Wyoming’s coal-fired economy is coming to an end

Over the years, Gillette has been an oil town, a natural gas town and even a uranium town, but somehow it had managed to smooth out the wild ups and downs that usually plague boom-bust communities. Ironically, it was yet another fossil fuel that provided the economic padding: coal. Gillette sits in the heart of the Powder River Basin, where massive mines furnish nearly half of all the coal burned for electricity in the United States. Coal-fired power plants are often touted for their ability to churn out electricity at a steady rate rather than erratically and unpredictably. The data show that coal can behave similarly on an economic level, providing a stable financial foundation upon which a community can grow. But now that foundation is eroding. The coal industry is fading, giant corporations, from Peabody to Westmoreland, are going bankrupt, and hundreds of Wyoming miners have lost their jobs. After a half-century of coal-fired stability, Gillette — and Wyoming at large — are facing a future without the industry that’s been so good to them...MORE