"Judge In Climate Suit Tells Feds To Re-Examine Coal Mine"

"BILLINGS, Mont.— Federal officials must re-examine a 117 million-ton expansion of a Montana coal mine after a judge sided with environmentalists who sued over the project’s potential to make climate change worse and cause other environmental damage.

U.S. District Judge Susan Watters gave the Interior Department nine months to look again at the proposal for the Spring Creek mine near the Wyoming border. In its prior review, the agency “failed to take a hard look” at the expansion, Watters wrote.

One of the plaintiffs in the case, WildEarth Guardians, is pursuing a broad legal campaign against the coal industry, through lawsuits challenging decisions affecting 11 mines in five states. The group has sought to highlight how burning the fuel contributes to climate change."

Matthew Brown reports for the Associated Press January 24, 2016.