Wyoming

Despite the pandemic, the Roundhouse Wind Energy Project has increased annual tax revenues by 20% in Laramie County and the city of Cheyenne.

The state expects to complete 96 projects, generating a total of $201 million for local economies, by the end of the year.

Local workers, residents, and leaders adjust to a changing energy landscape.

As coal demand plummets, all miners at Buckskin mine are out of work following 60 earlier furloughs in March.

The Powder River Basin Resource Council launched a four-part webinar series during the COVID-19 pandemic to help communities in Wyoming and beyond prepare for the ongoing transition from coal.

Layoffs and bankruptcies lay bare the price of overreliance on a rapidly fading industry: “Losses in coal country have steep consequences for the state — exacerbating unemployment and accelerating revenue shortfalls.”

A diverse coalition of leaders in coal communities nationwide have banded together to take on one of the most pressing challenges facing Wyoming and fellow coal-producing regions: how to adapt to the downturn in the coal sector and build new economies.

Public services are collapsing in Campbell County, Wyo., as laid-off miners relocate, taking spouses who work in healthcare with them. Two small-town hospitals in West Virginia have closed this year.

A once-prosperous industry that has ‘filled Wyoming’s coffers to the tune of billions of dollars, funding everything from schools to roads’ is tanking almost overnight as the pandemic hastens change.

Citing deteriorating demand, owners of Buckskin Mine let a quarter of its 206 workers go; the news follows word of 50 layoffs at North Antelope Rochelle Mine on March 5.

“A noticeable reduction in corporate giving and all manner of charitable support” is in evidence regionally as coal companies curb support for youth programs, education awards, and other nonprofit initiatives.

“This is not driven by the performance of our employees, but rather the realities of the market,” a Kiewett representative said. The news follows bankruptcies by Cloud Peak and Blackjewel.

Montana, Utah, and Wyoming want to force West Coast states to expand export terminals, even though that agenda “make little financial sense” because of weak foreign demand for U.S. coal.

“We are certainly much closer to a trough than we are to a peak," said an NTEC executive as the struggling company agreed to an installment plan with Campbell County.

A tribal enterprise that recently acquired distressed out-of-state mines without consulting Navajo leaders is losing its footing back home, too, as Four Corners power plant is marked for early shutdown.

The company that bought Cloud Peak Energy’s mines in the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming is being called out for not paying taxes owed state and federal governments.

“The Powder River Basin is not going to ride a gentle glidepath into oblivion decades from now,” and likely faces a scenario in which “things begin to happen very quickly.”

“Market forces are dictating the transition from coal to other resources,” one expert said. “The governor can try to save coal, but the transition is going to be here regardless.”

The state has approved a $1 billion dual-windfarm project. Most of it will be on private property, generating lease revenue for landowners. Local-preference hiring is part of the deal.

“There is understandably angst in our coal communities,” said a representative for PacifiCorp, which is putting $3 billion into windfarms. “But I think there is also a new chapter coming.”

Tribal officials acted wisely in protecting Navajo Nation from $400 million in cleanup liabilities associated with the ill-advised acquisition of struggling Powder River Basin coal mines, write the authors.

Navajo Nation leaders terminated indemnification agreements that are seen as important to the viability of a tribally-owned company buying the Montana and Wyoming mine assets of bankrupt Cloud Peak Energy.

“If the state and PacifiCorp commit to an aggressive program to retrain the utility’s workers, the conversion to renewable energy will ultimately help the state remain competitive.”

“Our leaders should put more investment into developing economic activity using the area’s natural beauty.… We just need to start looking for opportunities outside the coal industry.”

“The state has always just counted on us being the cash cow for the state of Wyoming and they didn't have to do any planning,” one laid-off coal miner said.

Uncertainty weighs heavily over an economy where a growing consensus of experts sees more pain to come. Little in the way of proactive response has emerged, however.

The company that owns mines in Wyoming and West Virginia will abruptly end insurance for hundreds of employees, telling workers to look for coverage elsewhere after Aug. 31.

