Vermont Law School has experts available to discuss a judge's ruling today that allows environmentalists to move ahead with their challenge of Montana's lease of 587 million tons of state-owned coal to a St. Louis company.
VLS's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) is representing the Northern Plains Resource Council in the case. Available to comment are Professor Pat Parenteau, former director of the ENRLC, and Associate Professor Teresa Clemmer, acting director of the ENRLC.
Parenteau is available at 802-831-1305 or pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu Clemmer is available at 802-831-1136 or tclemmer@vermontlaw.edu.
According to the Associated Press, a district judge today rejected an attempt by the state and Arch Coal Inc. to dismiss lawsuits brought last year by the Northern Plains Resource Council, National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club and Montana Environmental Information Center. The environmental groups say almost all the coal from Otter Creek would go to power plants that would emit billions of tons of carbon dioxide. Under a deal approved by the state Land Board last March, Arch bought the lease on the undeveloped Otter Creek coal reserves near Ashland for $86 million and future royalties. The four environmental groups later sued, claiming the sale should have been reviewed under the Montana Environmental Policy Act.