Under Trump, Coal Mining Gets New Life on U.S. Lands
In February, even before the Senate confirmed Mr. Zinke to his new post, Mr. Reavey of Cloud Peak was meeting
at the Interior Department headquarters in Washington with President Trump’s political appointees.
Elected to the House in 2014, Mr. Zinke received $14,000 in campaign donations from the company
that owns BNSF Railway, the chief transporter of coal in the Powder River Basin, as well as a total of $26,000 from Cloud Peak, Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources, three of the nation’s largest coal companies.
“Our greatest treasures are public lands,” Mr. Zinke said in a speech.
“They are liars, and they know it,” Mr. Reavey, the Cloud Peak lobbyist, said of
those who suggested the industry was not paying its fair share in royalties.
Such a change would be a blow to the bottom lines of companies mining in the Powder River Basin, which accounts
for about 85 percent of all coal extracted from federal lands, with a growing share headed to Asia.
As he left the brief gathering, Mr. Cadman said he was only catching up with Mr. Zinke, whom he has known for decades, on family-related matters.
“As Interior secretary, I am looking at both sides of our balance sheet,” Mr. Zinke said.
“If we hand over control of these lands to a narrow range of special interests, we lose an iconic part of the country — and the West’s identity,” said Chris Saeger, executive director of the Montana-based environmental group Western Values Project, referring to coal mining and oil and gas drilling
that the Interior Department is moving to rapidly expand.
