Federal lands larger than Delaware move closer to coming up for sale to coal mining companies

Federal officials on Monday took a first step toward reopening vast areas of public lands in two Western states to new coal sales as part of President Donald Trump’s push to expand U.S. fossil fuel production.

The Interior Department proposal comes after the Biden administration, citing climate change, tried to end sales of the fuel from the nation’s most productive coal fields — the Powder River Basin in northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana.

The Trump administration...