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| Fig. 1: A view of the Native American nations in Montana, including the Crow. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
The Crow Nation, one of over 500 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States, occupies a 2.2 million-acre reservation south of Billings, Montana with a population of nearly 8,000 (see Fig 1). [1] As with many other Native American nations, the Crow struggle with high rates of poverty and unemployment; in 2017, unemployment rates reached 11% while statewide rates of joblessness remained one of the lowest in the nation. [2] At least half of the Crow's nonfederal budget comes from the Absaloka coal mine, located at the northern edge of the reservation. On average, the mine provides members of the Crow approximately $225 every four months, an essential source of income for some families. [3] In recent years, output of coal from Absaloka has declined due to its production of lower-grade, higher-polluting coal, making it susceptible to stricter regulations under the Environmental Protection Agency. [4] Beneath the Crow Reservation, however, the Powder River Basin boasts of nearly 1.4 billion tons of coal and may be a potentially lucrative resource. [5] The mining of coal on the Crow Reservation has proven to be a highly contentious subject, not only amongst members of the Crow Nation, but also between different Native governments in the United States.
In 2013, the Crow Nation struck a deal with Cloud Peak Energy to develop a second coal mine, Big Metal Mine, which is expected to produce three times more coal than Absaloka of a higher-grade quality. [4] Estimates indicate that Big Metal may bring in $10 million in revenue for the Crow in its first five years of operation. [3]
However, the Crow face a plethora of challenges in its attempts to mine and sell coal, both from a declining market for coal in the United States and from the opposition of other Native nations. Domestically, the consumption of coal has decreased dramatically as demand for natural gas increases. Since 2008, the cost of natural gas has fallen from its peak of $13 per MMBtu to between $2 to $4 per MMBtu, causing rates of coal consumption to drop to 15% of energy consumption in 2016. Additionally, the costs of production for natural gas has declined due to technological advances, resulting in increased productivity and efficiency. [6] Consequentially, natural gas has continued to be highly profitable at the expense of the coal industry. In 2017, several inefficient coal-powered plants were shut down due to new pollution regulations, resulting in the loss of 5.5 gigawatts of coal-fired power generation. [7]
In 2017, the Trump Administration's attempts to undermine and rewrite the Clean Power Plan, regulations drafted under the Obama Administration that sought to shut down coal-fired power plants, opened the door for the Crow Nation to profit off of its massive coal reserves. However, later that year, the Northern Cheyenne, a Native Nation whose reservation directly neighbors the Crow, sued the Trump Administration for its decision to end a moratorium on coal. Despite the billions of tons of coal situated beneath their land and high levels of poverty and unemployment throughout their reservation, the Northern Cheyenne have refused to develop their coal resources for decades, citing potentially devastating environmental impacts and pollution. [8]
A possible solution would be to sell coal to overseas markets, such as in Asia, where it would not be subject to regulations under the Environmental Protection Agency. However, the Crow would need access to deep-water ports on the Pacific Northwest In order to export their coal, a project that was staunchly opposed by the Lummi Nation. Inhabiting a stretch of land north of Seattle, the Lummi spearheaded a campaign to prevent the development of the Pacific Gateway Terminal, invoking treaty rights and citing the disruption to traditional fisheries and sacred sites. [4] In 2016, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected the permit for the terminal, preventing the construction of what would have been the largest coal export terminal in North America. [9]
Given the precipitous decline of coal demand domestically and the difficulties in exporting coal abroad, it is unclear what the fate of coal mining operations on Crow lands will be in the future.
© Hannah Nguyen. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] J. T. Doyle et al., "Challenges and Opportunities for Tribal Waters: Addressing Disparities in Safe Public Drinking Water on the Crow Reservation in Montana, USA," Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 15, 567 (2018).
[2] B. C. Calvan, "Montana Lawmakers Tackle Pervasive Poverty on Tribal Lands," Missoulian, 6 Apr 17.
[3] J. Turkewitz, "Tribes That Live Off Coal Hold Tight to Trump's Promises," New York Times, 1 Apr 17.
[4] W. Yardley, "In Dispute over Coal Mine Project, Two Ways of Life Hang in the Balance," Los Angeles Times, 21 Jul 15.
[5] C. Krauss, "Coal Industry Pins Hopes on Exports as U.S. Market Shrinks," New York Times, 14 Jun 13.
[6] M. A. Arias, B. Reinbold and P. Restrepo-Echavarria, "The Decline of Coal," Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2017.
[7] T. DiChristopher, "Trump Pledged to Revive the Coal Industry, but Little Has Changed One Year Into His First Term," CNBC, 22 Jan 18.
[8] N. Rott, "People of Coal-Rich Northern Cheyenne Torn Between Jobs and Sacred Culture," NPR, 25 Jun 17.
[9] T. Lutey, "Army Corps Rejects Shipping Port for Crow Coal," Billings Gazette, 9 May 16.
