As WE Soda prepares to slash 350 jobs in Wyoming in a shift from underground mining to solution mining at its Westvaco facility in Sweetwater County, Wyoming’s federal leaders are taking aim across the Pacific, blaming heavily subsidized Chinese imports for crippling the world’s richest natural trona basin.
At a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. John Barrasso brought the issue directly to Commerce Department nominee Christopher Abbott, emphasizing his visits with Sweetwater County miners last weekend and calling WE Soda’s layoff announcement a "devastating blow."
Barrasso pointed the finger overseas for the sudden downturn.
“The cause is clear: it's Communist China,” Barrasso said on the Senate floor. “They’re rigging the market against our producers.”
Alasdair Warren, CEO of WE Soda, told Cowboy State Daily during a September visit to Green River that Chinese producers have gained a sharp cost advantage through primary solution mining, a method that dissolves trona underground with water and takes less energy and labor than the mining methods used in Wyoming.
Wyoming sits on the world’s largest known trona deposit, and WE Soda, the world’s largest natural soda ash producer, operates in the basin. But the state’s producers have been squeezed as China expands.
“What's evolved over the last couple of years is the threat from China to our industry,” Warren told Cowboy State Daily in September.
Incoming U.S. Rep. Chuck Gray said in an email to Cowboy State Daily that China’s dumping of what he called “inferior” soda ash threatens not only Wyoming’s trona industry but the nation’s economic security.
Gray also said China’s “illegal actions” have cost Wyoming jobs and led to WE Soda’s layoffs.
“I will be working with the Administration and the other members of our Congressional delegation to end these illegal Chinese practices,” Gray said. “We will save our Wyoming soda ash industry and our Wyoming jobs.”
Sen.-elect Harriet Hageman did not respond to Cowboy State Daily by publication.
Barrasso Gets Verbal Yes
At Tuesday’s hearing, Barrasso pressed Abbott, who has been nominated to serve as assistant secretary of commerce for enforcement and compliance, the office responsible for investigating dumping and unfair subsidies, and is awaiting Senate confirmation, for a federal commitment to hold China accountable.
“Our miners can beat anyone on a level playing field, but Communist China has no interest in fair competition,” Barrasso said before asking Abbott if he will commit to working with trade partners to hold China accountable for dumping soda ash into global markets.
Abbott agreed, saying his office works regularly with trading partners on enforcing trade remedies. He pointed to India’s decision not to impose anti-dumping duties on U.S. soda ash as a recent success.
“I will absolutely work to support American exporters in every way that my office can,” Abbott said at the hearing.
Abbott’s office has limited tools against China’s pricing overseas. Its dumping cases target goods coming into the U.S., so it cannot impose U.S. trade-remedy duties on Chinese soda ash sold in other countries.
What it can do is work with other governments on trade enforcement and help U.S. exporters defend themselves when other countries accuse them of selling too cheaply, which Abbott described as a core part of its work.
Marshal Cummings, president of United Steelworkers Local 13214, which represents WE Soda’s Wyoming workers, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that he wanted state and federal leaders to step in and press the company to keep the underground mine open, slow its shift to solution mining and negotiate with workers.
Green River Mayor-Elect Stan Blake also told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that he was eager to see if the Wyoming delegation will pressure WE Soda the way the federal government has stepped in to help the coal, oil and gas industries in the past.
Neither Cummings nor Blake responded to Cowboy State Daily’s request for a comment about Barrasso securing a verbal yes from Abbott by publication.
Workers Target State Funding
On Monday morning, hundreds of people lined the road to the WE Soda plant near Green River to show support for workers arriving for their shifts.
That night, Cummings went on Facebook Live to thank the community for turning out and to make one more request.
“I’d ask that you write to the (Wyoming Energy Authority) and say that the $13 million in Energy Dominance Fund money that WE Soda has been granted be frozen,” Cummings posted.
WE Soda has not been granted the money yet.
A Wyoming Energy Dominance Fund review committee recommended in October that three projects receive funding, including the company’s Westvaco Natural Gas Upgrade Project at about $12.9 million, and the public comment period is open until Nov. 16.
Gov. Mark Gordon will make the final decision on the awards as one of his last moves before leaving office. Amy Edmonds, his communications director, told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that while the public comment period remains open he would not say whether the layoffs would factor into his decision.
Cummings said he believed the company owed its workers an answer before it receives any state funding.
“WE Soda does not deserve this money until they assure these employees that they will have a job,” Cummings said on Facebook.
Emma Jane Jackson can be reached at emma@cowboystatedaily.com.
