump issued a series of orders and a proclamation (collectively the “orders”) intended to revitalize US coal production and the industrial use of coal, including for power generation. Among them was an Executive Order on “Strengthening the Reliability and Security of the United States Electric Grid”[1]  directing the Secretary of Energy to take a series of steps intended to enhance electric grid reliability and security.

On April 8, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241, which builds on the March 20 Executive Order titled Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production (Executive Order 14241) and complements two other executive orders issued on April 8 focused on strengthening the US electric grid and protecting American energy from state overreach. The coal order provides for immediate action to remove restrictions on coal leasing, mining, and exporting and outlines initiatives to extend coal-power infrastructure and support coal technologies. This order is part of the administration’s holistic strategy to promote coal production in order to support domestic job creation, provide reliable energy supply for resurgent electricity demand from emerging technologies, lower energy costs, capitalize on vast US coal reserves, and facilitate coal exports. 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has issued a final rule to make adjustments to its location and maintenance fees for unpatented mining claims, mill sites, and tunnel sites. The rule became effective on July 1, 2024. 

The new fees are in effect for the 2025 assessment year, which starts September 1, 2024.

The Mining Law of 1872 allows people to prospect for valuable minerals on public lands. Prospectors can “locate” or “stake” mining claims. In 1999, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposed a regulation to limit mining claimants from locating more than one mill site for each mining claim. Later, in 2003, BLM promulgated a Final Rule withdrawing the proposed 1999 regulation. In a decision filed on June 25, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to uphold the 2003 Final Rule.

On January 11, 2017, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a proposed rule pursuant to Section 108(b) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA or Superfund), mandating extensive and costly financial assurance requirements applicable to the hardrock mining and mineral processing industry. On the same day, EPA also announced plans to commence rulemaking to consider similar requirements for additional classes of facilities in the petroleum and coal, chemical manufacturing, and electric power generation, transmission and distribution sectors. Both proposals derive from a series of lawsuits culminating in a “sue and settle” order of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals affirming a schedule agreed to between EPA and various environmental groups to issue financial assurance regulations.