BILLINGS, Mont. -- Beneath the frozen plains of eastern Montana andWyoming lie the largest coal deposits in the world _ enough to last theUnited States more than a century at the nation's current burn rate.
The fuel literally spills from the ground where streambanks cut intothe earth, hinting at reserves estimated at 180 billion tons. But evenhere lawsuits over global warming and the changing political landscapein Washington are pummeling an industry that has long been the backboneof America's power supply.
In recent weeks, a group of rural Montana electric co-ops abandoneda partially built 250-megawatt coal plant, ending a four-year legalcampaign by environmentalists to stop the project. The co-ops plan toinstead get their electricity from a natural gas plant _ more expensivefor customers but also more likely to get built.
A few miles away, the U.S. Air Force dropped plans for a majorcoal-to-jet fuel plant once touted as the harbinger of a new market forcoal. There are no signs it will be revived.
Other plants are moving forward in Montana and at least a dozenother states, but the exodus from coal has hit every corner of thecountry. On Thursday, two more were shelved _ plants in Iowa and Nevadathat would have generated enough power for 1.6 million homes.
In Nevada, LS Power said it was postponing a 1,600 megawatt coalplant and will instead focus on tapping the state's geothermal, windand solar potential. Iowa's Interstate Power and Light dropped a 630megawatt plant as it pursues a 200 megawatt wind farm.
"In the last year the world has changed 180 degrees," said Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club's "Beyond Coal" campaign.
In 2007, the Department of Energy forecast 151 plants would be builtin coming years. The agency's latest forecast put the figure at 95.
Soon after the Energy Department released itsforecast two years ago, the Kansas Department of Health and Environmentbecame the first agency in the country to reject a permit for acoal-fired power plant, citing carbon dioxide emmissions.
Kansas acted six months after the Supreme court ruled that carbondioxide and other greenhouse gasses were pollutants that should fallunder the purview of the Clean Air Act.
Driven by the change at the White House, the political landscape forcoal is fast shifting. President Barack Obama _ once a reliablesupporter of the industry _ on Feb. 17 signed an economic stimuluspackage with $16.8 billion for renewable energy and efficiencyprograms.
The coal industry was left with just $3.4 billion. Congress hadearlier removed $50 billion in loan guarantees for coal-to-liquidsplants and the nuclear industry.