Wyoming leaders blame Biden administration coal policies as well as bureaucratic delays they claim are deliberate for layoffs at the Black Butte coal mine in southwest Wyoming.
Nineteen miners were notified this week that they’d lose their jobs, and more layoffs could be in the works, according to reports.
WyoFile was unable to confirm the information with Black Butte Coal. Gov. Mark Gordon’s press secretary Michael Pearlman told WyoFile, “We don’t have any concrete information, although we had heard that there may be additional layoffs possible.”
The Black Butte mine, which is located east of Rock Springs and produces about 2 million tons of coal annually, employed 147 people during the third quarter of this year, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. One of the mine’s main customers is the Jim Bridger power plant, which Rocky Mountain Power’s parent company PacifiCorp owns.
Gordon and Wyoming’s congressional delegation say a prolonged delay regarding a pending federal coal lease at the mine helped lead to the layoffs, as well as environmental policies that will result in PacifiCorp converting two coal-burning power generation units at Jim Bridger to natural gas.
“This layoff is directly linked to the Biden administration’s refusal to approve the mine expansion application, which has been languishing before the Department of the Interior and the Office of Surface Mining and Environmental Enforcement for years,” Gordon said in a prepared statement this week, adding that he’s implored federal officials on the particular issue multiple times throughout 2023. “The mine has gone through rounds of environmental reviews and Interior continues to throw up additional paper obstacles.”
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) said the layoffs are the result of Biden’s “Green New Deal agenda.”
“Seeing good people lose their jobs is tragic,” Lummis said in a prepared statement. “But what makes this situation particularly painful is the fact that it is a direct result of the Biden administration’s war on domestic energy production, and coal in particular.”
It was unclear as of this publication how much notice Black Butte employees were given regarding the layoffs. The Wyoming Department of Workforce Services deployed a “rapid response” team to Sweetwater County this week to help workers plan for training and other potential employment opportunities.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation is participating in the response efforts, as are some northeast Wyoming mine operators that are looking to increase their rosters, according to Pearlman.
Jim Bridger battle
As the mine’s pending federal coal lease permit languished in recent years, PacifiCorp and state officials engaged in several legal and regulatory battles over coal emissions at the Jim Bridger power plant, particularly over regional haze.
PacifiCorp, in 2014, told the Environmental Protection Agency it would install “selective catalytic reduction” controls at two of four coal units at Jim Bridger; unit 1 by the end of 2022 and at unit 2 by the end of 2021. Instead, the Berkshire Hathaway-owned utility giant joined the state in drafting an alternative plan. Rather than install the expensive emission control facilities, it proposed meeting the federal regional haze parameters by operating the two units at lower capacities.
“What makes this situation particularly painful is the fact that it is a direct result of the Biden administration’s war on domestic energy production, and coal in particular.”
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming)
That led to a showdown with the EPA in 2022, with the agency threatening “corrective actions” that would shut down the units. Gordon orchestrated a sue-and-settle deal between the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and PacifiCorp to convert units 1 and 2 to natural gas in 2024, which ultimately resulted in the EPA backing off from its threat. That means coal demand at Jim Bridger — one of Black Butte’s primary coal customers — will be reduced by half in the coming year.
PacifiCorp has also agreed to analyze whether it would make economic sense for its ratepayers to apply carbon capture, use and storage technologies to Jim Bridger units 3 and 4, potentially preserving the use of coal at the plant. If the technology is not a prudent retrofit, however, PacifiCorp would convert those units to natural gas by 2030, according to the company’s planning documents.
Workforce conundrum
Elsewhere in southwest Wyoming, economic development officials are scrambling to find enough workers to fill thousands of construction jobs for at least five major industrial projects that may come to fruition in coming years.
Plans for major trona mining and processing expansions are in the works, as well as a pair of carbon dioxide management projects and the $4 billion Natrium nuclear power plant. The developments, largely driven by private and federal investment in response to last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, could bring some 6,000 construction jobs, and hundreds of new permanent positions, to the area over the next five years, according to local officials.
A statewide effort is underway to develop workforce training and recruitment programs, as well as plans for how to provide enough affordable housing to accommodate the activity, according to Kayla McDonald of the Sweetwater Economic Development Coalition.
The effort is likely of little comfort, however, for coal mine and coal plant workers who fear they might lose their livelihoods in the meantime, Wyoming AFL-CIO Executive Director Tammy Johson said.
“I feel horrible for the workers who’ve lost their life career, and hopefully they can find work at the other mines,” Johnson told WyoFile. “But this just shows how unprepared Wyoming is for a downturn in coal production. And we need to be prepared. We need to have a plan.”
Other Wyoming utilities have done what the Feds required in regard to NOX emissions. Not a small cost by the way. I don’t wish loosing a job on anyone but honestly power consumers don’t care. Just keep the lights on.
