BILLINGS, Mont. — A Wyoming company has entered a partnership to develop a Washington state coal port for shipments of the fuel to Asia.
The deal includes a future option for Montana’s Crow Tribe to take a 5 percent stake in the project.
Cloud Peak Energy spokesman Rick Curtsinger said Friday the company paid $2 million up front and will pay up to $30 million to cover permitting expenses for the Gateway Pacific Terminal in Bellingham.
The port in the Puget Sound, just south of the U.S.-Canada border, would accommodate almost 60 million tons a year of coal and other commodities.
Environmentalists and tribes in the Pacific Northwest oppose it.
Coal companies hope exports to Asia will shore up their ailing industry. Cloud Peak plans to construct a major mine on the Crow Reservation.
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