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Lands agency Web page showcases mine

WASHINGTON — In a clear message about its policy priorities, the Trump administration has updated the home page for the federal agency that oversees public lands to showcase a photo of an open-pit coal mine.

The photo was stripped across the Bureau of Land Management site after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced approval Wednesday of a $22 million lease of more than 6,000 acres in Utah to a coal-mining company. In the past, the Web page has more typically featured photos of fields of wildflowers, forests and snow-capped mountains.

The bureau manages more than 245 million acres of and in a dozen states. Much of that acreage has for decades been leased for mining and drilling, but the use for coal mining has come under increasing scrutiny due to climate change.

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