Roundup Record Tribune & Winnett Times -

Can you put a price tag on a community, a culture, a family, an individual? What does it cost when one person loses a job? What does it cost when a community loses a business?

To explain the impact of the Coal Mining to Musselshell County you must start when coal began in this county. In a hand drawn map of Musselshell County in 1912 by E.J. Parkinson, Musselshell County was assessed at that time with a total area of 3044 square miles of which 612 square miles were assessed as coal lands. The first mine was opened in 1907, one hundred and sixteen years ago. A man named Mike Klein sold 640 acres to the Republic Coal Company for fifty thousand dollars. Roundup had only been established for twenty-five years, and the mine began before the railroad ever moved dirt in its direction.

With the mine came jobs, and with jobs came people. A community that had only been a scattering of ranches became a real town with stores, bars, churches, a newspaper (The Roundup Record, est. 1908, Eiselein) children, families, and a school. The ranchers and miners had plenty in common, it was called HARD WORK. That thread united the community then, and it still does today. The older people in Roundup today still remember the early mines, and the hard days that their families had to make a living, yet in speaking to these people you also hear a strong pride. They know every dollar they had, they earned.

Over the years more businesses came, modern technology saw coal mining improvements for safety and coal removal. New tools, mechanical machines made mining faster, safer, and more profitable. Today, the local mine, Signal Peak, has a very safe environment for miners. They have someone who monitors the miners for safety throughout their shift. They are immediately able to act if anything goes wrong. The miners always have equipment for safety with them. Like all jobs working with heavy equipment, there is danger, but the mine has taken every possible measure to make it a safe working environment.

I was privileged to tour every aspect of the mine. I can testify that I felt safe the entire time. Unlike some mines that have very small coal seams, Signal Peak is huge. The coal seams are tall, and the conditions are safe.

According to the "Lost Time Accident Incident Rate" the National average in 2022 for underground coal mining was 4.64 per 200,000 man hours. For Signal Peak Energy, the rate of accident was much lower at 2.98 per 200,000 man hours. It is fair to say that SPE has become a safe environment for workers. Although there is no perfect safety record with any job, in 2021 the highest rate of LTAI was for Veterinarian clinics, mining was not even in the top twenty according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Until recently, the mine has had very few accidents. Incidentally, three injuries took place right after a ruling from a federal judge, Donald Molloy, who denied Signal Peak their mining permit for federal lands. Though a ruling did not cause the accident, it could be claimed that the ruling increased the danger of working conditions for the miners. How can that kind of judgement affect safety, you might ask. If you tour the mine, you learn that they mine the "long wall" in long strips, closing the mine in behind them. If you look at a map of Montana, and look at how federal lands checkerboard the landscape of Montana, then you may have an idea of the problems that could occur when you must make a change to the tried, true, and safe way that you have previously mined to accommodate the ruling. The "longwall" weighs around 10,000 tons, and is generally only moved once it has completed mining all the coal in its area. It has only moved eight times in the past fourteen years. It is a complex system created for the safety of the miners, and efficient excavation of coal. It is not like a snow plow that you can just move around, it must be disassembled and moved. It is HUGE. It involves weeks of labor to move this machine. Did Judge Molloy tour the mine? Did he consider that this ruling could create an unsafe work environment? Anyone who sees the process understands that you cannot just jump around property lines underground. Further, due to this judgement, the state of Montana will likely lose approximately $126,000,000 in revenue, and the United States will likely lose approximately $27,000,000 in revenue. This judgement could even put the mine out of business because coal cannot be mined like a checkerboard.

Signal Peak employs around 270 people providing a payroll close to $36million dollars that is going into Montana's economy, plus income tax. That is just from the employees. When considering the coal business, and the tax that is paid in Montana from Signal Peak alone, our state would be devastated without this addition to our economy. The projection for this year is that Signal Peak will make up 69% of Musselshell Counties tax revenue. When the state of Montana is paid tax revenue from the Coal Severance Tax, 50% goes into the Coal Trust Fund, which funds the following; Coal Tax Bond Fund, Treasure State Endowment Fund, Treasure State Endowment Regional Water Fund, Big Sky Economic Development Fund, School Facilities Fund, and Permanent Fund. According to mt.gov, Coal Severance Tax Revenue provides 3.71% of its revenue to conservation districts. Do environmentalists know that coal money is going to protect things that they champion? Coal money also is going to the universities, schools, park acquisitions, library services, and much more. Signal Peak has also donated to nearly every special cause in Roundup looking for a donation. Signal Peak Energy also provides stoker coal to the City of Roundup.

