WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The owner of a surface coal mine in Montana is seeking to set aside a federal decision regarding a mining plan modification.
Western Energy Co. filed a complaint on July 17 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt and U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement citing the Administrative Procedure Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
The suit states in June, the defendants approved the plaintiff’s mining plan modification for a permit area known as Area F at the Rosebud Mine in Montana. The plaintiff alleges the defendants “erroneously” excluded 74 acres of mineable federal coal from approval in the plan.