Appeals court says US downplayed coal mine’s climate impacts

By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A federal appeals court says U.S. officials improperly downplayed the climate change effects from burning coal when they approved a large expansion at an underground Montana mine that would release an estimated 190 million tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in Monday’s ruling that Interior Department officials “hid the ball” under the Trump administration by failing to fully account for emissions from burning the fuel. A judge in 2017 had ruled against the disputed expansion of the Signal Peak mine but did not stop mining while a lawsuit brought by environmentalists continued.