Powder River Basin: The New Energy Frontier?

Here's a guest post from organizer Caroline Henderson asking the question: What does it mean for the United States to become a resource colony for China?

This morning, Secretary of Interior,

plans to open up 7,400 acres of federal land in Wyoming’s coal-rich Powder River Basin for lease to coal mining companies, including

This first round of leases are among over a dozen tracts to be auctioned over the next three years. This announcement stands in stark contrast to the kind of

that Salazar described in his speech to the thousands of youth attending Power Shift 2009, the youth climate conference that welcomed in a new presidential administration. I was one of the youth in that crowd, filled with idealism and excitement for what seemed to be the dawning of a new clean energy future. Two years later, this speech not only feels like a dream, but a ruse.This decision is disguised as an effort to promote job growth and American energy security, but in reality is a result of the concerted efforts of the world’s largest coal companies seeking to expand their profits by

for Asian consumption.

The expanding frontier of western coal production has already begun; currently,

leave the Powder River Basin daily, shipping out the equivalent of 40% of total annual U.S coal consumption. According to Salazar, “Coal is a critical component of America’s comprehensive energy portfolio as well as Wyoming’s economy.”But in reality, the coal industry currently accounts for

of total Wyoming workforce and hundreds of thousands of tons of this coal is exported annually to countries like China, South Korea, India, and Japan. Counter-intuitive to all the energy security rhetoric, US coal exports have seen a massive jump over the past six years,

etween 2004 and 2010.

Not only is this enterprise encroaching upon Wyoming communities; in Washington, several energy companies are pursuing permits to build coal ports, to transport this coal overseas. Two proposed coal port sites in particular are undergoing controversial permitting processes.

Millennium Bulk Terminals, a joint venture between Arch Coal and Ambre Energy, is currently pursuing a coal port site in Longview, Washington. Millennium recently announced it would withdraw its current permit and reapply after being caught reporting an expected 5 million tons of coal exports annually, 15 times less than internally discussed amount of 80 million tons. While this site would likely be a major provider for China’s coal imports, estimates show it would provide fewer than 70 jobs to the community.