Package includes health care for retired Kemmerer miners

By Camille Erickson

Casper Star-Tribune

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CASPER — President Donald Trump signed a $1.4 trillion appropriations package Friday night, averting a government shutdown and saving health care for hundreds of retired coal miners in Kemmerer.

Coal has been the critical economic building block for the southwest Wyoming community, where miners have labored at the open pit coal mine in Lincoln County for decades.

They’ve contributed millions of tons of thermal coal to the nation’s electricity supply. For many miners, working at the Kemmerer mine was the only livelihood they ever...