• Naugton’s primary coal provider, the adjacent Kemmerer mine, indicates it will soldier on despite losing its chief customer.

 

By Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile.com

The last two coal-burning units at the Naughton power plant near Kemmerer are scheduled to go dark this month so crews can retool them to burn natural gas instead. A third coal-burning unit at the plant was switched to natural gas in 2020.

The power plant’s majority owner and operator, Rocky Mountain Power, determined that a $12.1 million expenditure to convert the two remaining coal units “was the least-cost, least-risk option for the company and its customers,” according to documents filed with the state.

“Coal operations are scheduled to cease on December 31, 2025 and natural gas operations are anticipated to commence in the spring of next year,” Rocky Mountain Power Senior Communications Specialist Jona Whitesides told WyoFile via email. The power plant employs 108 workers, according to Whitesides. “We don’t anticipate any layoffs as a result of the conversion to natural gas,” he said.

Naughton’s conversion is part of a larger trend. Rocky Mountain Power, a division of PacifiCorp, converted two of four coal-burning units at the Jim Bridger power plant outside Rock Springs to natural gas in 2024. The utility had planned on retiring two of four coal-burning units at the Dave Johnston plant outside Glenrock, but now intends to convert those units to natural gas in 2029, according to its most recent planning documents.

Naughton has been generating electricity since 1963, relying on the nearby Kemmerer coal mine, now operated by Kemmerer Operations LLC. Changes at Naughton, and what it might mean for the Kemmerer coal mine — frequently described by locals as an economic “lifeblood” — have been a source of anxiety for the Kemmerer and Diamondville communities. 

The mine has shed about a third of its workforce in recent years, from 272 employees in 2019 to about 176 this year, according to federal data. Annual coal production has slipped from 3 million tons in 2019 to 2.4 million tons in 2024. The mine shipped about 1.1 million tons during the first three quarters of this year. Nearly half that volume went to Naughton.

Despite the loss of Naughton as a primary coal customer, Kemmerer Operations intends to continue business as usual and has no planned operational changes to report, according to the mine. 

 

Declining coal and revenue

The Kemmerer mine has slogged through some hard times in recent years, including a 2018 bankruptcy filing by a previous owner, Westmoreland Coal Co., and a precipitous downsizing of workforce, including layoffs in March that cut 28 workers. 

The mine serves other customers, according to local officials, including some soda ash operations near Green River. It’s unclear what other contracts the mine serves.

Despite what the future might hold for the mine, some local officials remain hopeful that Trump administration policies, as well as data center demand and new overseas market opportunities, may set the mine on the road to a comeback. Though Oregon and Washington have been cutting their use of coal, those states are “in a panic” due to recent grid reliability issues, asserted Kent Connelly, chair of the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners.

“Coal is still the cheapest and still the cleanest” fuel for utilities, Connelly told WyoFile. “Coal — it’s what pays the taxes in Wyoming.”

Though the coal industry’s outlook may improve, Naughton’s conversion away from the fuel is sure to sap local revenues, Connelly said. After the first Naughton unit was switched to natural gas in 2020, Lincoln County lost about $3 million in annual tax revenue, mostly due to decreased severance tax on lost coal production at the Kemmerer coal mine, he said.

“Going to natural gas will drop our revenue significantly,” Connolly said, adding that he holds out hope that Naughton may switch back to coal one day. “You’re seeing coal-fired power plants resurrected all over the United States right now.”

The legacy coal industry isn’t the only source of change in Kemmerer. Natural gas processing plants in the region have expanded and Lincoln County will soon be home to the $4 billion Natrium nuclear power plant now under construction.

The nuclear and natural gas expansions, as well as other potential industrial projects, provide some sense of security regarding jobs, local officials say. But whatever permanent tax revenue the Natrium plant might bring remains to be seen.

“The new power plant [Natrium] could offset [revenue losses from the mine] but it doesn’t start up until 2030 or 2031,” Connelly said.

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