With additional reporting from the Casper Star-Tribune via the Wyoming News Exchange
A letter from Bridger Coal Company to Rock Springs Mayor Tim Kaumo signals the end of underground coal mining in Wyoming.
Dated Sept. 3, the letter notifies the mayor of plans to permanently close Bridger Coal’s underground mine. The closure is anticipated to take place “on or after” Nov. 19. According to the letter, 94 employees are impacted by the closure. Employees covered by collective bargaining agreements won’t have bumping rights, but they will have bidding rights to the surface operations. In an article in the Casper Star-Tribune, the number of jobs impacted by the closure was down to 92.
According to the Wyoming State Geological Survey, the mine was responsible for producing 2.4 million short tons of coal in 2020.
Speaking during the Sweetwater County commissioners meeting Tuesday, Chairman Randy Wendling said his concerns were eased after a discussion with Roy Moyer, President of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local S1978. In that discussion, Wendling said Moyer was positive about the 94 employees’ job prospects, saying employees had a buy-out program open to them, as well as options to re-train for jobs in the trona mines. Wendling said Moyer told him about a recent job fair hosted for the workers that attracted 40 employers, including a Colorado-based coal company willing to take anyone who would relocate.
The coal mine’s closure maybe be seen as another step in Rocky Mountain Power’s plan to reduce reliance on coal in favor of renewables, but Shannon Anderson, staff attorney with the Powder River Basin Resource Council, doesn’t believe this is the case.
“This is not surprising news at all,” Anderson told the Casper Star-Tribune. “It’s been in the works for years. It really is just partly geology, partly economics. And it is not directly driven by the coal plant retirement decisions.”
The Star-Tribune reports the company told workers of plans to retire the mine in 2016 and has been moving employees to the surface operation in preparation for the closure.
Coal from the mine fed the Jim Bridger Power Plant, which is still planned for an early retirement through RMP’s resource management plan. The first part of this retirement process will take place in 2023 when the first of four power-generating units is taken offline.
The company plans to select a Wyoming location for a pilot nuclear reactor project in partnership with TerraPower. Sweetwater County is one of the four proposed locations for the reactor and local leaders are hopeful it is chosen as it would help keep jobs in the area as RMP initiates the early retirement of the Jim Bridger Power Plant. RMP and TerraPower have yet to announce where the pilot plant will go, though an announcement is expected by the end of 2021.
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