The U.S. Department of Interior, Eagle Specialty Materials (ESM), and the attorneys in Blackjewel’s bankruptcy case on Feb. 19 released a settlement agreement for unpaid royalties on federal coal leases mined by Blackjewel, and its predecessor, Contura, at the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, according to a commentary in the Wyoming Business Report. According to the legal filing, more than $32 million in royalties are unpaid at the Belle Ayr Mine and $27.8 million in royalties are unpaid at the Eagle Butte Mine, with hundreds of thousands owed in interest. Powder River Basin Resource Council decries the deal struck between the Department of the Interior and ESM, a company that was paid over $80 million to take over the Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte coal mines from Contura during the Blackjewel bankruptcy proceeding in October 2019. The settlement of approximately $61.5 million debt of unpaid royalties and interest for a few cents on the dollar and insecure interest-free future payments and royalties has cost Wyoming and American citizens tens of millions of dollars. Wyoming receives approximately half of all federal coal royalties, so loses half of these unpaid royalties. “This terribly one-sided settlement allows Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte to keep operating for now,” said Bob LeResche, a Resource Council Board member, “but it forgives tens of millions of dollars in royalties that should have been supporting Wyoming schools and other federal projects.” The settlement — made to allow Interior to transfer the coal leases from Blackjewel to ESM — collects only a small portion of the unpaid royalties. Additionally, ESM is already in lengthy payment plans for back taxes owed to the state and Campbell County. Meanwhile, the mines have been reducing production and suffer the same economic challenges other Powder River Basin coal mines are facing. Coal plant closures across the nation are reducing production, which puts any future payments at greater and greater risk.
