The Interior Department has signed off on the expansion of a Montana coal mine to feed high-emission power plants in yet another Trump administration effort to bolster coal production despite waning demand and pollution concerns.
After years of litigation, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, or OSMRE, approved the expansion of the Rosebud project, a strip mine near the Wyoming line. The move extends the mine’s life through 2039, preserves about 300 jobs and allows production of about 71 million tons of coal, with about 33.8 million tons of that coming from federal land.
Rosebud is the second-largest federal coal mine expansion greenlit by the second Trump administration. Interior also approved a separate Montana mine earlier this year, the Spring Creek project.
Coal produced at Rosebud and the power plants it will feed are at the center of a lengthy regulatory and legal battle tied to emission concerns.
