SEATTLE - Using electricity in Washington has impacts as far away as Montana and Wyoming. That's the message from a Wyoming rancher, LJ Turner, who is in the Northwest this week to tell people about the damage done to his area by coal mining. Turner has joined what's called the "Dirty Little Secret Tour," organized by the Sierra Club's Northwest office, which estimates Washington utility companies get about 20 percent of their power from coal mined in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. It's where Turner's family has ranched since 1918.
"We're losing the pasture, we're losing our air, we're losing our water. I don't know what else there is going to be left for the coal industry to take from us."