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Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the rule, sending it back to a lower c ourt for more review. I n recent years, Coleman, temporarily idled since May 2014, and Wilson have consumed more than half of the approximately 4 million tons of steam coal Big Rivers consumes annually. Most of the coal comes from the high-sulfur Illinois Basin. Big Rivers shuttered Coleman after it lost roughly 60% of its electric load when two large aluminum smelters owned and oper- ated by Century Aluminum Co. in western Kentucky prematurely terminated long-term power purchase agreements and began b uying power off the wholesale market in an attempt to reduce power costs. When Coleman, located near Hawesville along the Ohio River in Hancock County, was closed, Big Rivers said it hoped to place the plant back in service in a few years, possibly in 2017 and 2018. But the management audit conducted by Concentric Energy Advisors of Marlborough, Massachusetts, for the PSC recommend- ed Coleman should remain idled "and the future of the Wilson plant should be re-examined in the next two to three years." " The sale of both plants, even at a loss, should be explored," it added. Big Rivers president and CEO Robert Berry said the co-op does not agree with everything in the report. Nevertheless, "we look for- ward to the opportunity to thoroughly assessment and implement the action plan developed by Concentric," he said. A PSC spokesman said the action plan process is expected to commence before the end of this year, but did not know how it would play out over the next two to three years. Otter Tail's Coyote Plant Remains Offline Another delay has stymied Otter Tail Power Co.'s efforts to return its 450-megawatt Coyote coal-burning power plant near Beulah, North Dakota, to full operation for the first time since early December 2014. Coyote was expected to be back in 100% operation by early fall. Now, however, the tentative return date has been pushed back to late November, according to Cris Oehler, spokeswoman for the Fergus Falls, Minnesota-based company. Oehler said repairs still are being made to equipment damaged in the December 4, 2014, incident. A serious mechanical failure in one of the plant's turbine-driven feed pumps tripped Coyote offline and some boiler tubes ruptured, causing a fire. The entire plant was idled for a couple of weeks before it resumed partial operation in late December 2014. No official damage estimates have been publicly disclosed. Coyote burns about 2.5 million tons of lignite coal annually from Dakota Westmoreland Co.'s mine-mouth Beulah surface mine. Dakota Westmoreland is a subsidiary of Westmoreland Coal Corp. of Denver, Colorado. Coyote's partial idling has had some impact on the mine's pro- duction. Beulah produced 1 million tons in the first half of 2015, with output falling almost 70,000 tons in the second quarter, according to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). However, MSHA figures show the mine's output rebounded by about 77,000 tons to 581,604 tons in the July-September period, for a total of 1.65 million tons so far this year. Company officials were not available for comment on the reason for the Q3 increase. The mine, which has about 120 employees, produced almost 2 .8 million tons in 2014. O tter Tail co-owns Coyote with Northern Municipal Power Agency, Montana Dakota Utilities and NorthWestern Energy. Otter Tail also owns and operates the 475-megawatt Big Stone coal plant near Milbank, South Dakota, and the 138-megawatt Hoot Lake coal plant near Fergus Falls. A $384 million project to install a dry scrubber and rebuild a baghouse at Big Stone recently was completed. Big Stone and Hoot Lake both burn low-sulfur Powder River B asin coal. Rhino Reports Decrease in Coal Production for 3Q Rhino Resource Partners LP produced and sold less steam and metallurgical coal during the third quarter of 2015, recording a net loss of $9.3 million in the period, compared with a net loss of $8.9 million a year ago. Output plummeted in Central Appalachia (CAPP), but the Lexington, Kentucky-based company managed to mine more coal in Northern Appalachia and the Illinois Basin ( ILB), where its new Pennyrile underground mine in western Kentucky continues to ramp up to a projected 2 million tons a year. For Rhino, a main culprit, as it has been for most U.S. coal producers in the past couple of years, was low natural gas prices that have caused some electric utilities to switch from coal to gas, leaving bulging coal stockpiles on the ground at their power plants. During the latest quarter, Rhino idled the majority of its CAPP mining operations as they had built excess coal inventory levels due to ongoing weak market conditions. "We have been able to reduce our inventory levels this quarter as we completed strategic sales transactions to monetize this inventory," said Joe Funk, Rhino president and CEO. "We will continue to monetize our Central Appalachia inventory in the fourth quarter to generate cash for the partnership to further reduce our debt level." Funk added that the majority of Rhino's CAPP operations will remain idle in the October-December period as the company meets customer demands by shipping coal from inventories. Rhino's overall coal production was 836,000 tons in the third quarter, down from 924,000 tons in the same period of 2014, or 9.5%. Coal sales totaled 940,000 in the latest quarter, versus 943,000 tons a year earlier, a modest 0.3% decline. T h e c o m p a n y c o n t i n u e s t o h e m o r r h a g e p r o d u c t i o n i n Central Appalachia, however. Output fell by 70.9% in the third quarter across the region, to only 94,000 tons from 324,000 tons i n t h e t h i r d q u a r t e r o f 2 0 1 4 . C A P P ' s s a l e s d e c l i n e w a s l e s s , though, to 232,000 tons from 330,000 tons a year ago, a 29.7% sales decrease. In the NAPP region, production edged up 4.3% to 249,000 tons in Q3, from 239,000 tons in the preceding year period. Sales also climbed by 8.4%, to 264,000 tons from 244,000 tons. Perhaps the brightest spot for Rhino was the high-sulfur ILB. There, the company produced 230,000 tons in Q3, a 166.8% increase over just 86,000 tons in the third quarter last year. Pennyrile, also known as Riveredge, accounted for all of that output. The mine, located near Calhoun in McLean County, now is n e w s c o n t i n u e d November 2015 www.coalage.com 17