The state of Montana and Arch Coal, Inc. will line up together in state court Tuesday against environmental groups seeking to derail the company's plan to mine a 1.3 billion ton reserve within the most productive coal region of the country. St. Louis-based Arch has paid $159 million to the state and Great Northern Properties to lease the Otter Creek coal tracts, located near the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.

BILLINGS, Mont. Montana's Crow tribe and an Australian company on Friday renewed their bid to tap into the reservation's huge fossil fuel reserves, with a scaled-down proposal for a coal-to-liquids plant and the new pursuit of coal exports to Asia.The