Micah Drew

(Daily Montanan) The U.S. House last week passed a resolution overturning Biden-era restrictions on resource extraction across millions of acres in eastern Montana, bringing Montana’s all-Republican delegation closer to stated goals of bolstering the state’s mining and energy sectors.

But conservation groups said the change — which needs approval in the U.S. Senate — reverses environmental gains and ignores local stakeholders

House Joint Resolution 104 , carried by the state’s eastern Congressman, Rep. Troy Downing, passed on near-partisan lines, with all but one Republican in favor and all Democrats opposed.

“The Biden Administration’s outright ban on coal leasing in the Powder River Basin is an intolerable threat to domestic energy production, U.S. national security,

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