WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The owner of a surface coal mine in Montana is seeking to set aside a federal decision regarding a mining plan modification.
Western Energy Co. filed a complaint on July 17 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt and U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement citing the Administrative Procedure Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
The suit states in June, the defendants approved the plaintiff's mining plan modification for a permit area known as Area F at the Rosebud Mine in Montana. The plaintiff alleges the defendants "erroneously" excluded 74 acres of mineable federal coal from approval in the plan.
The plaintiff seeks for the court to declare the decision as unlawful and to set it aside, to remand the decision to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and any additional relief the court deems proper.
The plaintiff is represented by John C. Martin and Susan M. Mathiascheck of Holland & Hart LLP in Washington, D.C.; Kristina R. Van Bockern of Holland & Hart LLP in Denver; and Hadassah Reimber of Holland & Hart LLP in Jackson, Wyoming.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia case number 1:19-CV-02127