Mining for the greatest good

Inter Lake editorial

Fierce opposition and overwhelming tangles of red tape are guaranteed, but the state of Montana must aggressively pursue development of its vast coal reserves in Eastern Montana.

The state's Otter Creek coal tracts are a resource that can provide immense benefits for Montana's schools, its taxpayers, and a nation that is faced with an energy crisis.

There is a soaring global demand for energy, a demand that ensures that fossil fuels will not disappear from the U.S. energy mix for decades to come. This is a certainty, regardless of how much some folks dislike "dirty coal."

Indeed, Gov. Brian Schweitzer has to walk a tight rope in opposing coal mining in British Columbia's Flathead drainage while pursuing coal development in southeast Montana. But it's not that complicated - some places have far higher ecological values than others, as perceived by society.

Coal development in the pristine Canadian Flathead would have a rippling impact on a wide range of wildlife species and waters and fisheries all the way to Flathead Lake and beyond. Those circumstances are not present on the Otter Creek prairie lands south of Ashland, Montana.

There will obviously be environmental impacts from coal extraction, but it all boils down to a measure of costs against benefits. And there is the constitutional obligation to maximize revenue from school trust lands.

That obligation is not lost on the Montana Rural Education Association, which has recently prodded the state Land Board to expedite efforts to lease the Otter Creek tracts.

"There comes a time when you say, 'Look, we're in a crisis. We're not sure we can wait for a perfect world," said Dave Puyear, the association's executive director.

Some Montana educators and political leaders enviously look to the benefits that Wyoming has reaped from resource development: Well-funded schools and a state general fund that is deficit resistant, even during recessions. A lower tax burden. Abundant jobs created.

The Otter Creek tracts contain an estimated 550 million tons of coal, and according to a 2005 report, the school trust share of revenue from that coal would amount to $750 million.

But there's a reason that Otter Creek, if developed, would be the first new mine in Montana in years. It's because they are immensely difficult to develop, due to complicated and voluminous environmental reviews and sure-fire opposition from environmental groups.

Those are among the guaranteed costs of proceeding with development at Otter Creek. Because the benefits vastly outweigh the overall costs, however, the state should apply all of its power to see that development proceeds.