“If there is any hope for the world at all, it does not live in climate change conference rooms or in cities with tall buildings. It lives low down on the ground, with its arm around the people who go to battle everyday to protect their forests, their mountains and their rivers because they know that the forests, their mountains and their rivers protect them. ” – Arundhati Roy. On Monday, I sat on the bench just outside the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council chambers. At 12:24 my friend…

On July 27, 2015 the Northern Cheyenne Tribe renewed their request for a 120-day comment period on the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the proposed Tongue River Railroad. This time the request was accompanied by a letter of support from Governor Bullock’s office. A previous request from the Tribe for a 120-day comment period, supported by Senator Jon Tester and State Auditor Monica Lindeen, was initially denied by the Surface Transportation Board. This morning we received a notice from the STB that they are extending the comment period…

Photo copyright Colin Ruggiero

On Monday representatives from the Surface Transportation Board came to Ashland, Montana to host a public meeting about the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the proposed Tongue River Railroad. They call it a meeting. I call it a box they can check off when they go back to Washington D.C. The word meeting implies a coming together of people to have a discussion. They make it very clear they won’t be answering any questions from the public. The STB and ICF staff read a pre-written script that was approved by…

On December 5, 2014 the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) sent Arch Coal a deficiency notice on their air quality permit application for the proposed Otter Creek coal mine. Arch Coal submitted an air quality permit application to DEQ on November 6, 2014. I don’t spend much time with air quality permits so I checked with some folks that do and apparently it is quite common for mining companies to receive deficiency notices on their air quality permit applications and to go back and forth with the permitting…

On February 13-14, representatives from the Surface Transportation Board (STB), the Tongue River Railroad Company (BNSF & Arch Coal) and their contractors from ICF International came to Billings to host the second in-person Section 106 tribal consultation meeting for the proposed Tongue River Railroad.  Much was said those two days and I don’t think anyone would disagree with my assessment that the tribal historic preservation officers and most other tribal representatives who were present do not want a coal railroad to disturb the Tongue River Valley. The folks that…

Once upon a mine, in a land far, far away, called Canada, a big mining company named Noranda started a small mining company called Crown Butte Mines. Crown Butte wanted to mine deep into the Beartooth Mountains in Montana for gold, silver and copper.  But the place they wanted to mine was special to people and right next to Yellowstone National Park. The People became very angry. Then it went a little something like this.* Once Upon A Mine: Act I [Enter The People and President Bill Clinton]…