A federal judge elevated the importance of climate change in a ruling last week halting the expansion of coal mining in the nation’s top coal-producing area, environmental law experts say.

The Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming supplies 40 percent of the nation’s coal, including Colorado Springs Utilities. The Bureau of Land Management’s proposal submitted in 2015 would have opened more than 15 million acres of public land and mineral rights to coal mining and oil and gas drilling.

“What this decision, if upheld, means is that the federal government has to be more open-minded and think more broadly moving forward in land management decisions in light of climate change,” said University of Colorado Boulder Natural Resources Law Professor Mark Squillace. “The judge wouldn’t accept the business-as-usual approach, which would issue leasing under old climate assumptions.”

Steve Brown, an adjunct professor in the University of Montana’s Natural Resources and Environmental Law program, agreed.

“The court is saying you can’t ignore the most up-to-date climate science. That’s a big deal,” Brown said.

Under the National Environmental Policy Act, the BLM must propose all alternatives to coal mining expansion that would mitigate the effects of climate change, Montana U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris ruled. Morris said the plan failed to do that and required the BLM to submit a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement that would outline options to decrease coal mining in the area and to more aggressively mitigate the impact of the resulting greenhouse gases.

“BLM cannot acknowledge that climate change concerns defined, in part, the scope of the (Resource Management Plan) while simultaneously foreclosing consideration of alternatives that would reduce the amount of available coal,” Morris wrote in his decision.

Morris did not place a blanket moratorium on leasing in the area, as requested by the environmental groups which filed the suit.

The BLM is reviewing the court’s decision and has 60 days to submit a revised draft, wrote BLM spokesman Aaron Kania in an email. He did not say if the BLM planned to appeal the decision to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is generally seen as left-leaning in its decisions.

Morris’ ruling also implies that the judge wants the BLM to consider the decline in coal use across the country, said Brown.

“Between the lines, this judge is saying that there aren’t as many coal-fired power plants today as previously and that you can’t assume that there’s a market for whatever amount of coal is mined,” Brown said. “He is saying that needs to be part of the analysis.”

In 2017, operators of 27 coal-fired power plants announced their closure or conversion to alternative energy, Forbes reported. The trend is driven largely by the low price of natural gas and the decreasing price of solar and wind energy.

Environmental groups involved in the suit applauded the decision, though they will have to wait for further adjudication before they can call it a win.

“The court’s ruling rightfully declares that the impacts of energy development should be accounted for and that the government must consider taking some coal off the table to provide for other land uses” said Mark Fix, a member of Western Organization of Resource Councils, which is the primary plaintiff in the suit. His ranch is downstream from several coal mines in Miles City, Mont.

The Western Environmental Law Center attorney who represented the groups, Kyle Tisdel, said the Powder River Basin is “one of the best opportunities” the federal government has to curb climate change.

“The court rightly recognized the fundamental disconnect between the need to rein in carbon pollution and the way BLM has proposed to manage our public lands and minerals,” he said. “We hope BLM’s second chance will lead to better action.”

Coal industry representatives, on the other hand, saw the decision as an overreach in the interpretation of how the BLM must consider how to reduce coal mining under NEPA.

“The judge gave carte blanche to the environmental community,” said Colorado Mining Association President Stan Dempsey. “The court seems to have stretched to find the logic in the decision that the BLM must consider how to reduce the use of coal.”

Friday’s decision is not expected to impact CSU’s current operations or costs, said spokesman Mark Murphy.

“Our supplies are secured from current mining operations. We do not anticipate any adverse impact because of this ruling,” he said in an email.