Signal Peak Energy operates the West’s newest and largest underground coal mine. Answering that question motivated the Trump administration to mount an unbridled multi-agency attack on decades of policy and practices for overseeing land, water and natural resources, especially in the West. Signal Peak Energy's Bull Mountain coal mine near Roundup, Mont., in 2009. In 2008, four years before U.S. coal production peaked at nearly 1.2 billion tons, Signal Peak purchased an existing mine 30 miles north of Billings. Signal Peak asked Molloy to reconsider, and aided by Trump administration lawyers, the company also filed an appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 27, 2017 20:03 UTC