July – August 2019, Volume 47, Number 4 Early in the morning on July 1, Blackjewel, LLC and associated companies operating 32 coal mines in Wyoming, West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky filed for bankruptcy. Later that day, emergency funding fell through as banks that had previously financed the operations of Blackjewel owner Jeff Hoops no […]
Posts Categorized: Powder River Breaks Newsletter
Powder River Breaks May – June 2019
Powder River Breaks May – June 2019 Volume 47, Number 3 Last month, after a two-day hearing over Powder River’s objections to Contura Coal West’s proposal to transfer their permits for the Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte coal strip mines to Blackjewel LLC, the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council (EQC) postponed making a decision. The EQC […]
Powder River Breaks March – April 2019
March – April 2019, Volume 47, Number 2 Aethon Energy, the company that operates the Moneta Divide oil and gas field, is seeking an expanded discharge permit from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to dramatically increase their oil and gas wastewater discharge into the streams that flow into Boysen Reservoir. The volume of […]
Powder River Breaks January – February 2019
January – February 2019, Volume 47, Number 1 By a unanimous vote on February 19th, the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council (EQC) adopted new comprehensive rules to strengthen financial assurance requirements for coal and noncoal mines. Notably, the rules strictly limit what companies will be able to qualify to use “self-bonding” to guarantee mine reclamation costs. […]
Powder River Breaks November – December 2018
November – December 2018, Volume 46, Number 6 On November 3rd, over 100 Powder River members gathered in Sheridan to celebrate our 46th Annual Meeting with an evening of socializing and shopping at the silent and live auctions. During dinner, members eagerly listened to “Cranes, Plains & Watersheds,” a presentation by conservationist, photographer, and author […]
Powder River Breaks September – October 2018
September – October 2018, Volume 46, Number 5 Award-winning conservation photographer and author Michael Forsberg will highlight Powder River’s 46th Annual Meeting, Our Water, Our Land, Our Legacy, on Saturday, Nov. 3rd at the Sheridan Holiday Inn. Forsberg will present his work on Great Plains conservation. Additionally a selection of his photographs will be on […]
Powder River Breaks July – August 2018
July – August 2018, Volume 46, Number 4 In July, Powder River released a new report that found only about 2.4% of approximately 206 square miles of land disturbed by 14 Wyoming coal mines has been fully reclaimed. “Reclaim Wyoming: Prioritize Reclamation” tracked reclamation statistics from these coal mines and investigated why the rate of […]
Powder River Breaks May – June 2018
May – June 2018, Volume 46, Number 3 So far, 2018 has been a great year for solar energy in Wyoming! Our work is making a difference. Installations are up since our Spring Solar Celebration, and the videos we have produced are being mentioned to installers. In particular, people who did not think they could […]
Powder River Breaks March – April 2018
March – April 2018, Volume 46, Number 2 On March 23rd, Judge Brian Morris from the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana issued a landmark decision holding that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plan to open up the entire Powder River Basin to 10.2 billion tons of federal coal leasing violated NEPA […]
Powder River Breaks January – February 2018
January – February 2018 Volume 46, Number 1 Powder River members, affiliate Cheyenne Area Landowners Coalition (CALC), and the communities of Durham Estates and Triple Crown, protested three waste water injection wells in Laramie County late last year. After a hearing was scheduled to hear Powder River’s protest on one of the wells – the […]
