Montana coal mine expansion stalls in lawsuit citing climate change

  • By Matthew Brown Associated Press
  • Monday, October 26, 2015 1:20pm
  • Business

BILLINGS, Mont. — The U.S. Interior Department should not have approved the expansion of a southeastern Montana coal mine before taking a closer look at its effect on the environment, a federal judge said about a lawsuit arguing the government ignored coal’s contributions to climate change.

Environmental groups sued the Interior Department after it approved an expansion of the Spring Creek Coal mine in 2012. The case marks the second time conservationists have used worries over climate change to successfully challenge approval of a coal mine after it had been granted.

But unlike in the previous case involving Colorado mines, U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Ostby did not explicitly name climate change as a factor in her decision issued Friday. She instead referred more broadly to “air quality” concerns, saying the government had failed to explain its thinking on the issue before granting approval.

Ostby said work at the mine near Decker will not be shut down immediately. Rather, the judge recommended that federal officials reconsider the environmental effects of the expansion by Wyoming-based Cloud Peak Energy. The mine, which employs about 260 people, is allowed to continue operating in the meantime.

The judge gave the government 180 days to complete its analysis before the mine’s approval would be vacated. U.S. District Judge Susan Watters will have the final decision.

The 2,042-acre expansion of the Spring Creek Coal mine added 117 million tons of coal that could be mined, which would allow it to operate through at least 2022. Mining on those parcels already has begun.

Cloud Peak spokesman Rick Curtsinger said the company was disappointed in the judge’s decision and planned to work with federal officials to defend the expansion.

“Spring Creek Mine is an important part of America’s energy supply and Montana’s economy,” Curtsinger said.

The Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation is the lead defendant in the case. A spokesman for the agency did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

A similar case resulting in federal officials reconsidering mining plans after they already were approved involved the Colowyo and the Trapper mines, both in Colorado. A decision is pending in another case involving the San Juan coal mine in New Mexico.

In September, plaintiff WildEarth Guardians filed another lawsuit in its campaign against the coal industry, challenging federal approvals for four more mines: the Antelope Mine and Black Thunder mines in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, the El Segundo Mine in New Mexico and the Bowie No. 2 Mine in Colorado.

Black Thunder, owned by St. Louis-based Arch Coal, is one of the largest coal mines in the world.

WildEarth Guardians’ Jeremy Nichols said Ostby’s recommendation offers “another solid sign that Interior’s coal program is completely off the rails.”

“For them to defend this and other mining approvals in the West when they so clearly violated their public involvement and environmental review obligations is reprehensible,” Nichols said.

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