Wyoming Supreme Court upholds coal plant permit

The Wyoming Supreme Court has upheld a state air quality permit for a power plant being built at a coal mine north of Gillette. Construction of the coal-fired Dry Fork Station plant is about 75 percent complete. The Supreme Court ruling Friday lifts one of the few remaining bureaucratic obstacles before the Basin Electric plant can become fully operational next year. "It will be one of the most environmentally sound plants in the country" Daryl Hill, a spokesman for the Bismarck, N.D.-based utility, said Monday. The plant's $1.3 billion cost includes $334 million in pollution-control equipment, Hill said. Even so, environmental groups have said the plant isn't going to be fitted with the best available pollution control technology. Click here for the full story from the Grand Forks Herald.

Wyoming reports another CBM water spill at Williams site

A recent Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality citation is just part of a series of problems Williams Production Co. has had with handling water produced by coal-bed methane wells in the Powder River Basin, state and federal documents show.

Williams pipes have broken and spilled coal-bed methane water at least 16 times in the basin since August. The combined spills released close to 1 million gallons, according to U.S. Bureau of Land Management documents and the Department of Environmental Quality's inspection and compliance supervisor, Brian Lovett.

Six spills within the last 10 days -- including a 21,000-gallon spill just Tuesday -- have totaled nearly 166,000 gallons, Lovett said.

Read the full story from the Casper Star-Tribune here .

Wyoming seeks action in illegal CBM water spill

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality recently issued a notice of violation to a coal-bed methane producer for allegedly spilling 10,000 barrels of coal-bed methane water in western Campbell County.

Williams Production RMT Co., the largest coal-bed methane producer in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, told DEQ that the spill had not reached any existing waterways, according to state documents.

However, upon inspection by DEQ staff on January 14, it was observed that the spilled coal-bed methane water indeed had entered Barber Creek, making the spill a violation by allowing "the discharge of any pollution or wastes into the waters of the state," according to the notice of violation.

Read the full article from the Casper Star-Tribune here .

Montana Land Board votes to lower coal bid to 15 cents a ton

From high school students to labor organizers to one man who essentially told Gov. Brian Schweitzer to shut up, the hot-button issue of Otter Creek coal drew a packed and passionate crowd to the Capitol Tuesday morning.

“For what price are you willing to sell a piece of your children’s future?” Missoula Big Sky High School student Allison Lawrence asked the Land Board, before it voted to lower the bidding price on the state’s 570 million tons of coal in the Otter Creek Valley. “We are the ones who must live with the emissions (with) which you leave our great state.”

Read the full article from the Helena Independent Record here .

No bid on Montana's Otter Creek coal

The only "bid" submitted Monday to lease 570 million tons of state-owned coal in southeastern Montana's Otter Creek Valley turned out to be no bid — but coal-mining giant Arch Coal Inc. said it might be interested if the state lowers its asking price.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who voted in December along with the four other members of the Land Board to set the minimum bonus bid at 25 cents a ton, said Monday he's not discouraged by Arch Coal's non-bid.

Read the full story from the Montana Standard here.

Wyoming BLM: No public access planned at meetings

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - The Wyoming office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says it doesn't intend to provide public access to meetings that help establish land use plans, despite pressure from environmentalists and others to open up the meetings. Click here for the full story from Local News 8.

Feds recommend approval of 2 Rockies gas lines

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Federal regulators are recommending approval of two natural gas pipelines that could sharply increase fuel shipments from the Rockies to population centers in the Midwest and on the West Coast. Click here for the full story from Forbes magazine

Coal company says Montana's minimum bid for state leases too high

The head of the company that owns more than half the coal in southeastern Montana's Otter Creek Valley said this week he'll be surprised if anyone bids on state-owned coal there, because the Land Board probably set the minimum price too high.

Great Northern owns 730 million tons of coal in the Otter Creek Valley, about 150 miles east of Billings, and its coal is interspersed with 572 million tons of coal owned by the state.

On Dec. 21, the state Land Board decided to put the state coal up for bid to potential developers and set the minimum bonus bid at 25 cents a ton, or $143 million.  Read the full story from The Missoulian.

CBM operator warns of 'threats'

Coal-bed methane gas producers in Wyoming are grappling with a changed political landscape in Washington, D.C. In a newspaper advertisement, Yates Petroleum referred to “substantial threats to the Oil and Gas industry in the Powder River Basin,” and said the industry has been prevented from drilling and building pipelines, roads, water facilities and compressor stations. Yates officials declined to comment further this week. But Bruce Hinchey, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said much of the current slowdown in the coal-bed methane industry can be blamed on economics. Click here for the full story from the Casper Star-Tribune

Montana board votes 4-1 to lease coal tracts

The state Land Board Monday voted 4-1 to lease 572 million tons of state-owned coal in southeastern Montana's Otter Creek Valley - but set a relatively high minimum price to buy the rights to develop the tracts.

The decision, which came after months and years of study, appraisals and political lobbying by all sides of the contentious issue, could be the first step toward developing a massive coal mine in the rural valley about 150 miles east of Billings. Read the full story from The Missoulian.