GILLETTE, Wyo. — At two of the world’s biggest coal mines, the finances got so bad that their owner couldn’t even get toilet paper on credit.
Warehouse technician Melissa Worden divvied up what remained, giving four rolls to each mine and two to the mine supply facility where she worked.
Then mine owner Blackjewel LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on July 1. Worden figured the accounts would get settled quickly.
“The consensus was: In 30 days, we’ll look back on this, and we made it through, and we’ll be up and running, and it’s a fresh start,” Worden said.
What happened instead has shaken the top coal-producing region in the United States. Blackjewel furloughed most of its Wyoming employees and shut down Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines, the first idled by hardship since coal mining in the Powder River Basin exploded in the 1970s.
It’s a big hit to the region straddling northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana, where coal has supported the economies of both states for decades and fuels a shrinking number of power plants in 28 states.
Negotiations that could reopen the two Wyoming mines under new ownership are stalled more than two months later. Some 600 employees remain off the job. And doubts are growing about the long-term viability of the region’s coal mines.
“I don’t think we’ll ever be that naive again,” Worden, 44, said.
Blackjewel, based in Milton, W.Va., told its Wyoming employees last week that the mines might be running again soon and to let the company know if they wanted their jobs back.
Worden said she felt little reassurance. She’s not the only one questioning long-held assumptions about Powder River Basin mines, which produce cleaner-burning coal less expensively than mines in other parts of the U.S. and weren’t widely thought of being at risk.
But with coal in long-term decline, how the basin might eventually scale down production to a sustainable level has become a big question, said Rob Godby, director of the Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy at the University of Wyoming.
“The irony here — and it’s really a cruel irony — is everybody is focused on getting these miners back to work. But really the solution to creating a healthy industry is some mines close,” Godby said.
The turmoil comes as U.S. coal production is down over 30 percent since peaking in 2008. Utilities are retiring aging coal-fired power plants and switching to solar, wind and cheaper and cleaner-burning natural gas to generate electricity.
