The rise of renewable energy poses life-changing questions for Montana’s coal country. Colstrip has a century’s dependence on coal production. The Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian reservations share the region’s Powder River Basin coal deposits. The three communities face different directions as the energy economy reacts to billions of dollars in new federal investments in renewable energy and economic development.
Part I of this series takes readers across the landscape shared by the Montanans who live above the United States’ largest coal reserve, and lays out the challenges and uncertainties entangled in envisioning a new energy economy.
