Wyoming’s coal region remains frustrated with Governor Gordon and the federal “war on fossil fuels”

by Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile

GILLETTE – Gov. Mark Gordon traveled to the heart of Wyoming’s coal country this week to confront concerns that he is focusing too much on carbon capture technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accusations that he is not fighting hard enough against the Biden administration’s anti-fossil fuel policies. The effort was largely fruitless.

First, many of the 300 or so locals, including dozens of miners, who showed up for Tuesday afternoon’s “town hall meeting” ignore the scientific evidence of human-caused climate change. Several attendees who asked about Gordon’s carbon sequestration efforts were unconvinced that it is a worthwhile effort.

Perhaps most frustrating for those in attendance, however, was that Gordon and the seven-member panel he assembled — including representatives from the oil and mining industries and U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) — spent the first 90 minutes of the two-hour event detailing the regulatory, bureaucratic and political ordeals involved in litigating federal policy.

In a press release announcing the event, Gordon said the format will include time for questions from the public, adding, “I look forward to the conversation.”

When Gordon opened the question and answer session, the audience was frustrated.

“I thought we were in a filibuster session,” Jack Clary told Gordon.

Clary, a former mine manager at the Wyodak coal mine on the city’s east side who is running for a seat on the Gillette City Council, later told WyoFile, “These people took time off work to come here, and they didn’t get a chance to say what they wanted to say to the governor. We want answers. We need to have answers.”

The state’s requirement to retrofit Wyoming’s coal-fired power plants with carbon capture systems will unnecessarily drive up electricity prices for the population – a presumably coal-friendly strategy that, according to Clary, who also sits on the Campbell County Planning and Zoning Board, is nothing more than “sham.”

“I think we have politicians,” Clary told WyoFile. “We don’t have statesmen. I think we need to get away from that. I’m tired, and people are tired, of the political rhetoric.”

When asked for comment after the event, Gordon’s spokesman Michael Pearlman wrote in an email: “The Governor answered questions either during the question and answer session or afterward.

“The panelists’ presentation,” Pearlman continued, “underscores the significant efforts being made to protect our state. The information shared gave participants confidence that Wyoming is in the fight – leading the way and joining forces to secure our livelihoods, protect our lands and power our nation.”

The audience, including Clary, agreed with repeated condemnation of the Biden administration’s energy, wildlife and land use policies, which they say pose a threat to Wyoming’s fossil fuel industry. A remark by Lummis that federal agencies implementing these policies should be defunded received thunderous applause, including from Gordon.

But the crowd also applauded a local’s request that Gordon return to Gillette that evening, when more people could take time off work to ask questions and speak with the governor. Gordon said afterward that he would plan another event in Gillette that evening.

Gordon’s energy strategy

Gordon organized the event to highlight his administration’s response to a spate of new federal climate, wildlife and land-use policies, including the EPA’s coal pollution regulations, the Bureau of Land Management’s changes to control sage grouse, the “methane rule,” the conservation rule and a proposal to end federal coal leasing in the Powder River Basin.

If implemented, these federal policies are likely to accelerate the decline in coal production and potentially hamper oil and natural gas production in the state, hitting northeast Wyoming particularly hard. Campbell County is the center of the coal industry in the Powder River Basin, the country’s largest coal producer and a mainstay of the regional economy.

To protect Wyoming’s coal and other resource industries from regulatory and market problems, Gordon has promoted a series of energy partnerships that cover every facet of what is feasible. These partnerships, he says, are designed to advance technologies that can help preserve fossil fuels in a policy environment that favors wind and solar power.

He is also relying on the courts to take action against increasingly strict federal regulations.

Since taking office in 2019, Gordon’s administration has initiated or participated in at least 57 lawsuits either challenging federal “natural resource” policies or defending them in lawsuits brought by health and conservation groups against federal regulators, according to a list of lawsuits his office provided to WyoFile. The litigation involves a dozen federal agencies, several states and at least 11 conservation groups. Most involve the EPA, the BLM and the Department of Interior, which oversees the two agencies.

Gordon recently allocated $300,000 from the state’s $1.2 million “coal litigation fund” to file a lawsuit challenging the EPA’s coal pollution regulations, and on Tuesday he announced an additional $800,000 to block the BLM’s proposal to end federal coal leasing in the Powder River Basin.

“This country needs to get its head out of its nether regions and figure out how we can continue to be a great country, and that’s what Wyoming is trying to do,” Gordon said. “The future has to include coal, and we need to make it clear to investors that it’s actually cheaper to mine more coal than to rely on what (James Young, director of government and political affairs for the National Mining Association) I think he called fairy dust.”

Young of the National Mining Association, a panelist at the event, used “fairy dust” to describe the EPA’s mandate to capture 90% of carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. He added that the technology is doable if the industry is given more time. He also praised Gordon’s efforts as particularly effective in the fight to preserve the coal industry.

“I think you should just stand up and applaud every single one of these (panelists),” Young told the crowd.

The crowd did not stand up but gave lukewarm applause.

Frustration in the coal mining region

The town hall meeting was organized while Gordon was facing criticism from the far-right Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which includes state lawmakers. The lawmakers include Freedom Caucus Chairman John Bear (R-Gillette) and Rep. Christopher Knapp (R-Gillette). The group first attacked Gordon for participating in a discussion at Harvard University in October, where he spoke about the need to reduce emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases and emphasized that fossil fuels could play a role in commercializing industrial carbon capture technologies.

The governor’s remarks, however, did not sit well with members of the Freedom Caucus, many of whom deny human-caused climate change. Gordon’s acknowledgment of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the group argues, only serves as ammunition for anti-fossil fuel policies. The group escalated its criticism of Gordon for his climate change acknowledgment, inviting the CO2 Coalition – which promotes the debunked notion that humans have not contributed to climate change – to the Capitol during the legislative session in February.

The group’s latest criticism of Gordon concerns what some members describe as his “lethargic” response to the BLM’s revised Buffalo Field Office Resource Management Plan, in which the agency proposes ending federal coal leasing in the Powder River Basin. The plan was released in May, and some Freedom Caucus members believe Gordon should have filed suit by now. But Gordon’s administration must first protest the BLM’s plan and wait for the agency’s final decision later this year to gain legal recourse.

Gordon’s critics also resent Gordon’s veto of Senate File 13 earlier this year, which would have provided $75 million for the Legislature – and potentially Wyoming counties – to sue the BLM over resource management plans. In Gillette, Gordon reiterated his reasoning for the veto, explaining that not only are state court cases the executive branch’s jurisdiction, but it would be a legal disadvantage to have two entities represent the same client.

Gordon also rejected a request from 26 lawmakers earlier this month to convene a special session of the House to reexamine the SF-13 veto and draft a supplemental complaint against the BLM.

This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent, nonprofit news organization focused on people, places and politics in Wyoming.

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