Powder River Basin Resource Council Objects to Proposed Ramaco Coal Mine
Powder River Basin Resource Council (Resource Council) and many Sheridan County landowners and concerned citizens filed objections to Ramaco’s proposed Brook Mine this month. The mine is proposed approximately six miles north of Sheridan, in the scenic Tongue River Valley, an area with important agricultural and recreational attributes. Most of the objecting landowners live in […]
Bankruptcies and Inadequate Bonds Threaten Taxpayers, Landowners with Orphan Oil and Gas Wells
In the midst of historically low oil prices and plummeting demand due to coronavirus restrictions, inadequate federal and state reclamation bonding requirements make it easier for deeply indebted oil and gas operators to declare bankruptcy and walk away from orphaned wells en masse. A recent report by the Western Organization of Resource Councils examining the […]
Powder River Breaks January – February 2020
January – February 2020, Volume 48, Number 1 Late last year, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) told Powder River that they would not be approving Aethon’s permit to discharge over 8 million gallons of polluted oil and gas wastewater a day. DEQ noted that concerns raised by citizens in writing and at public […]
States face massive coal mine cleanup as closures loom, says new report
More than 234 square miles remain unreclaimed in the West after five decades of mining More than a third of all land mined for coal in the Western United States awaits cleanup after a half-century of intensive strip-mining, but a weakening coal industry may be incapable of cleaning it up says a report released today […]
Powder River & WORC Statement in Response to Cloud Peak’s Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Plan
Today in a Delaware bankruptcy court, a federal judge approved Cloud Peak Energy’s plan to get out of bankruptcy. A critical part of the plan is the sale of mines and other property to the Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC), a company wholly owned by the Navajo Nation. In response to the bankruptcy court decision, […]
Powder River Breaks September – October 2019
September – October 2019, Volume 47, Number 5 On Saturday, Nov. 2, Powder River will host its 47th Annual Meeting at the Holiday Inn in Sheridan. This year’s theme, When Coal is No Longer King: A Conversation on Wyoming’s Future, will explore how the state’s economy must change as the coal industry shrinks. Denise Parrish, […]
Powder River Files Complaint Alleging Contura Mine Violations
August 28, 2019 This week Powder River Basin Resource Council (Resource Council) filed a citizen complaint with the federal Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement (OSMRE) and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) regarding mine violations at the Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte coal mines, which have been shut down since Blackjewel filed […]
Powder River Breaks July – August 2019
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 […]
Letter to OSMRE Regarding Blackjewel Bankruptcy
July 15, 2019 Dear Acting Director Owens, On behalf of our millions of members, many of whom live in areas directly affected by coal mining operations, the undersigned organizations write to you to express our concerns about Blackjewel/Revelation Energy’s bankruptcy filing that occurred on July 1, 2019. We ask that you work swiftly to exercise […]
Powder River Statement on Contura-Blackjewel Permit Transfer Hearing
July 10, 2019 “In light of Blackjewel’s bankruptcy and how chaotically this situation evolved, we thank the EQC for staying the permit transfers at this time. We are relieved that the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr permits will remain under Contura,” said Powder River Basin Resource Council Chair Joyce Evans. “However, we are disappointed that […]
