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Montana has a long history of making money by extracting and exporting its natural resources, namely coal. State politicians and Montana’s largest electricity utility company seem set on keeping it that way.
In an episode first aired in June, Reveal’s Jonathan Jones travels to Colstrip, Montana, home to one of the largest coal seams in the country – and one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the West. Even though the plant is the single biggest emitter of greenhouse gas in the state, Montana’s largest power company, NorthWestern Energy, has expanded its stake in the plant.
Jones speaks with Colstrip’s mayor about the importance of coal mining to the local community and to locals who’ve been working for generations to protect the water and land from coal development. Then, he follows the money to the state’s capital, where lawmakers have passed some of the most extreme laws to keep the state from addressing climate change – but not without resistance from young Montanans.
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