News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 30, 2020 Northern Plains Resource Council members persevere in long struggle to protect eastern Montana HELENA, Mont. – Last Friday, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) finalized rules that will govern radioactive oil waste disposal in Montana. Crafting these protections took over 6 years, and was driven largely by members […]

Legally-binding contract protects pristine rivers and quality of life in rural Montana FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 6, 2020 BILLINGS, Mont. – May 8, 2020, marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Neighbor Agreement, a legally-binding contract overseeing an expansive mine operation in Montana. The contract was negotiated between the Stillwater Mining Company […]

Protections are impeded despite overwhelming public support FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 28, 2020 HELENA, Mont. – Members of an interim legislative committee, the Environmental Quality Council, voted yesterday to “object” to a nearly final draft of rules that would guide the disposal of radioactive oil waste in Montana. The committee is composed of 12 legislators […]

Court blocks construction through almost 700 waterways along the pipeline route FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 15, 2020 Great Falls, MT — A federal judge ruled today that the US Army Corps of Engineers violated the law when it approved Nationwide Permit 12, a key water crossing permit for TC Energy’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline […]

The National Mining Association’s use of the COVID-19 crisis to roll back royalty rates puts revenue streams for states and coal communities dealing with the crisis in jeopardy.   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 20, 2020 BILLINGS, Mont. —  The Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC) and its member groups in Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado are asking […]

By Joan Kresich February 16, 2020 Attorney General Tim Fox has chosen to waste our taxpayer money to fund a lawsuit against the state of Washington whose sole purpose is to give the coal industry an adrenaline jolt. Washington refused to be bullied into expanding the Millennium Bulk Terminals to export Powder River Basin coal. […]

Billings Gazette Sunday, January 11, 2020 I attended the Public Service Commission’s Billings hearing last week regarding NorthWestern Energy’s 20-year energy procurement plan. The Gazette’s Jan. 3 article, “NorthWestern Energy power plan heard in Billings,” devoted most of its reporting to the small minority of participants supporting the plan (almost all of whom had direct […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 10, 2019 BILLINGS, Mont – NorthWestern Energy (NWE) issued a press release today announcing plans to acquire a larger ownership stake in Unit 4 of the Colstrip Power Plant, only one day after a public hearing about their 20-year plans for future energy procurement. The resource procurement plan made no mention […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 25, 2019 HELENA, Mont – In a much anticipated decision on Monday, the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) voted unanimously to reject a proposal from NorthWestern Energy attempting to place unfair, punitive charges on Montana’s residential solar customers. The decision comes as a part of the 2019 Rate Case filed last […]

Illegal pipeline approval violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 22, 2019 GREAT FALLS, Mont. — In concert with other conservation and landowners’ groups, the Northern Plains Resource Council filed their opening brief today in their federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s illegal approval of the Keystone […]