The Western Fuels Association is a not-for profit cooperative that supplies coal and transportation services to consumer-owned electric utility in the Great Plains

Great Plains

The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...

, Rocky Mountain and Southwest

Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...

 regions. It is based in Westminster, Colorado

Westminster, Colorado

Westminster is a Home Rule Municipality in Adams and Jefferson counties in the U.S. state of Colorado. Westminster is a northwest suburb of Denver. The Westminster Municipal Center is located north-northwest of the Colorado State Capitol. The United States Census Bureau that the city population...

.

Mining Operations

Western Fuels Association currently owns two mining operations that supply coal to its members, the Dry Fork Mine

Dry Fork Mine

The Dry Fork mine is a coal mine located 8 miles north of Gillette, Wyoming in the United States in the coal-rich Powder River Basin. The mine is an open pit mine that utilizes truck and shovel mining method to mine a low-sulfur, sub-bituminous coal that is used for domestic energy generation and...

 located in Gillette, Wyoming and the New Horizons Mine located in Nucla, Colorado.

Controversy

The Western Fuels Association has played a controversial role in the debate

Global warming controversy

Global warming controversy refers to a variety of disputes, significantly more pronounced in the popular media than in the scientific literature, regarding the nature, causes, and consequences of global warming...

 over global warming

Global warming

Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

. Their 2005 Annual reporthttp://www.westernfuels.org/about/2005_WFA_AR.pdf refers only to 'environmental and regulatory uncertainty', but they have been more outspoken in past annual reports. They have established groups such as the Greening Earth Society

Greening Earth Society

The Greening Earth Society, now defunct, was a public relations organization which promoted the idea that there is considerable scientific doubt about the effects of climate change and increased levels of carbon dioxide...

 which promote various forms of climate change skepticism and have funded individual skeptics, such as Patrick Michaels

Patrick Michaels

Patrick J. Michaels is an American climatologist. Michaels is a senior research fellow for Research and Economic Development at George Mason University, and a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute...

http://dieoff.org/page82.htm, Craig D. Idso

Craig D. Idso

Craig D. Idso is the founder and chairman of the board of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change.He is the brother of Keith E. Idso and son of Sherwood B. Idso....

 and Sherwood Idso. Groups established by industry bodies like the Western Fuels Association have been criticized as Astroturf organizations

Astroturfing

Astroturfing is a form of advocacy in support of a political, organizational, or corporate agenda, designed to give the appearance of a "grassroots" movement. The goal of such campaigns is to disguise the efforts of a political and/or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some...

, since they appear superficially to be grassroots initiatives.