Northern Plains Resource Council v. Montana Board of Land Commissioners

A Montana state court dismissed a challenge to the Montana State Land Board’s decision to lease access to 1.2 billion tons of coal without first complying with the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA).  The plaintiffs argued that a state law exempting coal leases from environmental review under MEPA violated the Montana Constitution.  The court disagreed, holding that the exemption only delayed the environmental review until a more detailed mining plan was presented at the permitting stage.

A state court in Montana held that this and another lawsuit (Montana Environmental Information Center v. Montana Board of Land Commissioners) could proceed against Montana’s land board for leasing 8,300 acres of state-owned land for surface coal mining without an environmental review.  The plaintiffs sought a declaratory judgment that the Montana Board of Land Commissioners violated the state constitution by failing to conduct an environmental review when it leased the land in southeastern Montana to a coal company in 2010.  In 2003, an exemption from a provision of the Montana Environmental Policy Act was passed by the state legislature specifically to facilitate the lease. The exemption defers environmental review from the leasing stage to the later mine permitting stage.  The plaintiffs allege that the exemption is unconstitutional and denies the land board its right to place mitigating conditions on the lease.

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