Competition is what the fossil fuel industry does not want. They’ve had a long run of receiving most if not all government energy subsidies. The development of other competing technology has long been the target of the fossil fuel industry. Competition will continue to drive fossil fuels into the past where they came from and where they belong.
A lot more sense being said in most of these comments than the blatant political BS our elected (sadly) officials are spouting. As a former Sheep 1 uranium miner I don’t recall the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth from our political ”leaders” that we’re seeing now as nuclear power fell out of favor.
I don’t know who Dewey Vanderhoff is but his clarity of thought and ability to articulate that thinking has made me a fan! Thanks Dewey!
When our first manned satellites were lunched some 60 years the only thing that our astronauts could positively recognize was the smoke plum from the four corners power plant. That should have been a wake up call then. No, the coal fired plants countered the electricity produced from coal was so efficient that the emissions they produced should not be a concern. They had sixty years to solve emission issues but there has been no real focus until recent years. Had they started then in all likelihood the problem would have been solved. I hate to see the demise of the coal industry. I hope that they will keep doing more than just promoting the idea of “clean coal” and actually produce a clean coal fired power plant. It would be great for Wyoming and for the country.
Oregon dumped it’s only coal fired plants years and years ago. We decided that we didn’t want all that coal smoke. We decided that hauling coal from out of state (Montana) was not cost effective. From the photo in the article, I see a lot of pollution coming into the air Wyoming residents have to breathe.
I don’t like the comments of Cynthia Lummis. In my opinion, Cynthia is very short sighted and would trade your health for her political agenda which I see as an opportunity to attack The Inflation Reduction Act and of course, President Biden.
Suggestion: How about putting solar and wind electric facilities on the wastelands of the coal fields instead of fighting to keep coal as king in Wyoming?
I guess that you can partially blame Biden, but the main reason for coals decline is the plummeting cost of renewable energy, which has been supercharged by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, means that it is cheaper to build an array of solar panels or a cluster of new wind turbines and connect them to the grid than it is to keep operating all of the 210 coal plants in the contiguous US.
I always have to laugh when I see “Wyoming Officials Blame Biden (or others) for ” Our elected officials have had their heads in the sand for decades and were warned time and time again about the future decline of fossil fuels but chose to ignore it. I’ve tracked coal and coal production for many years and it was a steep downward ski slope (shown quite well in Figure 1) long before the current administration took office. Now, we are scrambling, seemingly shocked by what is occurring, and as politicians always do, looking to blame anyone but themselves. Congress needs to get their collective acts together and start working for the good of the country and not themselves.
The coal markets have been in decline since 2010. Cheap natural gas, greedy CEO’s, and renewables are the cause.
It’s cheaper for a utility to spin up a gas turbine in a few seconds
to handle peak loads instead of burning extra coal. And renewables, even small private installations, take away from the total coal burn needed by the utilities. Greedy CEO’s get huge salaries and bonuses and don’t reinvest in their companies.
This is nothing but political posturing by Gordon and the legislature. The fact is that this not the fault of Biden’s or any other administration, but the basic economic reality of supply and demand. The demand for coal has been shrinking for well over a decade and it will continue to do so. Producing a product for a constantly shrinking market is not a viable business plan. That dog just won’t hunt.
I remember when Trump said he’d save coal-not. Kind of like his health care plan. You know, the one that didn’t exist.
The graph in figure one shows what’s been going on for years — long before the Biden administration. Do Republican politicians just assume their public is stupid enough to believe anything they say now?
If the Jim Bridger plant had operated from the beginning with best available, technology, pollution, problems from them would have been minimal. They have not been a good neighbor. They have refused to honor and have resisted every agreement to do better. they have held workers and their local economy hostage with their inactions.
A tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it. Does it make a sound? Dunno….but I’m sure it’s Biden’s fault too. Partisan garbage, Gordon. You can disagree with our duly elected President all you want (yes, it’s true whether you like it or not), but just remember in your fealty to The Donald that he increased the national debt by 39%. Suppose that’s somehow Biden’s fault too…
I might also mention that the Inflation Reduction Act was vehemently opposed by our elected officials in Washington. Now SW Wyoming is scrambling to assemble the workforce needed to develop and construct several projects funded by the Act, a benefit to the State of Wyoming from the Biden administration.
Ever wonder why workers join unions?In all likelihood, had these workers been a member of a union, they would still have jobs.
Fossil Fuels = Fossil thinking = Dead End.
Yup……. When I moved to Gillette in 1976 after graduating from UW the mines were just starting up. Trailer city encircled to the southwest of the city. The geology experts said there was 50 years of coal reserves in the ground at expected extraction levels. No mine shafts needed, extracted by cranes and trucks as big as a house. Guess what..that was 50 years ago. Coal is dead, so is oil. Beautifully backwards was coined and it appears those predictions are holding true. Good luck.
