WYOMING

Coronavirus accelerates decline of slumping coal industry

CHEYENNE – Travis Deti, whose group represents companies that produce about 40% of the nation’s coal, has been working the phones to try to get government support for the U.S. coal industry during the coronavirus pandemic.

But aid remains stubbornly clogged for an industry whose already rapid decline is accelerating because of the economic effects of the virus.

Coal demand has tanked over the past decade amid competition from cheap natural gas and expanded renewable energy sources. Coal companies have faced a reckoning as the world looks to combat climate change and move away from fossil fuels despite President Donald Trump’s effort to revive the industry.

Now, the pandemic has made things worse. Lockdowns have shut off lights and computers in offices and schools, sapping demand for electricity provided by coal-fired power plants. Americans stuck at home binge-watching Netflix aren’t coming close to making up for that drop in demand, expected to be 3% for 2020.

Even before the virus, companies were forced into bankruptcy and workers faced furloughs and layoffs. Six of the top seven U.S. coal companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy since 2015 and analysts expect more as the economy dives.

The worldwide decline in electricity consumption, along with less fuel being burned for transportation, has meant clearer skies. The U.S. is expected to see a 7.5% drop in climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions tied to reduced production – that is until carbon dioxide emissions surge next year as the economy rebounds, according to projections by the Energy Information Administration.

But there is little doubt of the crushing effect of the virus’s economic fallout on coal. In January, before the pandemic took hold in the U.S., coal production was forecast to drop 14% this year. With the coronavirus and a mild winter that meant less electricity needed to heat homes and businesses, that drop is now expected to be as much as 25% – falling to levels not seen in 55 years.

WESTERN STATES

Pandemic sends rural bankers survey index to all-time low

OMAHA – An overwhelming majority of bankers in rural parts of 10 Plains and Western states expect the coronavirus outbreak to push their local areas into recession, according to a new survey released April 16.

The overall index for the region plummeted from March’s already anemic 35.5 to 12.1 in April – the lowest index recorded since the survey began in January 2006. Any score below 50 suggests a shrinking economy, while a score above 50 suggests a growing economy, survey organizers say.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the survey, said more than nine in 10 bankers surveyed expect the measures being taken to fight the coronavirus to lead to a recession.

That’s up significantly from March when 61.3% of bankers anticipated a recession, Goss said.

About 94% of bankers surveyed this month reported a decline customer visits over the past two weeks, and nearly one-third surveyed said their bank had experienced higher loan delinquency rates as a result of the coronavirus threat, Goss said.

The survey’s confidence index, which measures how bankers feel about the economy over the next six months, sank to 27.4 from March’s 28.3.

The borrowing index rose to 75.8 from March’s 66.1 as more farmers took out loans, and the employment index fell to a record-low 9.4, down from 48.3 in March.

Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

IDAHO

Federal lawsuit challenges Idaho’s transgender sports ban

BOISE – Two civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit April 15 challenging a new Idaho law banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports, the first such law in the nation.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Legal Voice filed the lawsuit contending the law violates the U.S. Constitution because it is discriminatory and an invasion of privacy.

The groups also said the law scheduled to take effect July 1 is a violation of Title IX, the 1972 law that bars sex discrimination in education.

The groups in the 60-page lawsuit ask the court to permanently prevent Idaho from enforcing the law.

Republican Gov. Brad Little late last month signed into law the measure that received overwhelming support in the Republican-dominated House and Senate, but no support from Democrats.

The ban applies to all sports teams sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities. A girls’ or women’s team will not be open to transgender students who identify as female.

Backers said the law, called the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, is needed because transgender female athletes have physical advantages.

The NCAA has a policy allowing transgender athletes to compete. But the sponsor of the Idaho law, Republican Barbara Ehardt, has called the NCAA policy “permissive.”

NEW MEXICO

Super PAC charges GOP House hopeful with ‘bashing’ Trump

RIO RANCHO – A Super PAC with ties to a northern New Mexico oil trucking company owner and a Massachusetts GOP operative is attacking a Republican candidate in a crucial U.S. House race for what it called lying about her support for President Donald Trump.

In a television ad that began airing in early April, a Super PAC calling itself Citizens for a United New Mexico said former state lawmaker Yvette Herrell sent emails in 2016 “to undermine Trump’s campaign for president.”

The ad also claims Herrell attended an “anti-Trump soiree” in San Diego, where attendees hung a Trump piñata from the ceiling, and was later heard in a podcast being critical of Trump.

The ad references a story from The Associated Press about a March 2016 email from Herrell seeking to support U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas’ run for president.

The ad was meant to undermine Herrell’s principal argument in a three-person Republican primary that she is the strongest supporter of Trump.

Herrell, oil executive Claire Chase and Las Cruces businessman Chris Mathys are vying for the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, who represents the traditionally Republican-leaning seat in southern New Mexico.

All of the Republican candidates have tried to position themselves as Trump’s most reliable ally and have accused each other of not backing Trump enough.

ARIZONA

Jane Hull, state’s first woman elected governor, dies at 84

PHOENIX – Jane Hull, Arizona’s first woman elected governor and part of the “Fab Five” celebrated as the nation’s first all-female elected state executive branch leadership group, has died. She was 84.

Gov. Doug Ducey announced her death on Twitter on April 17, praising Hull’s 25 years of “principled public service.”

Hull, a Republican, was also the first female speaker of the Arizona House and was serving as secretary of state in 1997 when her predecessor, Republican Fife Symington, stepped down after conviction in a bank fraud case. She then won a full term in 1998, and Symington’s conviction was later overturned.

Hull’s Jan. 4, 1999, inauguration with four other women elected to statewide offices, collectively dubbed “The Fab Five,” gave the state an all-female line of succession.

Former Gov. Jan Brewer, who had known her since 1981, said that Hull and her husband, Dr. Terry Hull, died of natural causes within hours of each other on April 16. She said both had been in declining health.

The former legislative leader was not reticent about using her powers as governor to prod lawmakers. Those tactics included calling the state’s part-time Legislature into special session without first securing support for controversial proposals and vetoing unrelated bills to pressure lawmakers into taking action on her priorities.