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Hello Flathead Beacon readers! There’s a new face around here — and it’s me, Mariah Thomas. I’ll be covering education and state politics, and I’m diving right in with today’s newsletter.
The expansion comes in the wake of President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national energy emergency in January, and despite repeated court orders delaying the project.
The Bull Mountains Mine, located in Yellowstone and Musselshell counties, exports 98% of its minerals to Japan and South Korea. The company that owns the mine, Signal Peak LLC, employs more than 250 people in the area. Per a DOI press release, the project is expected to generate over $1 billion in local, state and county economic benefits. It would also keep the mine open for an additional nine years.
“This is what energy leadership looks like,” said Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior (pictured below), in a press release Friday. “By unlocking access to coal in America, we are not only fueling jobs here at home, but we are also standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies abroad.
“President Trump’s leadership in declaring a national energy emergency is allowing us to act decisively, cut bureaucratic delays and secure America’s future through energy independence and strategic exports.”
The expansion has earned support from state elected officials and members of Montana’s delegation to U.S. Congress, while environmental groups spoke out against the decision. Those groups took issue with the mine’s expansion taking place due to a national energy emergency.
“We’ve been waiting on this analysis for 16 years,” said Pat Thiele in a press release from the Western Environmental Law Center. Thiele is a Roundup resident and the vice-chair of the Bull Mountain Land Alliance.
“However, we are disturbed that this decision relies on a falsely concocted ‘national energy emergency’ executive order to silence the rural, working people whose land, water and livelihoods will continue to be threatened by mining activity with minimal oversight,” Thiele said.
Melissa Hornbein, a senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center, echoed Thiele’s remarks.
“The energy emergency declaration, preposterous on its face, only ever served as an abuse of the federal government to enrich fossil fuel barons,” Hornbein said. “Using it to expand the Bull Mountains coal mine makes that explicit.”
U.S. Rep. Troy Downing, who represents Montana’s second Congressional district in Congress, sponsored the House provision to allow the mine’s expansion. His office released a statement applauding the mining plan modification Friday.
“Since my first day in office, I have been fighting to protect Montana’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry,” Downing’s statement read. “I applaud Secretary (Doug) Burgum for taking swift action to unleash the Treasure State’s energy production and provide certainty for my constituents.”
Downing’s sentiments were echoed by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte and U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy. Both Sheehy and Gianforte’s statements struck similar notes, praising the expansion of American-made energy. In a Wednesday press release from U.S. Sen. Steve Daines’ office, Daines also thanked Burgum, the Secretary of the Interior, for prioritizing “made in Montana energy.”
Meet Oreo! She’s a 7-year-old domestic longhair/mix, and this spunky girl is looking for a calm home where she is the top priority. Oreo loves lounging on cat trees, playing with her flirt poles and napping.
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