As the bankruptcy clock ticks down, Blackjewel may permanently cease operations at Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr, leaving new owners to segue into mine reclamation instead.

A call for stronger state leadership in Montana and Wyoming to address “the displacement and financial devastation to families and communities” that stands only to worsen.

As the coal economies of Montana and Wyoming shrink, companies long involved have shown little interest in the fate of local communities. “The hardworking people of the region deserve far better,” writes the author.

Coal’s share of the electricity-generation market is down three points this year, to a record low 24 percent, driving two big producers to combine operations in Colorado and Wyoming owing to “cutthroat competition.”

A major regional producer—Cloud Peak Energy—is near bankruptcy while another—BlackJewell LLC—is keeping up with its tax obligations, signals of an industry decline gaining speed.

The shrinking national customer base for the Powder River Basin coal industry will create “continued pressure on the PRB’s mines and lead to rising economic uncertainty in the region.”

Cloud Peak Energy, a Powder River Basin producer whose business plan turns on exports, faces delisting on the New York Stock Exchange, potential bankruptcy, and is cutting employee benefits.

Legislators in Montana and Wyoming are passing bills to counter market forces that are putting coal-fired power plants out of business. It remains to be seen whether they will make a difference.

Regulators have approved new rules against ‘self-bonding,’ the practice by which coal companies promise—on paper—that they will pay for mine reclamation costs that would otherwise fall on taxpayers.

A bankruptcy judge said Westmoreland Coal can proceed with a plan to eliminate healthcare benefits for retirees and do away with a union contract at its Kemmerer, Wyo., mine.

Peabody Energy expects a 10-ton production reduction at the North Antelope Rochelle mine this year, down from 98 million tons, and the company says it will close Kayenta mine in Arizona.

Further declines in demand for Powder River Basin coal are prompting many companies to “cut staff or benefits, reduce their exposure to the basin or leave it entirely.”

Cloud Peak Energy’s long-shot search for a party to buy its struggling Powder River Basin mines is “a fracture in Wyoming coal’s newfound stability after years of layoffs and bankruptcies.”

After Westmoreland Coal filed for bankruptcy this month, residents of the rural area around the company’s Kemmerer Mine in Wyoming face an uncertain future. The mine employs almost 300 people and expectations are that it will be auctioned off as part of the company’s restructuring. "Our people are just worried to death about their jobs, their pensions, their health care," said a United Mine Workers of America executive.

Lincoln County, Wyo., is at risk of losing millions of dollars in taxes that are due from Westmoreland Coal, which filed for bankruptcy last week. State legislators are considering reforms that would keep such companies from defaulting on their annual obligations to county governments. The situation “highlights a weakness in the laws that leave county governments vulnerable when trying to collect ad valorem taxes from busted energy companies.”

Wyoming is moving closer to limiting “self-bonding” by coal companies that use the practice to avoid buying mine-cleanup insurance. State officials are worried that taxpayers will be left holding the reclamation bag on vast tracts of the Powder River Basin unless the loophole is closed. “Wyoming is not a bank,” said the administrator of the state’s main conservation agency. “We’re not in the business of bankrolling reclamation.”

Peabody Energy, the biggest coal company in the U.S., has relinquished several thousand acres of federal leases in Wyoming after deeming them no longer economically viable. The news comes amid indications that a downturn will continue, after several bankruptcies across the industry and following an announcement by Alpha Coal earlier this year that it will curb production at Black Thunder, a mainstay in the state and one of the largest coal operations in the country. “Everyone knows it’s only a matter of time before a Wyoming coal mine closes,” said the chairman of the Powder River Basin Resource Council.

Unpredictability is the “new norm” in coal production across the Powder River Basin of Wyoming as spot market prices replace long-term contracts and as more coal-fired power plants close nationally. Twelve mines in the basin account for about 40 percent of the receding U.S. thermal coal market. “Obviously there are some long-term hurdles to overcome when your country is not building any new coal-fired power plants,” said the executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association.

