The New owner of Spring Creek Mine owes $4.4 million in back taxes in Montana and $10 million in federal royalty payments for coal mined in Montana and Wyoming.
Navajo Transitional Energy Company says it is negotiating payment plans for state and federal taxes on mines it purchased last fall in the bankruptcy sale of Cloud Peak Energy. The company objected to records-based reporting that indicated NTEC taxes are unpaid and past due.
“NTEC has made all royalty and tax payments since acquiring the Montana and Wyoming mines on Oct. 24, 2019. The assertion that NTEC is behind on payments if factually incorrect,” the company said in a Friday statement.
NTEC went on to say that taxes owed to the federal government were accumulated under Cloud Peak and that the Department of the Interior is now “doubling down on receipt of delinquent payments,” which NTEC said it has agreed to pay in installments.
Coal is loaded into a truck in this aerial view of Cloud Peak Energy's Spring Creek Mine in 2013 near Decker. On Tuesday, Cloud Peak was trading at just 16 cents per share.
Montana tax records kept by Big Horn County, where Spring Creek mine is located, indicate that NTEC does owe property and gross proceeds taxes totaling $4,461,608.78, according to Treasurer Denise Rios. The taxes aren’t on a payment plan. The Montana Department of Revenue, which collects coal severance taxes, said payments, made quarterly, aren’t due until the end of January.
NTEC spokesman Erny Zah said in an email that the company is current on its Montana taxes.
“We are working through the payment terms with Big Horn but plan to pay Cloud Peak’s legacy debts in full. We are not seeking any reduction in the amount that Cloud Peak owes. NTEC is current on their payments since ownership date of Oct. 24,” Zah said.
Businesses continue to operate in Montana when taxes are past due. In Big Horn County, Rocky Mountain Power, owner of the 107 Megawatt Hardin Generating Station, owes $4.1 million in taxes dating back to 2014.
Spring Creek is Montana’s largest coal mine. The mine, which employs 300 people, shut down briefly in October after NTEC, which is wholly owned by the Navajo Nation, declined to waive the sovereign immunity granted federally recognized American Indian tribes. Without the waiver, Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality was concerned it wouldn’t be able to enforce cleanup of the mine if NTEC failed to do so.
The mine reopened after DEQ agreed Spring Creek could continue to operate under the permitting and bonding of Cloud Peak. The matter still isn’t settled. Navajo Nation has decided not to lend its full faith and credit to secure bonding of the mines. NTEC has said it can bond the mines without the support of Navajo Nation and will address Montana’s sovereign immunity concerns. The state has given NTEC two grace periods to straighten out the bonding issue, the latest 65-day extension was granted Jan. 7, a day before the first extension expired. NTEC has until March.
https://www.fairfieldsuntimes.com/news/state/millions-owed-in-taxes-on-cloud-peak-legacy-coal-mines/article_80101bcb-be9d-5e00-8cb8-d8d0926b5a78.html
2020-01-26 12:45:00Z
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