BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A judge says U.S. officials downplayed climate change impacts and other environmental costs from the expansion of a massive coal mine near the Montana-Wyoming border. The judge ruled Wednesday that under former President Donald Trump, officials played up the economic benefits of the Spring Creek Mine expansion but failed to consider the society-wide impacts of climate change. Spring Creek is Montana’s largest coal mine. A representative of Navajo Transitional Energy Company, which owns the mine, said federal officials already met their obligations to review the project. The U.S. Office of Surface Mining was not commenting on the case.
