Signal Peak Coal Mine near Roundup is “in jeopardy”, President and CEO of Signal Peak, Parker Phipps, told Yellowstone County Commissioners last week. And, if it is in jeopardy, so are the jobs of its 260 workers – two thirds of which live in Yellowstone County. And, so are the approximately $211 million in taxes the company paid over the past three years to Yellowstone and Mussellshell Counties.
Mining operations will have to cease at the end of 2025, given the decree from US District Judge Donald Malloy, said Phipps. Judge Malloy issued an order in February 2023 prohibiting any expansion of the mine onto federal land, until another environmental impact study is done, as well as an analysis of impacts of greenhouse gases.
Not only does the suspension of its permit to mine federal coal impact the expansion into federal coal areas, but it blocks access to areas in which there is state coal deposits. “A lot of the coal is not federal coal,” said Phipps.
A report in Yellowstone County News from a year ago, stated that the Judge ruled the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) made “sufficiently serious” errors in their original analysis of Signal Peak’s expansion. The Enforcement Office “did not account for the emissions generated by coal combustion, obscuring and grossly understating the magnitude of the Mine Expansion’s emissions relative to other sources of greenhouse gases.”
Judge Malloy said that the additional studies shouldn’t take more than two years, but as that time frame diminishes and no study has been done, Signal Peak has filed suit against OSM. Phipps said “It’s difficult for me to believe that the office can’t get their work done in a timely fashion . . . it appears almost intentional.”
County Commissioner John Ostlund said he read more
