Public Land Give-Away
Senator Daines has introduced legislation to trade Federal coal and surface land to the Hope Family Trust. Though the bill is titled "The Crow Revenue Act" it was not introduced to benefit the Crow Nation. It benefits the owners of the Signal Peak Energy coal mine that is damaging range land, drying up springs and evicting ranchers who have worked this range for generations.
This mine has benefitted from a multitude of "tax incentives" amounting to millions of dollars lost to both Musselshell and Yellowstone counties. Now Senator Daines wants to trade 35 million tons of Federal coal for Hope coal that cannot be economically exploited. This trade, if approved, will do four things: deprive the nation's taxpayers of a $10,650,000 return on the leasing of their coal, deprive Montana of any severance tax associated with the extraction of that coal, deprive Musselshell County of its share of the proceeds tax, and provide a continuing windfall to the three multi-millionaire, out of state owners of Signal Peak Energy. The Crow may benefit if they can strike a deal with the Hope family.
Along with the subsurface coal will go 940 acres of BLM public land along Fattig Creek road. Some of which is the only public land in this part of the Bull Mountains accessible to hunters.
Mark Twain allegedly said history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. It rhymes with copper kings and railroad barons. One wonders who Daines works for.
Pat Thiele
Roundup
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