By Brendan LaChance

January 17, 2020 - In a letter to the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon says that the state’s “coal industry is under seige.”

Photo: Dan Cepeda, Oil City

“There are market forces, national policies, other states’ laws, and even international accords that are all focused on decreasing the amount of coal used anywhere and therefore the coal produced here,” Gordon wrote. “Distressingly, these changes could result in the elimination of good careers while substantially decreasing our revenues, which as you know have gone to support every schoolchild in the state for decades.”

“These are hard times for one of our most stalwart industries and unfortunately times do not look better for the industry anytime soon.”

Gordon added that the state is unable to control market forces. But he touted efforts to promote coal “by resisting out-of-state pressures to close coal-fired units early and by promoting CO2 capture to keep coal a viable, reliable fuel.”

He added his support to continue fighting for coal rights “in courts and elsewhere.”

“One of the next steps I propose is adding $1 million for coal market augmentation and preservation from the Strategic Investments & Projects Account,” Gordon wrote. “This program will be used to defend our coal industry in order to protect the revenues it provides for the state.”

Gordon also urged the passage of legislation that would create a coal marketing program and provide a minimum of $1 million in funding to his office as part of that program.