Citing a “national energy emergency,” the federal government gave a green light Friday to a long-delayed expansion of Signal Peak Energy’s Bull Mountains coal mine near Billings.
The expansion of the underground mine, which exports coal to Japan and South Korea, has been repeatedly delayed by court orders finding that the federal government’s environmental vetting of the project was inadequate.
“President Trump’s leadership in declaring a national energy emergency is allowing use to act decisively, cut bureaucratic delays and secure America’s future through energy independence and strategic exports,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a press release.
Earlier this year the department made a favorable decision about the expansion using new “alternative arrangements for compliance” with the National Environmental Policy Act. Previous permitting attempts were tripped up in court for not assessing impacts of greenhouse gas emissions released when burning the coal. The delays date back to 2009.
“They didn’t do the proper analysis. They didn’t do any climate analysis originally,” Anne Hedges, director of the Montana Environmental Information Center, said Friday. In the first Trump administration, former Interior Secretary Ryan “Zinke did the second analysis, and it had, like, nothing in it,” Hedges said Friday of one past assessment.
Zinke now represents Montana’s western U.S. House district, but as Interior secretary he spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt by Trump to approve the expansion during the president’s first term.
The most recent rejection of the expansion occurred in 2023, when U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the environmental consequences of burning publicly owned coal were still being ignored by the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. Molloy stopped the expansion of the mine until OSMRE completed an environmental impact statement of the project that analyzed the costs of carbon and whether those costs were worth expanding the mine.
In early 2024, Signal Peak announced that if it couldn’t access more federal coal, it would run out by the end of 2025. The mine stayed operational by turning to state-owned coal within the footprint of its operations, a move that boosted royalties paid to the state, but required $40 million worth of new hydraulic roof supports known as longwall shields.
“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,” said Signal Peak spokesperson Mike Dawson, in a Friday phone call.
There were 251 people working at the mine in the first quarter of the year, during which Signal Peak produced 1.8 million tons of coal, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. In 2024, the Bull Mountains mine produced 7 million tons.
Opponents of the mine balked at the Interior department citing a national energy crisis for approving an export coal mine expansion.
“We’ve been waiting on this analysis for 16 years. 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,” said Roundup resident Pat Thiele, vice-chair of the Bull Mountain Land Alliance. Thiele’s comments were issued in a press release Friday.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, issued a press release Friday praising the Interior’s decision.
“Energy security is national security. The coal mined by Signal Peak will not only protect America’s energy independence, but will be a source of affordable, reliable energy for our allies, instead of forcing them to rely upon the enemies of Western Civilization to keep their lights on,” Gianforte said.
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