LTE: Arch Coal wins, Farmers lose with Otter Creek development

In a recent letter to the editor in the Billings Gazette, Mark Fix, a board member of the North Plains Resource Council, explains the likely impacts on Eastern Montana communities that will result from mining Otter Creek coal and shipping it by rail to Northwest ports for export to China.    Fix describes how taxpayers in Montana will bear the costs of consequences of the Otter Creek development through the cost of fighting fires that might result from increased rail traffic through the dry Montana landscape, the cost of necessarily upgrades to rail crossings if life, health, or safety issues makes them necessary, or potential damage to irrigation lands.  The export of Otter Creek coal, according to the letter to the editor, is not about creating jobs: its about securing more money for one of the richest corporations in America — Arch Coal.

The full letter to the editor is available here.