Dustin Bleizeffer

Dustin Bleizeffer writes about rural life in the West with an emphasis on energy and the environment. He grew up in Wyoming coal country, worked as a miner, an oilfield mechanic, and for 20 years as a statewide reporter and editor. He was energy reporter at the Casper Star-Tribune, editor-in-chief at WyoFile, and a John S. Knight Journalism fellow at Stanford. He lives in Casper. You can reach him at (307) 267-3327, dustinbleizeffer@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @DBleizeffer.

Wyoming’s First Coal Bust

Wyoming’s coal mining industry was secure until the early 1950s, when the Union Pacific switched to diesel-powered locomotives. Laid-off miners and their families struggled; little company towns disappeared. Eventually, trona mining expanded and replaced many of the coal jobs—and in the 1970s, coal came roaring back.

Coalbed Methane: Boom, Bust and Hard Lessons

The Powder River Basin coal-bed methane boom in the early 2000s stirred controversies over land rights, mineral rights, environmental stewardship, the disposal of water and—at every turn—politics. Now, few of the 29,000 wells drilled produce much gas and around 3,000 wells are abandoned and left to the state to clean up.