Historically a coal miner would eventually come down with a chronic disease if they stayed in the mines too long : Black Lung. That was decades ago. These days, coal miners and their political supporters – especially here here in Wyoming come down – with Black Brain disease from coal. It prevents them from perceiving the reality of contemporary coal industry . They delusionally believe it’s either 2008, 1954 , or 1923. ( talking at you Cynthia Lummis et al )
Wyoming miners, jobbers, and policy pushers need to be taken to the woodshed and given a history lesson. Take ’em back to 1923 for starters. A century ago was when employment in the American coal mines reached its alltime peak at 863,000 miners and workers. Yup—when America had a third the population it does now, there were 20 times the number of working coalminers than today’s 41,000. The first big Coal Bust came in the late 1920’s and lasted thru the Great Depression. When WWII began, American coal jobs were pegged at 450,000 down by half from its peak. Noteworthy is the fact 95 percent of those jobs were unionized. The next big Coal Bust came in the late 1950’s when the American railroads weaned themselves from coal-fried locomotives. In 1960 there were 150,000 coal miners in America , and it has steadily declined since. Today in 2023 there are maybe 41,000 total miners in the USA. That is a pale 5 percent ( 1/20th ) of gross American coal mine employment regardless of population. Them’s the facts.
So what the bejeezus are are shortminded Wyoming coal miners and their misguided political leaders wailing and railing about? Did they flunk History in 6th grade and Economics in high school ? Seems so. Ask the Appalachians about the seismic tumult of the American coal industry. Been there done that . Went broke. Poverty replaced plentitude… a hundred years ago, sixty years ago. And now in Wyoming since our peak coal output of 440 million tons in 2008. Those days are gone and they are NOT coming back. That big black draft horse named King Coal is dying. Quit kicking it with your steel toed cowboy boots and cursing Joe Biden with every breath.
Joe Biden did not do this to you and Campbell County. Neither did Obama. In fact , no politician was responsible for Wyoming current Coal Bust. It was the Market . If you want to kick something, go after the CEO’s of Peabody, Cloud Peak, Thunder Basin , Arch… you know who they are… those robber baron guys who leave Wyoming workers and families in the lurch in the middle of the night and take their treasure to offshore bank vaults. Curse at the top of your blackening lungs at Wall Street moguls who put profits ahead of livelihoods and quality of life. Curse the Market.
But do NOT curse Joe Biden or Dems or environmentalists or liberals of any stripe. THEY did not cause Climate Change . YOU did. The Wyoming coal mining industry and its mercenaries like the UP Railroad and Burlington Northern and the megautility corporations were and remain the culprits. Two centuries of burning coal beginning in Europe but gravitating to the US and China and India have given the entire planet Black Lung Disease in the persuit of dollars. The elites at the top got fithy rich from the Industrial Revolution by burning coal, and the rest of us made a liviing from it. Now we’re dying from it if we don’t radically alter the trajectory of climate change with a massive overhaul of energy production to alternative sustainanle nontoxic sourcing. It’s as simple as that . Just do it , or die from not doing it. Those are the choices.
The state of Wyoming’s addicition to coal has given too many of the wrong people a serious case of Black Brain Disease. They think coal has a future. The reality is the world does not owe Campbell county and Wyoming a living; every ounce of coal burned is now pathogenically toxic to the planet .
The Bottom Line is Wyoming is on the problem side of the equations to save the planet, not the solution side. When will it learn ? It’s time to start hauling them to the woodshed for some re-education.
Lesson One: Joe Biden did not do this to you . You did it to yourselves.
Blame the global market.
Meanwhile, PacifiCorp is diligently working to increase energy rates. I’m sure there is no correlation between their submission to pressures from the Feds and Eco-Warriors in building “renewable energy” projects and these price hikes….
At some point, it becomes obvious that this administration’s intentions are to force you into relying on typically unreliable energy sources while inflating the costs to do so.
UN is promoting compete shut down of fossil fuels and really pushing to eliminate all natural gas uses in th world! Yet give no alternative. 70,000 plus flew in for this meeting. 70,000!! All in private jets!!! Harris had nerve enough to flaunt cooking Thanksgiving dinner in a GAS STOVE!!! Yet she wants your gas stove. Feel the burn yet?
Funny, eight years ago when I moved to Wyoming, “they” were saying the same thing but blaming Obama. Did y’all know that mining operations only employ approximately 10,000 people in the entire state? Why are Wyoming politicians so concerned about 10,000 jobs? More Wyomingites are employed in the fast food sector than in mining, but I don’t see any politicians lined up to support THEM. I guess it really isn’t about the people and their ability to support themselves now is it.
Worth noting that Black Butte’s other customer, North Valmy in Nevada, plans to shut down in 2025. And also worth repeating that the Jim Bridger NOx pollution controls were put in place by the Wyoming DEQ many years ago (and merely affirmed by EPA back in 2014). As this article states, the gas conversion of units 1 and 2 was pushed by the state as a compromise (and again merely affirmed by EPA). The blame the feds approach is lacking a credible fact check.