coal

A new study finds that Canadian coal mines contribute nearly all of the selenium found in Lake Koocanusa. For decades, coal mines along British Columbia’s Elk River have sent large amounts of selenium into Lake Koocanusa in northwest Montana.

Every three years Montana’s largest electric utility tells the public how it’s planning to meet energy demands, which is going on now. And it follows a major court ruling that found the state’s energy policy is contributing to climate change. MTPR’s Austin Amestoy sat down with reporter Ellis Juhlin to break down where NorthWestern’s plan fits into the new legal landscape.

The House Taxation Committee is considering a bill that would allocate $30 million of the coal tax fund — a pool of money from taxes on natural resources collected in Montana — to help pay for low-income housing across the state.

Republican Rep. Mike Hopkins, R-Missoula, is the sponsor of House Bill 8, the bill that would authorize state loans for local projects and use the coal-severance tax, or taxes collected on coal mined in Montana, to back those loans.

Montana environmental regulators are poised to make a decision on whether to throw out a water pollution standard for Lake Koocanusa and the Kootenai River in northwest Montana.

Canada's plan to ban coal exports could hurt mines in Montana.

Higher natural gas prices coupled with recovering demand for U.S. coal are putting the coal industry on track for the first year-over-year increase in generation it’s seen since 2014.

Four out-of-state owners of the coal-fired power plant in Colstrip received temporary protection Wednesday from a Montana law the companies say inhibits them from making plans to close the plant’s two remaining units.

The U.S. Department of Commerce is directing several million dollars to help with workforce and industry diversification in southeast Montana’s coal country.

The legal push and pull between the Biden Administration and oil industry stakeholders continues after a district court judge ordered the administration to remove a pause on new oil and gas lease sales on public lands.