U.S. District Judge Susan Watters ordered the Interior Department to re-examine the 117 million-ton expansion proposal of the eastern Montana coal mine Cloud Peak Energy's Spring Creek. The judge's decision is in favor with the environmentalist who filed charges claiming that the projects would aggravate climate change and other environmental damages in the area.
The Missoulian wrote that Judge Watters gave the federal officials nine months to check the proposal of Cloud Peak, which is near the Decker, by the Wyoming border.
Watters in a written statement on Thursday said the agency failed to look deeper at the proposed expansion. WildEarth Guardians, one of the case's plaintiffs seeks to challenge the coal industry, which affects 11 mines in five different states. The group argues that burning coal will worsen the climate change problem.
According to NBC Montana, there were other rulings the same with Watters that affected two major coal mines located in Colorado. These rulings come amidst the bankruptcies and falling demands that the coal mining industry is recently facing.
Cloud Peak Energy warned that cancelling its projects would mean firing 275 workers, while the expansion would only keep the mining operations going up until 2022. Meanwhile, Watters said in her ruling that the government violated provisions on how it handled the mining applications from Cloud Peak.
Yahoo News reported last Friday that coal leasing program is put on hold as US officials review the fees mining companies have paid and the environmental effects of coal mining, said the Interior Department Secretary Sally Jewell.
Cloud Peak Energy President Colin Marshall said, "We believe this review process is not warranted and is aimed at delaying leases to ensure the coal is never mined, denying its economic benefits to the nation."
The moratorium will affect the 441 million-ton expansion applied by Cloud Peak Energy's Entelope mine located in central Wyoming, its 198-million ton expansion in its Spring Creek mine in Montana, and it 203-million-ton expansion of its Lighthouse Resources' Decker mine in Montana.