The national appetite for coal remains stagnant as the U.S. electricity sector continues to switch to other forms of fuel, most notably natural gas, which is better suited to day-to-day changes in demand—especially during warm-weather months, when air-conditioning use drives the market. “Wyoming feeds about 40 percent of national coal demand, but the fuel’s hold on the electricity market has weakened substantially in recent years, a trend that may continue.”

A new study concludes that rising operational costs at PacifiCorp’s coal-fired electricity plants are hurting consumers. PacificCorp, the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power, operates in six states. The study, by Utah-based Energy Strategies, calculates that keeping PacifiCorp’s aging fleet of 22 coal plants online for “the remainder of their lives” will cost $11.7 billion.

“Renewable energy — particularly solar and wind power — have become increasingly attractive,” says a spokesman for Rocky Mountain Power, which has signed a long-term agreement to buy power produced by the first utility-scale solar project in Wyoming. The Sweetwater Solar LLC plant received crucial clearance this week from the Bureau of Land Management. It will produce enough electricity to power 17,000 homes, and is expected to go online by the end of this year.

As Wyoming grapples with how to manage its energy industry transition, more people are considering the economic benefits of the wind industry. One project in particular, the TransWest Express,captures some of the possibilities. “These are good, high-paying jobs. And when we finish this project, the permanent jobs are going to be roughly 150 people, well paid, fully-benefitted jobs that are really a boon to those communities,” said the CEO of the company building TransWest.

As Wyoming’s traditional energy economy contracts, younger workers are leaving for opportunities elsewhere, and the state’s population is growing older, according to recent data from the Wyoming Economic Analysis Division. The trend makes Wyoming the fastest-aging state in the country, and many former residents have left because they lost their jobs in the oil, natural gas and coal-mining industries.

An editorial board for a newspaper in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming has questioned the Trump administration’s controversial proposal to prop up failing coal-fired electricity generation plants. “Coal’s place in the energy sector has changed,” the editorial says. “Investing in our past will only shortchange us in the future.”

Local officials say Campbell County, Wyo., has been stiffed on a $4 million tax payment due May 1 from Contura Energy, the company that acquired the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr coal mines last year from Alpha Natural Resources. The mines, near Gillette, have since been acquired by Blackjewel LLC, “a firm troubled by environmental concerns and court cases in Appalachia.” Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr are also beset by millions of dollars in cleanup obligations.

As West Coast states look to power their electricity grids with cheaper and cleaner energy sources, their retreat from traditional generation models poses an existential threat to Wyoming’s coal industry. Utilities involved in the transition include regional household names like PacifiCorp and Rocky Mountain Power. “If Oregon, Washington and California ditch coal, it may leave Wyoming’s largest utility, and its customers, holding a bag they don’t want to carry,” reports one newspaper.

A cash infusion from creditors will help stave off bankruptcy for Westmoreland Coal, but the company, which owns mines in five states, is still in trouble. “Westmoreland faces many of the same pressures irritating the coal sector nationwide,” reports a Wyoming newspaper, “including competition from cheap natural gas and environmental regulations that made some older coal units too expensive to keep running.”

Sweetwater County Commissioners have approved the biggest solar project on record for Wyoming, the country’s No. 1 coal producer. The 80-megawatt solar farm will cover one square mile and generate enough electricity for 12,000 homes. The project is a subsidiary of a Korean company.

State officials plan to spend as much as $22.5 million to help expand a coal mine whose owner is in peril of bankruptcy and despite the loss of the mine’s main customer. “The developments regarding the mine and power plant raise questions about the economic future of Kemmerer, population 2,771, and surrounding communities,” where 300 people work at the Kemmerer Mine.

Westmoreland Coal, which is based in Colorado and operates in five states, is facing the prospect of having to shrink its core business as it struggles to remain a viable company. “They will have to get rid of some of their debt, get new financing to consolidate things, but also restructure the company to make it more viable for the long-term,” one analyst says. “And it could mean selling off assets or closing some mines.”

The editorial board of the Casper Star-Tribune has called for a civil discussion around development of an economy that is less susceptible to the energy industry’s boom-and-bust cycle. “In order for Wyoming to flourish, the state must diversify its economy and adjust its tax structure in order to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels and foster positive growth in Wyoming communities,” say the authors. “Economic diversification is crucial for the future of our great state.”

New company filings show that that the owner of two well-known coal mines in Wyoming paid more than $20 million for Blackjewel Inc. to takes possession of them in December. Contura Energy had owned the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines as a result of Alpha Energy’s bankruptcy reorganization in 2016 during an industry downturn that has continued: “Some say the deal heralds bad days to come. Others are more diplomatic about the challenges for Wyoming coal, but agree that the sale is telling of how the sector has changed in a few short years.”

The latest government jobs report shows Wyoming, the biggest coal-producing state in the U.S., having added only five full-time coal-mining jobs since 2016. The industry is hampered by the rise of natural gas and renewables alongside customer preferences for clean electricity generation. “When companies don’t see a lot of positive on the horizon, they’re always reluctant to hire again,” said one Wyoming official.

In a blow to the coal industry in Montana and Wyoming, a federal judge has ruled that the Bureau of Land Management must consider potential impacts on climate change in deciding on further permitting of federal coal leases. The case could ultimately put a legal limit on the amount of coal mined in the region. “This ruling is the latest example of courts forcing the federal government to be honest with the American public,” one plaintiff said.

Wyoming, home of the Powder River Basin and the largest coal reserves in America, is moving to hold coal companies more accountable around their mine-cleanup promises. At issue is industry “self-bonding,” which left taxpayers holding the bag with the bankruptcy last year of companies that included Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal, and Peabody Energy. “It’s a recognition that these sophisticated multinational companies were able to take advantage of those loopholes in the older regulations and that there’s some commonsense fixes that could be put into place that make sure that companies aren’t going to leave Wyoming taxpayers hanging,” said one critic of the historical system.

Wyoming is reporting its biggest population drop in a quarter century after about 8,300 people moved out of the state in 2017, mostly from the Powder River Basin, where the economy is heavily dependent on coal mining. Campbell County was among the hardest hit areas, losing 2,500 people, or 5.2 percent of its population. Conversely, Lincoln County, which is more reliant on tourism, and Albany County, home to the University of Wyoming, reported census growth of about 1 percent each. “Migration is mostly driven by changes in employment, which is particularly true for Wyoming,” said the chief economist for the State of Wyoming’s Economic Analysis Division.

An analysis of Colorado-based Westmoreland Coal shows that it is in deep financial peril, a situation that may affect communities in Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wyoming as the company’s customer base dries up. “The cost inherent in coal-fired power are moving (utilities) away from coal," says the study’s author.

Consumers Energy, the biggest utility in Michigan and an important customer of Wyoming mines owned by Arch Coal, Peabody Energy, and Cloud Peak Energy, is phasing out its coal-fired generation in favor of other power sources. The utility supplies electricity to more than 60 percent of Michigan’s 10 million residents. “We believe we’re going to be on the right side of history on this issue,” said Consumers CEO Patti Poppe.

The state senate voted unanimously to move forward with a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow school districts to pay for new school construction with property tax revenue. The plan is a departure from reliance on coal leases from public lands and is being pursued as a way to replace $1 billion in such funding, which has all but disappeared in recent years.

Contura Energy’s unexpected sale of its Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte mines in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming raises questions about the persistent market difficulties facing U.S. coal producers: “The Powder River Basin, the biggest producer of American coal, does not need another coal company trying to succeed off marginal reserves in a falling market.”

Contura Energy, the company created last year from the bankruptcy of Alpha Natural Resources, has jettisoned its mines in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming: “CEO Kevin Crutchfield extolled the virtues of the Wyoming mines and miners in his sendoff statement Monday, wishing ‘them the very best.’”

Wyoming is among the states developing renewable energy for export, one example of many in which “state leadership and energy markets are already headed toward renewables and away from fossil fuels, a trend federal policy changes won't deter.”