Wyoming officials look at ways to rescue coal

By Mead Gruver / The Associated Press

Published Jan 19, 2016 at 12:03 AM

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Public enemy No. 1 for climate change and no longer the fossil fuel utilities prefer to burn to generate electricity, coal has few allies these days. But one state is still fighting to save the industry: Wyoming.
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The stakes for Wyoming are high. Coal mining and directly related business account for 14 percent of the economy and 1 in 5 jobs in the state, according to the university’s Center for Energy Economics. ... Here’s a look at what Wyoming has done — often at public expense — to try to save coal:

Underground coal gasification

Wyoming regulators recently agreed to let an Australian company pollute groundwater to experiment with a use for coal that doesn’t involve burning it in a power plant. ... Underground coal gasification involves partially burning coal still in the ground. The process yields a mix of gases called syngas, which can be burned more cleanly than coal directly. ... An Australian company, Linc Energy, has proposed a demonstration plant in the Powder River Basin, an arid coal-mining region in northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana that supplies about 40 percent of the nation’s coal.

The process leaves a chemical brew in the ground. Regulators in Queensland, Australia, accuse Linc of causing serious environmental harm at underground coal gasification projects there. Wyoming and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to let the Wyoming project proceed even if it contaminated groundwater. But low natural gas prices appear to have stalled the project. Linc officials didn’t return a message seeking comment.