coal

Almost three years ago, an unlikely relationship formed between the declining coal town of Kemmerer and one of the richest people in the world: Bill Gates. That’s because his nuclear company, TerraPower, announced it’d chosen Kemmerer for a “first of its kind” power plant. It promised to pump life back into the economy. But unless you’re deeply embedded in the energy world, it mostly just felt like a lot of talk to residents – until this month, when the project broke ground.

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon spoke with Wyoming Public Radio’s Caitlin Tan about his regional work as chair of an association of Western governors, and also how issues are unfolding in Wyoming, especially with regard to coal.

It’s not news to anyone that coal has been declining for a while now – production in Wyoming has almost halved since it peaked in 2008. But that decline could steepen thanks to recent federal rules and proposals.

If the proposal goes through, coal mining will likely end in the region by 2041 when existing leases expire.

Gov. Mark Gordon is calling a proposal for a coal-fired power plant to install carbon capture technology a win for Wyoming — if it proves economically beneficial.

Wyoming’s Governor Mark Gordon is the leader of a group of western governors for the next year, and his goal is to explore ‘decarbonization’ as a way to address climate change. Gordon recently held a workshop in Gillette, which Wyoming Public Radio’s energy reporter Caitlin Tan attended. She spoke with WPR’s news director Kamila Kudelska.

The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing in mid-June about coal leasing on federal lands.

Just southeast of Rawlins on the Overland Trail Ranch, federal and local officials broke ground with shovels on the TransWest Express Transmission Project. It will be a 732-mile powerline that will transfer Wyoming’s wind-generated electricity to the southwest. This is just one way the Biden Administration hopes to achieve 100 percent ‘clean’ energy by 2035.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration issued 335 violations in April at 20 mines across 15 states. Mines in the Mountain West accounted for 83 of the violations, 17 of which were considered "significant and substantial."

As U.S. markets and policies move away from fossil fuels and toward renewables like wind and solar, a new ranking of the nation’s "greenest" states has only three Mountain West states cracking the top 25.