The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has denied a petition by environmental groups to change how it sells access to the nation's most productive coal deposits.
Since 1990, the government has allowed the coal industry to nominate deposits to mine in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana.
The groups WildEarth Guardians and the Sierra Club in 2009 asked the BLM to change the policy so the BLM alone would decide which coal reserves to sell.
The groups say that would help create more competition for the leases while improving oversight of coal's contribution to climate change.
BLM Director Bob Abbey says the existing process provides an "optimum" public return. He also says limiting coal mining in one area would not affect worldwide coal use or climate change.
