The Crow Tribe has struck a partnership with SSA Marine to develop a Puget Sound coal terminal in Washington state considered crucial to exporting Indian coal.

Cloud Peak Energy, which owns the Spring Creek Mine a few miles from Crow Reservation, is a 49 percent shareholder in the Gateway Pacific Terminal. The mining company is paying for up to $30 million in permitting costs for the port, which would be a 54 million metric ton export terminal handling coal, grain and potash.

However the terminal project faces steep challenges. Last January, the Lummi Nation asked the Army Corps of Engineers to the abandon environmental review of the port proposal, which the Lummi argue violates treaty fishing rights.

More at the Billings Gazette