WASHINGTON >> The Trump administration will expand coal mine leasing on federal lands and provide hundreds of millions of dollars to support more coal-fired power generation, officials said today.

The plan is part of a broader effort by the administration to reverse the decline of coal use in the U.S., a fossil fuel that has been hard hit by environmental regulation and competition from natural gas in recent years.

At a press conference in Washington, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said his department would open 13.1 million acres (5.3 million hectares) of federal land for coal leasing. The area opened up, in North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming, was more than triple the area in President Donald Trump’s massive funding law.

President Joe Biden put a pause on coal leasing on federal lands a

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