The Trump administration this week approved an expansion of Montana's Bull Mountains underground coal mine, reinforcing its emergency energy directives that clear federal roadblocks for fossil fuels.
The life of the mine, which exports coal to customers in South Korea and Japan, is expected to be extended by up to nine years.
The U.S. Department of the Interior's approval allows Signal Peak Energy to extract about 57.3 million tons of coal — 22.8 million tons from federal lands and 34.5 million tons from adjacent private property near Roundup, Montana.
Nearly all the coal will be exported to Asian markets, according to a DOI statement. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum praised the Trump administration for acting decisively in the interest of the mine and the miners who work there.
"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," Burgum said in a statement.
The approval has been loudly criticized by environmental groups that say the Trump administration bypassed established environmental reviews and is prioritizing corporate profits over community welfare.
A coalition of opponents cited a checkered history at the mine that includes alleged embezzlement, a fake kidnapping and links to Vladimir Putin, as detailed in a 2023 New York Times story.
"This is them doing an end-run around both federal statutory law and what both the court for the District of Montana and the Ninth Circuit Court told them to do in the name of a nonexistent energy emergency for a coal mine that ships virtually all of its coal out of the country," said Melissa Hornbein, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center in Helena.
Montana Reacts
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte praised the expansion approval in a Friday statement.
It’s “a long-awaited victory for Montana coal miners,” the governor said. “In the last four years under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we witnessed an all-out war on American energy as they drug their feed and jeopardized our job-creating coal mines across the country.”
Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines called the approval “HUGE news for MT” in a post to his X (formerly Twitter) account. “The Bull MTns Mine in Musselshell County will continue providing high-paying jobs and energy security for years to come.”
Not everyone in the state is happy about the mine expansion. Some local residents say they've been fighting the expansion for more than 15 years.
“We've been waiting on this (environmental) analysis for 16 years,” said Pat Thiele, vice chairman 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 (suffer by) asserting illegal policies to further enrich wealthy energy corporations and their billionaire owners while throwing rural people under the waste pile.
“Serious damage to our water has been well documented, but little to no action has been taken to address the issue."
Where’s The Review?
Hornbein told Cowboy State Daily on Friday the approval came without a draft environmental impact statement or opportunity for public comment, citing Trump’s emergency directive — a justification she said makes little sense for coal destined for foreign markets.
In 2021, then-President Joe Biden did the same in the opposite political direction when he took executive action to stop natural gas and oil leases on federal land as part of his promise to end production of fossil fuels.
"The Trump administration will have a very difficult time in federal court explaining how expediting approval for expanding operations at a coal mine that exports 98% of its product falls under an extremely specific domestic energy emergency declaration," Hornbein said.
For its part, Signal Peak says it’s “extremely pleased that the Department of the Interior has re-authorized the mining of federal coal at the Bull Mountains Mine,” said company spokesperson Mike Dawson in a statement. “After years of delay, including four rounds of federal environmental reviews and multiple public comment periods, this reauthorization brings life into a mine that was within months of significantly curtailing operations endangering the jobs of 250 miners.”
When reached in Northern Michigan on Friday by Cowboy State Daily, Dawson would not comment on The New York Times story.
Coal Priorities
Burgum defended the Bull Mountains approval as part of broader energy leadership initiatives.
"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,” he said.
The project is expected to generate more than $1 billion in combined local, state and county economic benefits, including wages, taxes and business activity, according to the Department of the Interior. The mine employs more than 250 workers.
The Bull Mountains approval came alongside the Trump administration's announcement of more than $130 million in annual abandoned mine land reclamation grants nationwide, with Wyoming receiving $22.1 million as part of the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization Program.
Senate Western Caucus Chair Cynthia Lummis praised Wyoming's allocation, saying the "multimillion-dollar investment underscores the president's commitment to promoting American energy dominance while responsibly reclaiming and repurposing these lands for future economic opportunities."
The funding is distributed among coal-producing states and tribal organizations, with Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia receiving the largest allocations at $28.67 million each.
How the money allocated for Wyoming will be spent is to be determined, a Lummis staffer told Cowboy State Daily.
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
