Meier, Gray Believe Land Purchase In Washington Could Open Way For Coal Exports

Wyoming Treasurer Curt Meier and Secretary of State Chuck Gray are both dreaming big about President Trump’s bullish fossil fuel energy plans, particularly when it comes to its legacy industries like coal.

The two want to see a coal export terminal sited in the state of Washington to open Asian markets to Wyoming coal. Washington has aggressively blocked coal from being shipped from its ports before.

During a discussion last week — aimed at refocusing the state’s economic development agency, the Wyoming Business Council — both Gray and Meier expressed support for trying again for a coal terminal at a port in Washington.

Washington blocked the first terminal by determining that the port was an environmental hazard, and the deal fell apart after the developer went bankrupt because it took too long to work its way through the legal system.

Wyoming couldn’t continue the lawsuit without the developer because it lacked legal standing.

Meier, in resurrecting the idea of a port in Washington, said his office has already taken the step of getting a legal opinion on whether a land purchase in the Washington state county where the port would be built would create proper legal standing for a Washington Port 2.0 effort.

“(That’s) essentially the same thing we did in Nebraska versus Wyoming where we bought land right in the middle of the recovery area for the whooping crane,” Meier said. “When Wyoming went to court, they had perfect standing because they were a Nebraska citizen right in the middle of that.”

Why Wyoming Needs A Washington Coal Terminal 

Wyoming has a lot of coal it could sell to Pacific Rim countries, Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti told Cowboy State Daily. But it is landlocked state, so needs a way to market.

There’s a port in Vancouver where some products can go to market, but it is a lot more expensive to ship Wyoming coal there than heading out of West Coast states, Deti said.

Unfortunately, none of the West Coast states are keen on the idea of more coal going anywhere.

Washington blocked the project, citing clean water and other environmental laws, Deti said.

Wyoming, in its lawsuit, which was joined by Montana, argued that this amounted to a violation of the Interstate Commerce Clause, which is part of the Constitution. The clause allows Congress to regulate commerce between states and also prohibits states from interfering with each other’s interstate commerce.

Meier’s idea is an interesting one, Deti said, and perhaps one whose time has finally come, with President Donald Trump now in office.

“You would still need a company willing to go in and develop those facilities so that we can actually move coal out of them,” Deti said. “With some of the executive orders that have come out of the Trump administration on some of this stuff, I mean it could be resurrected. The idea might actually be feasible here in a short time.”

Deti recalled that the dynamic at the time was a curious one, where politics indeed made for some strange bedfellows.

“We had a really kind of unique alliance with the trade unions, which kind of tend to be on the blue side, the Democrat side,” Deti said. “But we had all the trade unions on our side, because that would have been a significant amount of jobs.”

Deti said he hopes Wyoming does revisit the topic of a port in Washington, adding that it’s not the first time that state has used its environmental rules to torpedo projects it didn’t like — at the expense of land-locked state’s commerce. Wyoming’s case didn’t get a fair shake, since the developer went bankrupt, and the state lacked standing to continue the case.

“That was the basis of our lawsuit is that they were kind of stepping outside of their lane on some things,” Deti said. “And in the broader picture, the states involved felt it was a violation of the Interstate Commerce Clause. It just didn’t get far enough to get any traction.”

Support From Gray

While Gray and Meier have sparred, sometimes publicly, the two men seemed to agree about the idea of an investment vehicle in Washington, or some other West Coast state, to help further assure the chances of a port effort there.

“I’m not opposed to that,” Gray said. “We’ve got to get an investor. This is, I know it seems pie in the sky, but I think that if the state shows that we’re willing to — and look, I’m a low-government Freedom Caucus guy, a founding member.

“But if we show the market that we are going to fight for our core industries, I think it increases the chances exponentially that there will be folks who are going to invest in it.”

But, Gray added, it’s going to take leadership, and that’s something he personally would like to see the Wyoming Business Council taking on.

“We need a working group,” Gray said. “We need a strategy. And I’m happy to meet with you on that.”

Gray said Wyoming might never have a better chance than now to realize a port in Washington, to take its coal to markets in Asia.

“Coal is going to have a comeback, not only domestically, but we are going to begin exporting it in larger volumes,” Gray said. “And I wanted to get that out there, because we haven’t, we’re back with Trump — Golden Age — and we’ve got to take this opportunity to get to the finish line on being able to export our coal to other markets.”

Don’t Forget About Natural Gas

Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, however, said she has worked in both industries and sees things a little differently.

“I see liquefied natural gas and the potential for worldwide shipment of that to be the solution that we have,” she said. “We have the technology and other countries don’t.”

Degenfelder pointed out Asian countries have their own sources of coal, while Wyoming’s coal is “on the margin.”

“Looking at liquefying natural gas I think is the solution and what we have here,” she said. “And so, I would say that No. 1, focusing on that legacy.”

Her No. 2 choice for refocusing the Wyoming Business Council is technology.

“It’s tech, AI, digital assets,” she said. “We have to jump on that. The biggest thing that we’re hearing from folks in those sectors is preparing students int eh education space to be able to take on those jobs.

“So I think if we can do that, and we can welcome that sector, with particularly, oil and gas, I think that’s where we can really thrive in the next 50 to 100 years.”

That, Degenfelder added, would mean Wyoming is developing both its legacy businesses as well as its future ones. 

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.