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Environmental groups and some residents who live in the Bull Mountains sued the Trump administration to prevent Signal Peak Energy’s Bull Mountains Mine from expanding, stating that the “energy emergency” underpinning its revival is nonexistent. The plaintiffs claim that regulators have known for decades that underground coal mining would damage the area’s water forever.
“The landscape, something that wildlife and people relied upon, that’s just no longer there. There’s really significant protections for water. It’s pretty clear that the mine and the [Montana Department of Environmental Quality] are not living up to those standards,” said Derf Johnson, deputy director of the Montana Environmental Information Center.
The legal action comes as locals in Musselshell County, where the mine is primarily located, have been openly, and sometimes bitterly, debating how to build an economy that will outlast the mine. Musselshell County commissioners, none of whom want to see the mine close but also don’t want to have their tax revenue from it decline, say such talk has been met with opposition from Signal Peak Energy executives.
“There’s this perception that unless you give the mine favorable taxation conditions, you somehow are against it,” said Robert Pancratz, a Musselshell County commissioner.
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