BILLINGS, Mont. — The chairman of the coal-dependent Crow Nation wants a break from the Obama administration’s climate proposal and said Friday that the pending rule violates the government’s trust responsibility to the Montana tribe.
Crow Chairman Darrin Old Coyote said the proposed rule to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions would wreck the tribe’s economy.
Up to two-thirds of the tribe’s nonfederal revenue comes from a 15,000-acre coal mine near Hardin.
The Westmoreland Resources mine sends Crow coal to power plants in the Midwest and on the West Coast.
Those plants need to be carved out of the president’s climate proposal, Old Coyote said during an appearance here with Montana Attorney General Tim Fox and U.S. Rep. Steve Daines.
If that can’t happen, Old Coyote said the administration needs to help replace the jobs and services that will be lost if the coal industry suffers.
“We want to be self-sufficient,” Old Coyote said.
Old Coyote said he and representatives of other coal-dependent Western tribes brought their concerns to President Barack Obama during meetings at this week’s White House Tribal Nations Conference in Washington, D.C.
