{"id":1167184,"date":"2020-02-21T17:32:21","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T23:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1014775"},"modified":"2020-02-21T17:32:21","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T23:32:21","slug":"wyoming-vs-washington-interstate-showdown-over-last-major-coal-export-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1167184","title":{"rendered":"Wyoming vs Washington: Interstate showdown over last major coal export project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wyoming and<br \/>\nMontana&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/energynews.us7.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=ae5d3a0c6088cad29d71bf0d0&amp;id=5ef8da035e&amp;e=8e0c278daf\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">filed a U.S. Supreme Court motion<\/a>&nbsp;last month against the state of<br \/>\nWashington for blocking access to the last major coal export project on the<br \/>\nWest Coast, impeding the states\u2019 ability to get their coal to Asian markets.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>When Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon announced the legal action over blocking the export terminal in Longview, it had been long anticipated by lawmakers who see the west coast terminal as crucial to bringing Powder River Basin coal to international markets.<\/p>\n<p>In an industry shakeup, Wyoming and Montana\u2019s motion says it\u2019s \u201cunconstitutional discrimination against a proposed coal export terminal.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p> The Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana is America\u2019s\u2019 top coal-producing region. 47% of country&#8217;s coal comes from Wyoming and virtually all coal in Wyoming is thermal<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Washington says<br \/>\nthe Millenium bulk terminal&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/energynews.us7.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=ae5d3a0c6088cad29d71bf0d0&amp;id=053dbe3b2d&amp;e=8e0c278daf\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">failed to meet water quality and other<br \/>\nenvironmental standards<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Millennium Bulk Terminal &nbsp;hit a major hurdle when the Washington Department of Natural Resources denied a necessary permit for construction on environmental grounds. The Washington State Court of Appeals in August upheld the state\u2019s choice to deny the required state-owned land permits for the terminal last year, the<a href=\"https:\/\/trib.com\/business\/energy\/wyoming-asks-supreme-court-to-decide-challenge-to-blocked-washington\/article_a082118a-7f17-5e22-a4ea-7293844ff45e.html\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" Casper Star Tribune reported. (opens in a new tab)\"> Casper Star Tribune reported.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana is America\u2019s\u2019 top coal-producing region. 47% of country&#8217;s coal comes from Wyoming and virtually all coal in Wyoming is thermal.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Micheli, a Cheyenne, Wyoming-based attorney environmental and energy partner at environmental &nbsp;law firm Holland &amp; Hart says the case breaks down into two parts: a&nbsp;state&#8217;s right to impose environmental laws versus constitutional rights&nbsp;to access commerce.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCertainly, here in Wyoming we saw the<br \/>\ndecline of coal more than anyone else in the country. Our history doesn&#8217;t get<br \/>\ntold as much Appalachia and West Virginia, but we produce more coal than any<br \/>\nstate in the country\u2026 For a while we produced almost as much coal as the rest<br \/>\nof the country combined.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are feeling the decline here mightily. You talk about coal miners; you\u2019re talking about nameless people. For us, that\u2019s our family, friends, it\u2019s a real thing real crisis we face, and it also has an impact on our state finances. We are so dependent on coal and oil and natural gas from somewhere between 65% of our state budget comes from those three fossil fuels so we feel it on a lot of different levels,\u201d Micheli told MINING.COM. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Micheli said Wyoming believes that coal is an important part of the state\u2019s energy security and its future. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey continue to build coal fire plants in Asia. China continues to burn coal. They are going to burn coal from somewhere.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Micheli said coal from Wyoming and Montana is the cleanest coal that China can possibly get to burn. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think for the environment groups coal<br \/>\nhas become a bad word, in the environment community they just want to block any<br \/>\nuse of the coal so\u2026 it helps them to feel good blocking coal from being shipped<br \/>\ninternationally. If you really want to protect the environment you should allow<br \/>\nthem to burn coal that is cleaner and higher quality,\u201d Micheli said. <\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court<br \/>\nof the United States on January 24. As of February 21, Washington State had not<br \/>\nfiled a response. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey will say that\u2019s nothing to do with blocking interstate commerce or access to international markets, we are just applying our own environment laws we have in our state,&#8221; Micheli said. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And that\u2019s really the rub, is whether a state\u2019s sovereign right to create environmental laws goes against the constitution and access to commerce\u2026 and that\u2019s what the supreme court must resolve.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington state is blocking the proposed export terminal in Longview, which would bring Powder River Basin coal to Asian markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[624,1035,2849,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1167184"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1167236,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167184\/revisions\/1167236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1167184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1167184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1167184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}