No New Coal-Fired Power Plants in Wyoming

Currently, there are multiple coal-fired power plants on the drawing board in Wyoming. Coal-fired power plants are one of our nation's largest – and dirtiest – sources of energy. These power plants will use 50-year-old technology to burn coal, spewing pollution like carbon dioxide – the chief contributor to global warming – nitrous oxide and mercury into Wyoming’s air and water.

Coal-fired power plants are a leading cause of respiratory illness, and already account for over 40 percent of our nation's carbon dioxide emissions, the lead cause of global warming. We need to take time to expand our energy choices beyond the limited, unhealthy options of the past. The good news is there are readily available alternatives to coal that can to be used today to meet our energy needs and save us money, all while boosting the economy, creating jobs, improving public health, and combating global warming.

The Wyoming Chapter of the Sierra Club is working with partners to fight any new proposals for coal-fired power plants in the state. We believe that clean, renewable energy and energy conservation must play a bigger role in Wyoming’s energy future in order to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and combat global warming.

Dry Fork Station, Gillette, Wyoming:
Dry Fork Station, a proposed coal-fired power plant near Gillette, would use 50-year old technology. The plant, being built by Basin Electric Power Cooperative out of North Dakota, would have a 385-megawatt capacity and would mostly be used to power the Dry Fork coal mine adjacent to the plant. Much of the excess electricity produced would be shipped out of state, to the south and east.

The coal-fired power plant will spew millions of tons of pollution into our air each year. The greenhouse gases it emits, including 3.7 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, will exacerbate global warming. Toxic mercury is a localized pollutant and could accumulate in fish in the region's rivers. The lack of modern pollution controls at the Dry Fork plant will also make it a major contributor to acid rain in the region and haze in areas like the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Badlands National Park and Wind Cave National Park.

Sierra Club and its partners have appealed the issuance of a final air permit for Dry Fork Station to the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council, urging that the plant use the best available technology to reduce pollution. The first hearing took place in late April in Cheyenne. Read the press release.

Other news links:
Groups challenge coal plant (Casper Star Tribune, 11/3/07)
Groups ask state to pull plug on Gillette coal plant (Billings Gazette, 11/3/07)