The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Thursday that it is proposing a rule to change an Obama-era 2014 Wyoming regional haze Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) that would have shuttered the Dave Johnston Unit 3 power plant in Converse County.
That plant uses Wyoming coal.
Gov. Mark Gordon in an EPA statement Thursday called the maneuver proof “that environmental stewardship and energy production can go hand in hand, and said the proposal reflects a science-driven, sensible approach that relies on real-world data and measurable outcomes rather than predetermined anti-fossil fuel agendas."
Wyoming’s senior Republican U.S. Sen. John Barrasso and Sen. Cynthia Lummis also applauded Trump’s announcement.
Under the 2014 rule, the plant was expected to close by the end of 2027.
The EPA’s new plan is for the plant to meet the emission limits it’s currently operating under, instead of what the EPA under the old rule called “the unattainable Obama-era limits which would have forced its closure.”
EPA doesn’t expect emissions to rise under this proposal, the agency added in a Thursday statement.
EPA's Region 8 administrator and former Wyoming legislator Cyrus Western told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that this maneuver is an answer to "energy demand across the nation (continuing) to go up and up and up."
"We need to meet that challenge. We need to ensure very reliable, very affordable electrons for folks across the bar," said Western, listing uses including both residential and industrial power needs. "There's a direct impact on jobs at the unit and all the mines that unit buys coal from — this is a decisive leadership step form (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin and the president, ensuring we're following through on the promises they made."
Pivot!
Thursday's announcement is also an ideological about-face from the 2024 maneuvers of President Joe Biden's EPA.
The administration at that time issued rules designed to 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.
That posed 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 were employed in the industry.
The EPA in 2024 reported that it sought to improve public health without disrupting the delivery of electricity, and generally push a clean air agenda of alternative forms of energy production, like wind and solar; and to reduce pollution from fossil-fuel fired power plants under 50-year-old federal laws: the Clean Air Act of 1970, Clean Water Act of 1972 and Resource Conservation Recovery Act of 1976.
The 2024 EPA gave Wyoming and U.S. coal-fired power plants specific end dates.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