After speaking to Mayor Jones, and commissioners Mike Goffena, Michael Turley, and Bob Pancratz, they are very concerned with the potential of this loss due to the recent ruling from Judge Molloy. They spoke very directly that our city and county would suffer the loss of many services with this ruling, services that our small population would no longer be able to afford without tax revenue from the mine. However, to further devastate the community, the loss of jobs would have another impact for our county tax revenue, as well as the likely loss of families, and local revenue from those families who shop within our community. People who have become family and friends, school mates, and community helpers would likely have to consider looking to greener pastures without employment at the mine.

When the Rail Road left central Montana, all that was left was a string of ghost towns left to struggle for survival. Roundup always stayed alive because of the local ranching community and the mine. The world is busy advocating to remove mining from our national economy, but we MUST support our mines and miners till renewable resources are a realistic possibility and fully integrated into our economy replacing the jobs and revenue that will be lost from shutting mining down.

When complaints are made against Signal Peak Energy, they are often rushed to the nearest media outlet. Signal Peak is not allowed to defend themselves until the legal process has been followed through which can take weeks, allowing accusations to be measured in the court of public opinion before ever being able to have their side of the story be told, if ever told.

The radical environmental movements dishonors and disrespects our community, our men who labor in honesty. Their sweat and dirt is part of our Main Street paycheck, part of our Main Street Beautification, it is funding for education for our most precious asset, our children, and so much more. Our community has a foundation because of our miners and ranchers. Our community becomes insecure without the support of our mine. Elites in Ivory towers have the idea of making the world a better place by tearing apart a structure of stability, beyond that, the plan is nothing but shade. They haven't looked beyond their idealism to the destruction that comes with the cutting sword of activism.

Coal is the stability of our community and state. If we do not honor the rock beneath our shoes, our rock of reliance, we can never take a further step on solid ground. Let the labor of an honest man inspire us all to give our best, not suppress others, and only take what we have earned in this life.

According to the USGS, "The biggest coal deposit by volume is the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, which the USGS estimated to have 1.07 trillion short tons of in-place coal resources, 162 billion short tons of recoverable coal resources, and 25 billion short tons of economic coal resources (also called reserves) in 2013. The coal in the Powder River Basin is subbituminous in rank." As of January 2020, the United States has the largest recoverable coal reserves with an estimated 252 billion short tons of coal remaining, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Learn more: U.S. Coal Resources and Assessment World Coal Quality Inventory".

Information from Steven Read, President of Global Coal Sales Group, LLC, a Signal Peak Energy affiliate, states that "While we do supply coal to local industrials via both rail and truck (lime and cement producers) to promote Montana jobs, the vast majority of our coal is exported through Westshore Terminal in British Columbia."

"We are unique in the United States in that we are the only thermal coal mine that is almost entirely export. We have spent years developing the Japanese market, which has some of the most efficient, cleanest, coal-fired power plants in the world. We are currently selling Signal Peak Coal directly to all 11 of the investor-owned, Japanese Power Utilities across the country."

"The reason we have been so successful in Japan (which is a very conservative, risk-averse market) is due to the fact that we produce a high quality, washed product with extremely consistent quality. We are also an extremely reliable supplier. Our guys at the mine are the reason for our success and we truly appreciate you recognizing that. For 2023, we will export over 7 million metric tons of coal (largest thermal coal exporter from a single mine in the US). Breakdown by destination will be as follows: Japan – 74%, South Korea – 12%, Chile – 10%, Hong Kong – 4%. So you fully understand why we are an export mine...when we started up the long wall in late 2009, the plan was for one of our owner's, First Energy in Ohio, to burn most of the coal we produced at their power plants back east. But due to changing markets and the fact that they shut down a lot of their coal-fired power plants, that never happened.:"

"Also from a cost-structure standpoint as an underground mine, even though we produce higher quality coal, we could not compete against the huge Powder River Basin strip mines for domestic utilities burning PRB coal. So we basically had to re-invent ourselves as an export mine, where we were competitive and customers like the Japanese valued and needed our higher quality bituminous coal."

In part two, I posted two photos, one was after underground mining, and one has never been mined. The left photo with the trees and hills in the background is the photo of land that has been mined. Over time there has been settling, like pulling strips of padding out from under your carpet. Eventually you would see different levels in the top of the carpet, though it does not change the carpet. That is a visual analogy of the impact of underground mining.