The War on Coal Is Punishing Indian Country

by Terry Anderson & Shawn Regan

To judge by the headlines and media chatter, the only important issue involving American Indians in Washington these days has to do with changing the name of the local pro football team. Those who care about real-world Indians might want to focus instead on how the Obama administration's hostility to the coal industry does more harm to Native Americans than any NFL franchise ever will.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently ramped up its attack on coal by issuing stringent limits on carbon-dioxide emissions from new coal-fired generating plants, and the agency has more regulations in the works for existing power plants. The rules are considered tough enough to prevent any new coal plants from being built in the U.S. Such policies are just more bad news about coal in Indian Country, where the economic potential from energy is huge but the federal government virtually prohibits its development.

Consider this: Indian reservations contain almost 30% of the nation's coal reserves west of the Mississippi, as well as significant deposits of oil, natural gas and uranium. The Council of Energy Resource Tribes, a tribal energy consortium, estimates the value of these resources at nearly $1.5 trillion. Yet these energy resources on Indian lands remain largely untapped, helping to lock Native Americans in a poverty trap. Indian incomes are about a third of those for all U.S. citizens, and unemployment rates are four times the national average.

The Crow Indian reservation in Montana, with an unemployment rate of nearly 50%, for example, sits on one of the nation's largest coal reserves. Approximately half of the tribe's annual $27 million general fund comes from coal, but federal regulations prevent the tribe from fully capitalizing on this energy asset. The EPA's emission regulations makes building new plants impossible, and the Interior Department's approval process for all tribal coal leasing is slow and cumbersome. At a September meeting between tribal leaders and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell at the University of Montana, Crow tribal chairman Darrin Old Coyote put it plainly: "The war on coal is a war on our families and our children."

The damage by government policy can come in a variety of forms. The Crow tribe has nine billion tons of clean coal that could easily be shipped to generating plants anywhere in the U.S. or exported to Asia. But many cities and towns along rail routes, citing concerns about train safety and the health effects of coal dust, are trying to limit coal-train traffic. Port cities such as Seattle and Portland are holding up construction of export terminals on the grounds that U.S. coal will contribute to global warming.

Making matters worse, the Bureau of Indian Affairs—the agency that oversees Indian interests—also limits reservation energy development. The BIA severely restricts Indians' right to control their own land and, as a result, has left energy resources on reservations virtually moribund.

READ ENTIRE COLUMN