Last September, Clark County Councilor Tom Mielke was the guest of the Wyoming coal industry and Gov. Matt Mead on an all-expenses-paid trip to see coal facilities in that state.
“The governor of Wyoming paid the expenses for some of us to go down to see the coal operation they had there,” Mielke said upon his return.
“Very impressive,” he said. “It was three days included in the travel, so it was very fast-moving — lots of information. Anybody wants to go down there, I think you can get a free trip.”
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming lawmakers are pushing a bill that would allow the state to issue $1 billion in bonds to support possible construction of a Northwest port for shipping Wyoming coal to Asia.
Last September, Clark County Councilor Tom Mielke was the guest of the Wyoming coal industry and Gov. Matt Mead on an all-expenses-paid trip to see coal facilities in that state.
"The governor of Wyoming paid the expenses for some of us to go down to see the coal operation they had there," Mielke said upon his return.
"Very impressive," he said. "It was three days included in the travel, so it was very fast-moving -- lots of information. Anybody wants to go down there, I think you can get a free trip."
Wyoming, the nation’s leading coal-producing state, has been stymied so far in its fight to get access to Asian markets. State officials are facing slumping domestic demand for coal because of tough federal rules for power plant emissions and cheaper natural gas.
The bill pending in Wyoming’s ongoing legislative session would expand the authority of the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority, a state agency.
Under the bill, the infrastructure authority would gain power to issue bonds to support projects that are entirely outside Wyoming. The bill originally would have allowed the authority to issue up to $3 billion in bonds but has been amended down to $1 billion. The Legislature last year directed the authority to pursue coal ports.
Loyd Drain, executive director of the authority, said Wednesday that the authority doesn’t have any particular project in mind that it wants to fund, but wants to be ready to act.
“If that’s the only thing that stands between an infrastructure getting built or not getting built is our ability to finance it, then we definitely are interested and would pursue that opportunity,” Drain said.
Jonathan Downing, director of the Wyoming Mining Association, said Wednesday he views the pending legislation as “another tool in the toolbox for trying to develop these ports and get access to some of these foreign markets.”
Wyoming and Montana are appealing last year’s decision by Oregon regulators to reject a proposal from a subsidiary of Ambre Energy, an Australian company, to build a coal terminal at the Port of Morrow, on the Columbia River. An administrative hearing on the states’ protest is set for December.
Ambre Energy had proposed bringing coal by train to Boardman, Ore., where it would be loaded on barges at the Port of Morrow and sent more than 200 miles down the Columbia River to the Port of St. Helens. There, it would be transferred to oceangoing ships. The river is the border between Oregon and Washington.
In rejecting the application, the Oregon Department of State Lands said the terminal would interfere with a fishery in the state’s waters.
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, a Republican, has argued that Oregon’s rejection of the Port of Morrow project interferes with Wyoming’s right to engage in interstate commerce. He told lawmakers in his state-of-the-state address last month that he intends to continue to work, “with bulldog determination on coal initiatives, port expansion, new technology and value-added products.”
Rep. Tom Lockhart, R-Casper, is chairman of the House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, which together with its Senate committee counterpart endorsed the bill. Lockhart, who formerly served on the board of industry giant Arch Coal, said exporting Wyoming coal to Asian markets could result in a net decrease in global air emissions.
“A lot of the coal that’s being burned is not of the quality that we have in Wyoming,” Lockhart said. “It’s one that’s harder to control the effluent; ours is easier. Ours is a low-sulfur comparatively, and so I think it would be an improvement overall for the environment.”
Brett VandenHeuvel is executive director of Columbia Riverkeeper, an Oregon-based environmental group that opposes exporting coal from ports in the Northwest.
“Coal export in Oregon and Washington is extremely unpopular,” VandenHeuvel said. “More and more residents and elected officials are raising concerns and coming out against it. There’s a strong sense that these projects aren’t viable.”
