In the face of a statewide budget crisis, mineral extraction companies owe Wyoming taxpayers over $42 million in county taxes unpaid on their operations throughout the state. Last month, Powder River Basin Resource Council released a new report entitled Tax … Continued
This report is the result of a collaboration between Appalachian Voices and the Western Organization of Resource Councils to assess the effect of Trump Administration policies on economic growth in coal-producing regions. By Colin Lauderdale & Erin Savage One year … Continued
For every step forward in 2017, the coal industry saw at least two steps backward. The slow unraveling of the industry will take time, but each passing month begs certain questions about the future more and more urgently. Will coal … Continued
Powder River Basin Resource Council (PRBRC) featured a panel conversation on Wyoming’s energy and economic future early in November at its Annual Meeting in Sheridan. Panelists included Rep. Mike Madden, Chair of the Wyoming House Revenue Committee; Rob Godby, Director … Continued
I’m a coal miner from Nucla, Colorado, where I work for Elk Ridge Mining and Reclamation. We are currently reclaiming New Horizon North Mine. In August of 2016, my coworkers and I were informed by Tri-State Generation and Transmission that … Continued
Last month, WORC members from three states joined advocates from across the country in Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress in support of the RECLAIM Act, HR 1731. Gene Wirtz from Underwood, N.D., Kate French from Bozeman, Mont., and Roger and … Continued
In the midst of one of the worst wildfire seasons the West has ever seen, and as Houston, the Florida Keys, Puerto Rico, and the Gulf Coast begin to rebuild after an unprecedented four consecutive devastating hurricanes, the U.S. Environmental … Continued
As we mark 40 years with the federal coal strip mine act, there has never been a more crucial moment for its promise—that every acre of land mined for coal will be reclaimed—to be fulfilled. On August 3, 1977, the … Continued
Proposed coal export terminals received more bad news today. The Washington Department of Ecology denied a crucial water quality permit sought by Millennium Bulk Terminals to build and operate a 48.5 million tons per year coal export facility in Longview, … Continued
The federal coal leasing program has been broken for years. But that isn’t stopping Secretary Ryan Zinke’s Interior Department from considering selling a tract of hundreds of millions of tons of publicly-owned coal. Cloud Peak Energy is proposing to expand … Continued