CODY — Wyoming got the ball rolling Friday to gear up for more litigation against the Environmental Protection Agency, a sprawling federal agency that wants to kill off coal- and natural-gas fired power plants.
The Wyoming Energy Authority has opened a request for proposals (RFP) from “companies, organizations and individuals” to secure services to support suing over the EPA’s recent proposal that could result in the early retirement of Wyoming-based power plants.
The RFP closes June 14.
In an interview Friday on the sidelines of the Wyoming Mining Association’s annual convention in Cody, WEA Director Rob Creager said that it is tapping $300,000 from an $1.2 million litigation fund set up a few years ago by the state Legislature to fight Washington’s efforts to reduce the electrical grid’s dependency on fossil fuels for power-generating plants.
“We need to fight back,” Creager told Cowboy State Daily. “We don’t want coal to go anywhere but up. It’s very dangerous what they’re doing.”
What The Rule Does
The proposed EPA rule could shut down power plants just as demand for electricity is soaring in America, principally due to energy-starved enterprise data centers and an uptick in industrial effort to reshore factories in America.
“Wherever folks stand on these rules, these do not help. There is no way if they go into effect that they’ll switch the power on with the timeline they have set, and lights go on at the other end,” Creager said. “We want to make sure we’re producing as much Wyoming power as possible that’s viable and affordable."
The EPA rule also impacts the state’s efforts to push investment in carbon capture equipment on power plants to lower toxic emissions into the air, he said.
“What this rule does is really affect our approach to carbon capture and forces us to timelines that are just not realistic for us to do well and thoughtfully,” he said. “If this rule stands, you either shut down your goal or you convert to gas. It’s very costly to consumers to shut down coal, very costly to utilities, and essentially the consumers if you have to convert to gas.”
WMA Executive Director Travis Deti applauded the state’s gambit.
“We’re very pleased to see this,” Deti said. "This is a big fight, and we need to be using every tool in the box to win.”
The coal industry has been getting hit with a run of bad headlines of late.
The RFP is the first step in what could become a yearslong fight to overturn an EPA rule issued in April designed to regulate coal and natural gas-fired power plants out of existence over the next decade. Such a move would hurt Wyoming economically, which is why the WEA and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon are taking steps to sue the federal agency.
In Wyoming, the rules will hit many of the coal-fired plants from Naughton and Bridger in the southwestern part of the state, to Dry Fork near Gillette and the Dave Johnston plant near Glenrock.
The rules also represent a big economic hit to the Cowboy State’s coal-rich Powder River Basin in northeastern part of the state where more than 4,000 people are employed in the industry.
U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, both of whom are Republicans from Wyoming, blasted the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agency rules that are designed to phase out coal and natural gas-fired plants. The lawmakers delivered their remarks at the Wyoming Mining Association’s annual convention in Cody on Friday. Above, Barrasso pointed out the significance of Wyoming’s energy importance. “We’re America’s energy breadbasket, where we produce 12 times the amount of energy that we use in this state,” Barrasso said (Pat Maio, Cowboy State Daily) 
Rob Creager, executive director of the Wyoming Energy Authority, unveiled plans to get the ball rolling on litigation against the Environmental Protection Agency for drafting rules that would phase out coal and natural gas-fired power plants. “We need to fight back,” Creager told Cowboy State Daily. “We don’t want coal to go anywhere but up. It’s very dangerous what they’re doing.” (Pat Maio, Cowboy State Daily) 
U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, both of whom are Republicans from Wyoming, blasted the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agency rules that are designed to phase out coal and natural gas-fired plants. The lawmakers delivered their remarks at the Wyoming Mining Association’s annual convention in Cody on Friday. Above, Barrasso said that the president has weaponized the EPA, "weaponized them to prioritize climate over energy that is available, affordable and reliable. Climate for them is a religion.” (Pat Maio, Cowboy State Daily) 
U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, both of whom are Republicans from Wyoming, blasted the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agency rules that are designed to phase out coal and natural gas-fired plants. The lawmakers delivered their remarks at the Wyoming Mining Association’s annual convention in Cody on Friday. Above, Barrasso stands at the podium as Lummis, seated second to the left in the first row, listens to Barrasso’s concerns about the Biden administration’s attack on Wyoming’s coal industry. Lummis said that plans are in the works to reverse the EPA’s efforts to end coal and another controversial rule being crafted by the Bureau of Land Management that would stop coal leasing on public lands by 2041. “We’re going to be in a position to turn this thing around” in the first six months of a new administration, she said. (Pat Maio, Cowboy State Daily)
Wyoming Lawmakers Blast EPA
Meanwhile, U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, both of whom are Republicans from Wyoming, blasted the EPA and other federal agency rules that are designed to phase out coal and natural gas-fired plants.
“We’re in the most difficult time, with the most difficult administration, that we’ve ever seen,” said Lummis at the WMA convention. “The attacks on mining are unprecedented. This is a lawless administration.”
Lummis said that plans are in the works to reverse the EPA’s efforts to end coal and another controversial rule being crafted by the Bureau of Land Management that would stop coal leasing on public lands by 2041.
Should presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump win the November presidential election, “We’re going to be in a position to turn this thing around” in the first six months of a Trump win, Lummis said.
Barrasso echoed the remarks delivered by Lummis.
“We’re America’s energy breadbasket, where we produce 12 times the amount of energy that we use in this state,” Barrasso said.
“The president has weaponized the EPA, weaponized them to prioritize climate over energy that is available, affordable and reliable. Climate for them is a religion,” he said of the Biden administration. “This is coming at the same time where anybody who’s rational and logical and understands energy, would say, ‘We need more energy, not less, at a time when AI (artificial intelligence) is needed in terms of cryptocurrency.’
“They’re trying to electrify the grid and make more and more people drive electric vehicles. We need more energy, not less.”
Gordon, who delivered a keynote speech later Friday at the WMA convention, has directed Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill to investigate forming a coalition of states to challenge the new EPA rules in court.
Editor's note: This story and headline have been edited to clarify that this is the first step in this latest legal process, not Wyoming's first step overall in taking legal action to defend the state's energy industries.
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
