The Black Thunder Coal Mine in Gillette, Wyoming, USA, opened in 1977 and has grown to become one of the largest coal mines in the world. Massive dragline excavators — the largest of which holds 160 cubic yards (120 cubic meters) in a single bucket — strip away the earth’s surface to extract coal deposits below. Now covering roughly 200 square miles (518 square kilometers), Black Thunder provides the US with 8% of its coal supply.
Yesterday the US Supreme Court ruled to limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, making it much more difficult for the country to achieve its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade. Coal combustion in particular is more carbon-intensive than burning natural gas or petroleum for electricity. Although coal use accounted for about 54% of CO2 emissions from the energy sector, it represented only 20% of the electricity generated in the United States in 2020.