In this Jan. 9, 2014 photo, rail cars are filled with coal and sprayed with a topper agent to suppress dust at Cloud Peak Energy’s Antelope Mine north of Douglas, Wyo. Antelope Mine is the country’s fourth-largest coal mine. Dependent on environmental review, the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal project would ship up to 48 million tons of U.S. coal to Asia.
In Gov. Matt Mead’s State of the State address, he further outlined the importance of the energy industry in Wyoming’s economic landscape, even going as far as to call it one of the state’s “top three economic anchors.”
This stance is hardly surprising, as both the coal, and oil and natural gas industries have long been a staple of Wyoming’s financial prosperity, as well as the nation’s output of such resources.
However, the two industries—coal, and oil and natural gas—have not been growing at the same rate as of late.
The oil and natural gas industry have continued to be prolific in growth and consistency.
According to wyofile.com, oil drilling in Wyoming is on pace to hit 500 wells per year in the Powder River Basin oil play alone. Wyoming’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, according to the article, has issued a total 1,530 applications for permit to drill in Converse County alone during the past four years.
To top it all off, the United States is quickly becoming the world’s leader in oil and natural gas production. Coal, on the other hand, has not managed to be nearly as productive as its counterpart.
According to the Billings Gazette, Wyoming coal production has dropped by 3.3 percent in 2013, making 2013 the fourth consecutive year that Wyoming’s coal production has been on the decline.
Coal’s decline has not gone unnoticed by its peddlers.
According to the same Billings Gazette report, Cloud Peak Energy President and CEO Colin Marshall told his investors two weeks ago that 2013 was not a strong year and that the future of the industry was uncertain.
Wyoming lawmakers have taken notice of the disparity currently taking place between two of the state’s largest moneymakers.
State Rep. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette, and state Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devil’s Tower, co-sponsored H.B. 66 earlier this month aimed at adjusting several tax rates and exemptions that would cut the amount paid by members of the coal industry while increasing taxes on oil and natural gas.
“H.B. 66 was an attempt to raise awareness in the state of Wyoming to the plight of our coal industry and raise awareness of gas being flared with little thought about its possible value or use,” said Driskill in a written statement. “The coal industry is under attack by unreasonable regulations from the EPA and federal government. For the first time in my life I have heard a sitting president declare war on an existing industry. One, I might add, that lights our homes and makes our life comfortable through reasonably priced electricity and energy.”
H.B. 66 failed to pass, but Driskill said that the bill’s inability to succeed was evident from the start and that it can still serve to raise awareness of the issues it concerned.
One of these issues was the current tax exemption Wyoming has in place for flared natural gas.
According to an article published by wyofile.com, the state justifies this exemption by declaring that such gas has “no value.”
Driskill said that H.B. 66 intended to challenge this school of thought.
“I think the state and the nation need to take a closer look at the value of flared gas in general,” said Driskill.
Opponents of Driskill and Barlow’s bill put forth the claim that a change in severance tax would do little to fix the state’s current drop in coal production.
“We know that the severance tax has minimal effect on the coal that gets produced. The recent drop in production is related to factors completely unrelated to the state’s severance taxes,” said The Equality State Policy Center’s executive director Dan Neal in the same article from wyofile.com.
Though statewide quarreling about the way in which Wyoming’s energy sector should be handled is prevalent, it is clear that the state has agreed on a strategy for dealing with the environmental implications of energy growth.
“Our environmental strategy is directly tied to the state government’s plan,” said Kaith Guille, a public information officer for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. “Our chief concern in terms of energy growth is making sure that the growth of minor facilities is regulated and that we stay ahead of potential issues.”
Mead said last month that further energy production should not come at the cost of the environment during a forum in Jackson.
