The union representing workers at WE Soda’s trona and soda ash operations in southwest Wyoming, as well as some of their supporters, are calling on Gov. Mark Gordon to pump the brakes on a $13 million state taxpayer-funded grant request by the company.
The company says it will cut 350 jobs at its Westvaco operations over the next two years, beginning in January with 274 workers receiving pink slips, according to a notice WE Soda sent to state and local government officials.
How to comment
To comment on the WE Soda and other grant recommendations, send an email to the Wyoming Energy Authority at wea@wyo.gov. Click here to review the projects and to learn more about the Energy Dominance Fund. The deadline to submit a comment is Monday.
“I’m asking the State of Wyoming to FREEZE these funds until Wyoming Workers are assured they have a place to work at WE Soda!” Marshal Cummings, a WE Soda worker and United Steelworkers Local 13214 president, wrote in a recent social media post.
“If Wyoming can find nearly $13 million to support a corporation,” he added, “surely we can find a way to support the workers who made that corporation successful.”
London-based WE Soda announced Nov. 4 it would reduce its Wyoming workforce from about 850 to 500 over the next two years, primarily due to its plans to shift its Westvaco trona mine from underground mining to drill-and-pump solution mining. The initial 274 layoffs in January would impact positions throughout WE Soda’s Sweetwater County operations from an administrative assistant to engineers to miners, with 223 unionized workers slated to lose their jobs.
Prior to the announced layoffs, WE Soda applied for a $13 million grant from the state’s new Energy Dominance fund to build a “high-pressure natural gas supply connection from the Williams’ MountainWest Overthrust Pipeline system” to its Westvaco operations, according to the company’s project summary. The company’s contract for coal from the nearby Kemmerer coal mine will end this year, it explained, and it wants to shift to natural gas to fire boilers used in processing trona to soda ash — a global commodity used in glass manufacturing, in cleaning products and in water treatment, among other things.
The natural gas connection that the proposed $13 million grant would support is not immediately integral to the planned conversion from underground to solution mining, according Cummings. Regardless, the state, if it chooses to approve the grant, should “tie those funds to protections for these workers,” he told WyoFile, adding that protection means maintaining jobs. “That would be the most ideal thing for us.”
The Wyoming Energy Authority, which administers the grant and loan program, recommended approving WE Soda’s request last month, kicking off a public comment period that ends Monday. The agency will forward its recommendation, along with public comments, to Gordon.
The governor has sole discretion to deny the request, OK it, or approve with conditions.
Reached by WyoFile for comment, Gordon’s office said he would not comment on the grant request until after the public comment period. Gov.-elect Eric Barlow also declined to comment. Hours after WyoFile published a story about the layoffs, both men issued a joint-statement saying they are “especially concerned for the miners and their families in southwestern Wyoming and are working diligently to bring resources to address the impacts of these reductions.”
The Wyoming Democratic Party issued a statement Wednesday joining the union’s call to freeze any action on WE Soda’s grant “until workers are assured they have a place to work at WE Soda.”
The state’s Energy Dominance fund is “intended to create jobs and support economic growth,” the party said.
“We are not only heartbroken, but extremely angry on behalf of the workers at WE Soda,” the party continued. “Our friends and neighbors in Sweetwater County are facing not only the devastating loss of hundreds of jobs, but a massive blow to the entire economy of their community. They deserve so much better than broken promises made by a company that prioritizes profits over people.”
WE Soda’s pending grant is among three recommended for approval by the Energy Authority, the first batch since the fund was created earlier this year. The three grants for a combined $48 million include $20 million to Canadian-headquartered Nucleon Fuel for its proposed Fort Union Uranium Conversion facility in Campbell County and $15 million to Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams Companies for its Flat Top Compressor Station project in Carbon County.
The Energy Dominance fund is intended to support projects “related to Wyoming’s energy needs,” to companies that “demonstrate established commitments for the dollar-for-dollar funding match” and projects that “provide a public benefit for Wyoming,” according to the Energy Authority’s description of the program.
The Wyoming Legislature created the Energy Dominance Fund during the most recent legislative session, authorizing up to $105 million for loans and grants to support energy projects in the state. The pot of money is filled by severance tax revenue from energy extraction, like coal mining and oil and natural gas development.
