On a clear, sunny day, Jeff Barron drives over a copper-colored hill in the Powder River Basin near Sheridan. He parks, hops out of his car and walks to the edge of a large open field. Cows are grazing in the distance.
He says a new coal operation would start right here.
"It will mine out coal some 2,000 feet that way and 2,000 feet that way,” Barron says.