By Tom Lutey, Billings Gazette
A federal judge has blocked Signal Peak mine from beginning a 175-million-ton expansion into coal on federal land, at least until the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement studies the environmental impacts.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy on Friday halted the expansion of the mine, located 40 miles north of Billings. OSMRE will have to not only complete an environmental impact statement of the expansion of the project, but also find that any damage done is acceptable.
