The Wyoming Environmental Quality Council has upheld a decision by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to grant a mining permit to a coal technology company, making Ramaco Carbon’s mine the first new coal operation to open in decades, as reported by the Casper Star-Tribune.
The Wyoming DEQ originally granted the permit extension earlier this year, but the Powder River Basin Resource Council submitted an administrative appeal and petitioned for a hearing, arguing that the permit application was deficient and lacked an adequate subsidence control plan and a full traffic plan and did not comply with all federal requirements.
The Wyoming Environmental Quality Council, however, determined that the permit application for Ramaco Carbon’s Brook mine, a surface coal mine located near Sheridan, Wyoming, substantially complies with Article 4 of the Wyoming Environmental Quality Act and all other applicable state and federal laws and regulations.
Ramaco Carbon praised the council’s decision to uphold the permit, standing by their original application.
“We are delighted that the (Environmental Quality Council) has brought this almost decade-long permit odyssey to an end,” Ramaco Carbon CEO Randall Atkins said. “We salute the professionalism of the DEQ, and look forward to going to work developing our coal-to-products technology platform.”
Atkins said the company is expecting to employ up to 40 workers when the coal mine initially opens.
