By Mead Gruver ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHEYENNE,
Wyo. – A Navajo Nation company may continue operating a coal mine for two more
months amid ongoing negotiations over the terms of a state
permit, Montana officials announced Jan. 7 in granting an extension
that keeps about 300 miners at work.
The Montana Department
of Environmental Quality and the Navajo Transitional Energy Company have been
negotiating how the department might be able to take the company to court over
any potential environmental violations at the Spring Creek mine near
Decker, Montana.
Without a
waiver of immunity, the state might not be able to successfully sue the tribe
as a sovereign nation.
The two
sides have agreed to a 65-day extension of an earlier interim waiver of
sovereign immunity, department officials announced.
The company
acquired Spring Creek, and the Antelope and Cordero Rojo mines in Wyoming, from
Gillette-based Cloud Peak Energy in a 2019 bankruptcy sale. The purchase made
the Navajo Transitional Energy Company the third-biggest U.S. coal company.
Eagle Butte
closed for two days in late October after Montana officials refused
to issue the company an operator permit, putting about 300 miners—most from
nearby Wyoming—temporarily out of work. The department and company agreed to an
interim waiver of sovereign immunity while they negotiated the permit terms.
The interim
waiver was set to expire Jan. 8. The extension will keep the mine from closing
again while the two sides keep negotiating.
“What we
have found is this is a really unique and complex issue with sovereign
immunity. So we are having ongoing negotiations with NTEC over exactly what a
limited waiver of sovereign immunity looks like, what would be appropriate,” Montana Department
of Environmental Quality Public Policy Director Rebecca Harbage said.
While the
two sides negotiate the company’s operator permit for Spring Creek, the
department continues to work with the Navajo Transitional Energy Company on
transferring Cloud Peak’s Montana mine permit to the company,
according to the department.
The company
would need to secure $108 million in bonding for Spring Creek to obtain
the Montana mine permit.
Meanwhile,
the company also would need to secure bonding and waive sovereign immunity to
get a Wyoming permit for Antelope and Cordero Rojo, according to Wyoming
Department of Environmental Quality officials.
As
in Montana, Wyoming officials also have been discussing sovereign immunity
with the company, Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Keith
Guille said Jan. 7.
The Navajo
Nation has refused to back bonding for the company’s mines, forcing the company
to look elsewhere for funding to be able to clean up the open-pit mines if they
ever closed.
Cloud Peak’s
bankruptcy and the company’s purchase of the three mines were among several
major developments as declining demand roiled the Powder River Basin coal
industry in 2019. Utilities have been turning to cheaper and cleaner-burning
natural gas and renewable energy to generate electricity.
The
bankruptcy of Milton, West Virginia-based Blackjewel in July furloughed about
500 workers until Eagle Specialty Materials, an affiliate of Jasper,
Alabama-based FM Coal, bought the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines in October.
Coal giants
Peabody Energy and Arch Coal, both based in St. Louis, announced in June they
would merge operations in the basin.
