Acting under an earlier order in the case, the administration in February released an analysis that said the decision to resume coal sales would make little difference over time in greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, a contention critics said was flawed.

Yet critics of the coal program note that some lease sales have continued and say the administration’s moves could open tens of thousands of acres of public lands to new mining.

The mining industry and two coal states, Wyoming and Montana, had intervened in the case on the side of the federal government.

They said lawsuit inappropriately sought to use the court system as a “backdoor vehicle” to stop coal leasing after other branches of the federal government declined to take up their cause.

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox said the continuation of the leasing program was crucial for existing mines in his state, which has some of the largest coal reserves in the world along its southeastern border with Wyoming.

The leases in Utah and Oklahoma that were analyzed make up a small piece of a federal leasing program that accounts for about 40% of U.S.