Ad Valorem Taxes in Wyoming: Proposed Improvements
Our original report in January 2018 (Delinquent Mineral Taxes and Budget Deficits: A Case for Reform) detailed Wyoming’s heavy dependence on mineral taxes to fund state and local government services. We discussed the fact that Wyoming gets more than 70% of our total revenue from taxes on mineral extraction and the impacts to county services […]
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 […]
Report Shows Coal Reclamation Benefits Taxpayers and Creates Jobs
July 10, 2018 A new report has found that approximately 206 square miles of land from 14 Wyoming coal mines has been disturbed; however, only 2.4% of that land has been fully reclaimed. Today the Powder River Basin Resource Council (Resource Council) published a report “Reclaim Wyoming: Prioritize Coal Mine Reclamation” which tracked reclamation statistics […]
Reclaim Wyoming: Prioritize Coal Mine Reclamation
Wyoming’s coal mining legacy dates back to the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1897.1 The state is home to some of the largest coal mines on earth, including the top eight active U.S. mines. Combined, Wyoming mines account for 41% of coal production in the U.S., about the same as the next seven […]
Powder River Basin Resource Council Petitions Wyoming DEQ to End Self-Bonding and Protect Taxpayers and Adjacent Landowners
May 1, 2018 This week the Powder River Basin Resource Council (Resource Council) filed a formal rulemaking petition with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Land Quality Division to end the practice of self-bonding for coal mines. In order to better shield Wyoming taxpayers from having to fund mine clean-up in the event of a […]
GAO Report on Coal Mine Self-Bonding March 2018
Coal accounts for 17 percent of domestic energy production. SMCRA requires coal mine operators to reclaim lands that were disturbed during mining and to submit a financial assurance in an amount sufficient to ensure that adequate funds will be available to complete reclamation if the operator does not do so. Recent coal company bankruptcies have […]
Petition to Amend Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality Rules on Self-Bonding
The Resource Council, along with its over 1,000 members throughout the state, advocates for the conservation of Wyoming’s unique land, mineral, water, and clean air resources consistent with responsible use of those resources to sustain the livelihood of present and future generations. Since its founding in 1973, the Resource Council has worked on coal mining […]
WORC Report Finds Coal Self-Bonding Unnecessary and Risky
April 5, 2018 The practice of self-bonding at coal mines could be ended today without a significant impact to the coal mining industry. That’s the conclusion of a new report, Now is the Time to End Self-Bonding, which points out that self-bonds in the West have hit a historic low, and that conventional alternatives to […]
Now Is the Time to End Self-Bonding
In the eight months between August 2015 and April 2016, the three largest coal companies in the United States all filed for bankruptcy: Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, and Alpha Natural Resources. Between them, they had pledged $2.3 billion of self-bonds in support of mine cleanup, known as “reclamation.” Coal companies are required by law to […]
The Clean Power Plan Serves Public Health & Safety
March 26, 2018 (Gillette, Wyo.) In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the final version of the Clean Power Plan (Plan), a program to reduce harmful emissions and carbon pollution from power plants. Just about a year ago, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing the EPA to review the program. Shortly thereafter, EPA […]
