Judge rejects Montana coal mine’s request for expedited environmental review, 260 jobs at risk

The US District Court for the District of Columbia denied Signal Peak Energy’s request to require regulators to complete an environmental study on December 2.

Judge Tanya Chutkan’s decision marks the latest in a series of long-running performance challenges at the Bull Mountain Mine between Billings and Roundup.

Earlier this year, the company filed a complaint against the Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. Signal Peak said the agency is struggling to complete the environmental assessment and is in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.

Attorneys with Earthjustice, the Western Environmental Law Center, and the Sierra Club, moved to intervene in the case, arguing that the state was within the deadline to prepare the Environmental Impact Statement and you are allowed to extend the time if more time is needed.

Derf Johnson, deputy director of the Montana Environmental Information Center, said conservation groups are involved in order to ensure that officials will be given enough time to fully assess the potential risk. present in the environment and provide that information to the public.

“Look before you jump,” he said. “This mine is a terrible disaster for the mountains and the water quality and abundance of the area, which is a very important resource in such an arid region.”

Johnson and other conservation leaders called the case an attempt to speed up the federal review.

But, Steven Read, who oversees the transportation and export of Signal Peak coal, said the company is asking for the review to be completed within two years.

The president of the Global Coal Sales Group said the mine has had to change its operations several times to continue extracting the country’s coal as its government permits are being challenged. Going around with large and complex longwall mining equipment is more expensive and more dangerous, he said.

If the environmental review is not completed by the end of 2025, Read said the mine will face “difficult decisions,” including possible closure. That puts the jobs of about 260 workers in Yellowstone and Musselshell counties at risk because the state won’t have it completed until May 2026.

One possible solution Read to see for the mine and its workers is for Congress to pass the Crow Tax Act.

If the controversial bill is approved, it would allow private family trust coal tracts on the Crow Reservation to be exchanged for federal acres in the mining area. Signal Peak could extract coal from the transferred land and the Hope Family Trust and the Crow Tribe would split the mining royalties.

Coal from Bull Mountain is now sold mainly in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Chile. Signal Peak plans to begin shipping to Vietnam in November.