New bill introduced for Northern Cheyenne Tribe's coal swap

Thursday, February 16, 2012  

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) is introducing a new version of a coal swap for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana.

The bill requires the Interior Department to transfer 110 million tons of coal to Great Northern Properties, a Texas company. In exchange, the company will give an equal amount of coal to the tribe.

The new version appears to satisfy concerns raised by the Obama administration that the deal was biased toward Great Northern. If the coal transferred to the company is developed, royalties will be shared with the tribe.

The original version of the bill is S.647. The House Natural Resources Committee approved H.R.1158, the Montana Mineral Conveyance Act, last July.

Get the Story:
Montana coal swap revised to make deal more even (AP 2/16)

Related Stories:
House Natural Resources Committee approves three Indian bills (07/20)
DOI concerned about coal swap for Northern Cheyenne Tribe (6/24)
Northern Cheyenne Tribe looks to benefit from coal swap bill (3/23)