Attorney General Tim Fox Receives Valentine’s Day Protest

Even though it's Valentine's Day, there was little love between the Montana Department of Justice and the anti-coal groups that came to bring Attorney General Tim Fox an estimated 100 valentines.

"The valentines are our wishes for the attorney general to 'break-up' with out-of-state coal corporations," said Northern Plains Resource Counsel spokeswoman Beth Kaeding. We are very concerned at Northern Plains about all of the coal export proposals because this will mean many, many more coal trains going through our state."

Kaeding said that Fox's office used tax payer money to hire an out of state law firm to narrow Washington State's Environmental Impact Scoping process in regards to proposed coal shipping terminals.

"We utilized a law firm that has offices in Washington state and the attorney that we worked with is the former attorney general of Washington who was council for the State Department of Ecology," Department of Justice spokesman John Barnes said. "He was the perfect fit for helping us write a letter and submitting that letter on Montana's behalf to the State Department of Ecology and Washington State Core of Engineers."

Kaeding said that her group did not send valentines to the governor or any other state land board members, even though many of them have voted to lease state land to coal companies in the past.

When asked why Fox was singled out, Kaeding said that it was because of the previously mentioned letter that was contracted out through a Washington law firm. The actual Valentine's Day cards don't mention that letter at all, making many wonder if the event was politically driven.

Beth Kaeding:

John Barnes: