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Wyoming and coal

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This article is part of the Coal Issues portal on SourceWatch, a project of CoalSwarm and the Center for Media and Democracy.

Contents

Introduction

Wyoming is the nation's highest coal producer, with over 400 million tons of coal produced in the state each year. In 2006, Wyoming's coal production accounted for almost 40% of the nation's coal.[1] Currently Wyoming coal comes from four of the State's ten major coal fields. The Powder River Coal Field has the largest production in the world - in 2007, it produced over 436 million short tons.[2]

Wyoming coal is shipped to 35 other states. The coal is highly desirable because of its low sulfur levels.[3] On average Wyoming coal contains 0.35 percent sulfur by weight, compared with 1.59 percent for Kentucky coal and 3 to 5 percent for other eastern coals. Although Wyoming coal may have less sulfur, it also a lower "heat rate" or fewer Btu's of energy. On average Wyoming coal has 8600 Btu's of energy per pound, while Eastern coal has heat rates of over 12,000 Btu's per pound, meaning that plants have to burn 50 percent more Wyoming coal to equal the power output from Eastern coal.[4]

Coal-fired power plants produce almost 95% of the electricity generated in Wyoming. Wyoming's average retail price of electricity is 5.27 cents per kilowatt hour, the 2nd lowest rate in the nation[5]

In 2003, Wyoming produced 127 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions,[6] ranking it 31st in the nation overall, but 1st on a per capita basis.[7] Wyoming's coal-fired power plants emit more CO2 in eight hours than the power plants in more populous Vermont do in one year.[6]

Citizen activism

Large-scale carbon sequestration project

In November 2008, the Department of Energy awarded $66.9 million to the Big Sky Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership to develop the Department’s seventh large-scale carbon sequestration project. The project will conduct a large-volume test in the Nugget Sandstone formation in Wyoming in an effort to establish the possibility of "safely, permanently and economically" using a geologic formation to store over 2 million tons of carbon dioxide. The DOE is currently estimating the project's cost at over $130 million.[8]

Big Sky plans to drill a CO2 injection well and inject up to one million tons per year of carbon dioxide at a depth of 11,000 feet. The DOE states that similar geologic formations in the region offer the opportunity to store more than 100 years of CO2 emissions from sources in the area. The CO2 for the project will come from Cimarex Energy’s proposed helium and natural gas processing plant at Riley Ridge.[8]

On December 16, 2009 it was announced that the University of Wyoming (UW) teamed up with four companies, including Exxon-Mobile, to begin the so-called Rock Springs Uplift and Moxa Arch carbon sequestration projects. UW researchers believe that these two sites are capable of storing Wyoming's annual CO2 emissions for many centuries. The companies involved believe that carbon sequestration will help to keep the coal industry viable under pending carbon control regulations.[8]

History

Coal was discovered in Wyoming by the Fremont Expedition of 1843. Commercial mining began with the arrival of the railroad. The first mines were located in Carbon and Rock Springs and were owned by the Wyoming Coal and Mining Company. When the railroad was relocated in 1899 to avoid a steep grade, the Carbon mines and the town around them were abandoned.

90 percent of the stock in Wyoming Coal was held by heads of the Union Pacific. Wyoming Coal leased the land from the railroad, and then sold their coal to the railroad for a profit. In 1874 a government investigation terminated the agreement between the two companies, at which point Union Pacific took over the mines. By controlling the only means of transporting coal, the Union Pacific established a monopoly on coal production.

Several strikes occurred in the early history of Wyoming coal mining. In 1875, Union Pacific cut miners' pay by 20 percent but made no corresponding reduction in coal prices. When the miners went on strike, the company replaced them with Chinese workers, leading to the Rock Springs Massacre of 1885. Striking miners burned the homes of approximately 75 Chinese families, killing 28 Chinese workers and injuring 15. Federal troops were brought in to restore order in the town and remained there until 1898. Another strike occurred in 1894 when the Pullman Company laid off a third of its employees and lowered the pay of the remaining workers. Railroad workers went on strike until the federal government intervened to break up the strike and ordered that more than 800 railroad employees in Wyoming be fired.

Wyoming has had numerous mine disasters. The worst occurred in Hanna on June 30, 1903, when an explosion in one of Union Pacific's mines killed 169 miners. Union Pacific paid $800 to each widow and $50 for each surviving child younger than fifteen. Nine other disasters between 1886 and 1924 killed 328 people.[9]

In the summer of 2009 the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad began to abandon a massive rail expansion project in the Powder River Basin, which is located in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming. The region supplies 40 percent of the total coal production in the United States and the railroad project was set to expand the company's operations into the area to transport coal to regional coal-fired power plants. The economic downturn and rise in climate change awareness are noted as the reasons that led to the decision to back off the plan. Nonetheless, no decision has been made to permanently shelve the project.[10]

In November of 2009 the bank HSBC released a report entitled, "The Green Side of Black" that made estimates about coal's involvement in the future of the U.S. energy economy. In it, the bank reported that coal, even under cap-and-trade, will be a lucrative industry in the future. The author of the report also stated that Wyoming's Powder River Basin will be growing faster than other coal regions in the United States. The HSBC report stated that Arch Coal and Peabody Energy will be especially prosporous because of their extensive involvement in the Powder River Basin.[11]

Legislative issues

Coal industry lobbyists have proposed three draft bills in response to a request from state lawmakers about how to make Wyoming more competitive in luring "clean coal" projects. Each bill would cut taxes. One would apply to sales and use taxes, another to ad valorem taxes, and another to severance taxes. The draft bills went to the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee for consideration on November 18, 2008.[12]

Governors request federal funding for "clean coal"

On February 22, 2009, the governors of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah submitted a letter to President Obama asking for funding to develop "clean coal" projects in their states. Wyoming Gov. Dave Fruedenthal, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, argued that developing a cleaner way to burn coal is essential to reducing emissions, protecting national security, and creating jobs. The letter also said that the Energy Policy Act of 2005 approved federal cost sharing for a clean-coal demonstration project using coal mined in the West, but that no project was ever funded. According to the governors, the three states are ready to start developing new demonstration projects and retrofitting existing plants with carbon capture and storage technologies.[13]

Peabody reduces production in Wyoming

In January 2009, Peabody Energy announced plans to reduce its yearly production of Powder River Basin coal production by 10 million tons because of the economic downturn and weakening demand worldwide. Peabody's three Wyoming coal mines, which include North Antelope Rochelle Complex, Caballo and Rawhide, produced a total of approximately 143.5 million tons in 2008. together produced about 143.5 million tons in 2008, according a Casper Star-Tribune estimate. North Antelope Rochelle accounted for almost two thirds of that total. The company, which employs over 1,700 miners in the state, does not expect a significant loss of jobs in spite of the production slowdown.[14]

Peabody Energy owns and operates the North Antelope Rochelle Mine in Wyoming, which is the largest surface coal mine in the United States. Of the 15 largest surface coal mines in the country, 11 are located in the state of Wyoming.[15]

Proposed coal plants

Active

Cancelled, abandoned, or on hold

Citizen groups

Coal lobbying groups

Power companies

Existing coal plants

Wyoming has 23 operating coal-fired power stations totaling 6,168 megawatts (MW).[16]

Click on the locations shown on the Wyoming map for plant details:


4 of these units are larger than 500MW.[1][2]

Major coal mines

Resources

References

  1. ↑ Power Plants in Wyoming, accessed May 2008.
  2. ↑ Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2005, Energy Information Administration website, accessed May 2008.
  3. ↑ Major U.S. Coal Mines, Energy Information Administration, accessed May 2008.

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