By Kennedy Maize
no·to·ri·ous: [nəˈtôrēəs] adjective, famous or well known, typically for some bad quality or deed.
Citing President Trump’s energy emergency declarations, the Interior Department June 6 approved a major expansion of Montana’s only remaining underground coal mine. Interior gave a green light to Signal Peak Energy’s controversial Bull Mountains mine. The DOI decision extends the life of a mine that, as the New York Times wrote, has been “embroiled in allegations of ‘bribery, cocaine trafficking, firearms violations and the faked kidnapping of an executive.’”
The mine has also faced repeated regulatory struggles and court decisions turning down a planned expansion of the mine, which exports its coal to Japan and South Korea from under federal and state land. The Interior decision will allow the mine to add some “22.8 million tons of federal coal and 34.5 million tons of adjacent non-federal coal, extending the life of the Bull Mountains Mine by up to nine years.”
“This is what energy leadership looks like,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. “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.” In addition to citing Trump’s declaration, Burgum noted the Supreme Court’s recent Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County Coloradov decision that weakens the National Environmental Policy Act.
In a case of political belt-and-suspenders, the Bull Mountains expansion, in Roundup near Billings, was also included in the House omnibus “reconciliation” bill last month. According to the Montana Free Press, the House Natural Resources Committee approved a 100-page bill in the thousand-word MAGAbill that includes language ordering DOI to approved the mine expansion.
The statewide digital news service said the committee measure “allows for noncompetitive leases of federally owned fossil fuels, creates a pathway for companies to pay for expedited review — and guaranteed approval — of environmental impact statements, reduces royalty rates for coal, oil and gas, and reverses the Biden administration’s moratorium on new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin of southern Montana and northern Wyoming.”
Signal Peak’s Bull Mountains is the company’s only mine. The longwall mine, which began operating in 1991, produced 6.4 million tons in 2024, according to Global Energy Monitor. It has 280 employees. The company said it would shut down operations at the end of this year if it could not expand.
The company is owned by Boich Investment Group, an Ohio and Florida family firm with a history of coal trading investments, a subsidiary of major investor-owned utility (and alsl notorious) FirstEnergy in Akron, Ohio, and Pinesdale, LLC, a subsidiary of commodity trader Gunvor Group Ltd.
Signal Peak’s sordid history came to light in 2023 with a New York Times article headlined, “A Faked Kidnapping and Cocaine: A Montana Mine’s Descent into Chaos.” The article detailed crimes that “were part of the unraveling of a coal company called Signal Peak Energy that also involved bribery, cocaine trafficking, firearms violations, worker safety and environmental infringements, a network of shell companies, a modern-day castle, an amputated finger and past links to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.”
The Times added, “By 2018, the mine had become, in the words of United States attorneys working on the case, a ‘bastion of unreported injuries and malfeasance.’”
Burgum’s action is sure to face court challenges. The environmental law firm Earthjustice, which had been involved in prior Bull Mountains litigation, issued a news release denouncement the same day as Interior’s announcement.
The law firm, which has its roots in the Sierra Club, said, “The Trump administration approved the expansion without a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) or the opportunity for public comment on a draft, citing the so-called national energy emergency, despite the fact that coal from the mine will be exported to foreign markets, mostly Japan and South Korea.”
Shiloh Hernandez, a senior attorney in Earthjustice’s Northern Rockies office, said, “This is yet another disastrous decision by an administration that does not respect the rule of law. Issuing this decision pursuant to the Department of Interior’s emergency procedures — and cutting out the public in the process — is a farce.
“There is no energy emergency in the U.S. For Interior to go a step further here and claim that its so-called emergency mandates approval of a massive coal export project is absurd and an insult to impacted communities. This is a mine with an unmatched history of corruption and harm. Allowing it to expand will inflict further harm on the residents of the Bull Mountains and deepen the climate crisis.”
The Quad Report: to subscribe, for back issues, and a searchable archive.