Who's Paying

I've been very supportive of the new power plant being built in Hardin. Any kind of job machine in this area is great and should be encouraged. The only thing that has worried me about the whole thing is the possibility that they would want to truck the coal to the plant from the Sarpy mine. That would be extremely hard on the Sarpy road into Hardin.

It's going to happen just that way. I found this announcement that confirms it.

Westmoreland Coal Company (AMEX:WLB) announced today that its subsidiaries, Westmoreland Coal Sales Company ("WCSC") and Westmoreland Resources, Inc. ("WRI"), have reached a multi-year agreement with a subsidiary company of Centennial Power, Inc., the domestic independent power subsidiary of MDU Resources Group, Inc. (NYSE:MDU), to supply coal from WRI's Absaloka Mine to the Hardin Generating Station, a new coal-fired independent power facility being constructed in Hardin, Montana. The agreement is for an initial term through 2008 and provides for the sale of up to approximately 650,000 tons per year. Coal will be trucked from the mine to the plant when operations commence later this year.

650,000 ton of coal a year trucked down paved County Road 384 approximayly 40 miles from Sarpy mine to Hardin. Almost 1800 tons of coal per day down a 10 ft wide shoulderless road to Hardin. This will tear that road up in a heartbeat and then who gets to pay for it? I'm assuming the taxpayers of the county.

Like I say, I support business's helping out the community by bringing jobs in, but I think they should pay there way. The mine and the power plant should pony up a large part of the money neccesary to rebuild this road for the kind of traffic they are going to subject it to. That would only be right. Will it happen? I doubt it but time will tell.

For the nation's rise and fall every citizen has a responsibility. Chinese proverb