Montanans shouldn't be forced to subsidize coal exports

Just who is Tim Fox working for anyway? Recently, Montana’s Attorney General wrote to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Washington urging them not to study a proposed coal port’s impacts on Montana. The proposed Millenium Bulk Terminal at Longview, Wash., would ship about 48 million tons of Wyoming and Montana coal to Asia annually.

The Northern Plains Resource Council is disappointed that our attorney general — who is supposed to represent Montana’s citizens — has taken such a position before all the facts are known about how increased coal export train traffic will affect us.

Fox’s letter is in sharp contrast to the comments sent by several Montana towns, state legislators, public health boards and more than 1,000 Montanans who asked that this port’s impacts on Montana be studied. In sending his letter, Tim Fox has sided with coal companies against Montana communities and Montana citizens.

The effects of increased coal train traffic generated by the Longview coal port would ripple across Montana. If the coal companies’ export plans ramp up to what they are projecting, towns like Billings, Columbus, Livingston, Bozeman, Helena, Missoula, Great Falls, Shelby, Whitefish and smaller towns could see several times the number of coal trains passing through our communities each day. This increase in coal train traffic will create financial costs to taxpayers and affect health, public safety, and day-to-day life.

While coal exports to Asia would generate billions in profits for coal and railroad companies, it is tax dollars that will have to be spent to upgrade crossings and other infrastructure in communities that face increased coal traffic. Unless something changes, we — not the railroads — will be the ones paying for overpasses and quiet zones.

Montanans shouldn’t be forced to subsidize coal exports to Asia by funding these projects, but that is exactly what would happen if Tim Fox gets his way.

Northern Plains and other Montanans have real concerns about increased coal strip mining.

The destruction of land — often productive agricultural land —is obvious. Less obvious is the damage to aquifers. Coal seams contain water, but strip mining tears open these aquifers, drying up springs and wells, damaging agriculture and wildlife. This damage to the underground hydrology is rarely fixed, which is why coal strip mines have such a dismal record for leaving behind permanent damage to underground hydrology.

To make it worse, the ill-conceived Tongue River Railroad will condemn and tear apart good Montana ranchland — people’s private property — as it starts that coal on the long journey to Asia.

Why has Attorney General Fox hired an out-of-state consultant (at taxpayer expense) to lobby for this coal-to-Asia scheme while disregarding Montanans he was elected to represent?

Consistent with the coal industry’s history, this entire boondoggle rests upon shoving costs onto the public. So why is Attorney General Fox advocating for it?  Exports would only give coal companies the profits, Asia the energy, and leave Montanans paying the costs. Our state deserves better.

Steve Charter, of Shepherd, is the newly elected chairman of the Northern Plains Resource Council.