WildEarth Guardians

Thursday, June 8, 2017
Coalition Files Suit to Defend Climate, Clean Air and Water From Coal

Montana Mine Expansion Illegally Rubberstamped by Feds
Contact: Jeremy Nichols, (303) 437-7663, jnichols@wildearthguardians.org

Additional Contacts:

Derf Johnson, Montana Environmental Information Center, (406) 443-2520, djohnson@meic.org

Shiloh Hernandez, Western Environmental Law Center, (406) 204-4861, hernandez@westernlaw.org

Billings, MT—Today, a coalition of conservation and clean energy advocates filed suit to rein in the federal government’s illegal approval of an expansion of Montana’s largest coal mine. 

“The Interior Department’s management of our publicly owned coal is completely off the rails,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program director for WildEarth Guardians. “Whether it’s turning a blind eye to our climate or letting unauthorized employees make decisions, Interior is letting Americans down.”

The suit targets the U.S. Department of the Interior’s decision to allow Cloud Peak Energy, the third largest coal company in the nation, to strip nearly 100 million tons of publicly owned coal from 1,000 acres of public lands.

Despite being the largest coal mine in Montana and the largest strip mine in the nation outside of Wyoming, the mine has never been subject to a comprehensive environmental review under state or federal law.

Coal from the Spring Creek mine is burned in power plants in Asia and throughout the American West and Midwest. In 2016, the mine was responsible for approximately 20 million metric tons of carbon pollution, the equivalent pollution of 4.2 million cars—making it Montana’s largest contributor to global warming.

The federal government's approval of the mine expansion failed to disclose the climate implications of expanded mining, rail traffic, and exports, as well as failed to protect Montana’s public lands, air, and water.

The groups’ suit also targets the fact that the coal to be mined by Cloud Peak was never legally sold to the company in the first place. According to Interior Department records, an unauthorized official approved the sale of the coal, rendering it invalid.

“It’s absurd that the federal government has given the largest coal mine in Montana a free pass for decades. Enough is enough. The federal government cannot continue to ignore the very real and serious impacts of climate change. Climate change is having disastrous consequences on our economy, our environment, and our way of life both here and abroad,” said Derf Johnson, MEIC’s water policy director. “It’s time the federal government did its job and followed the law.”

The legal action comes as the fossil fuel industry is stepping up efforts to undermine clean energy and climate protection across the nation.  

At the urging of coal companies, Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, lifted a moratorium on new public lands coal leasing in March and scrapped efforts to reform federal coal management.  Zinke, a former U.S. Representative from Montana, has accepted political donations from Cloud Peak Energy and other companies.

Most recently, Zinke’s boss, President Trump, withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, which sought to cap carbon pollution and limit global temperature increases.  The U.S. now joins only two other countries—Nicaragua and Syria—in opposing the agreement. 

Trump and Zinke have both been under fire for rolling back safeguards to give fossil fuels a boost at the expense of cleaner energy.  In March, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and a coalition of environmental and public health groups filed suit against Zinke’s decision to approve more publicly owned coal sales and in early May, four states also filed suit. 

The suit was filed by the Western Environmental Law Center on behalf of WildEarth Guardians and the Montana Environmental Information Center.