Summary

Klein writes that the fossil-fuel industry wants to get at the gigantic reservoir of coal that sits in southern Montana underneath the rolling hills of cattle country. It is estimated that there is enough coal to supply the U.S. for 200 years. Klein points out that much of the coal would be earmarked for export to China. The coal is underneath and around the Northern Cheyenne reservation. The tribe has been fighting off the coal mining companies since the 1970s. Anti-coal activists had lost a court battle resulting in the go-ahead for a new coal mine at Otter Creek. According to Klein, opposition transitioned to the proposed railway that would haul the coal from the mine because it would cut through burial grounds. At the same time there were plans to construct a coal-to-liquids plant near the Crow Reservation. Liquefying coal...