Another challenge is states and energy customers wanting to drop coal power. In Washington and Oregon, where three of Colstrip’s five owners sell electricity, ratepayers and state governments are pushing for utilities to get out of Colstrip.

Puget Sound Energy, which owns half of Colstrip Units 1 and 2, is being asked to shut down both units in seven years or less.

The Headwaters report runs counter to a report released last November by the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research. The BBER study predicted that 7,500 Montana jobs would be lost in the next 10 years to compliance with the federal Clean Power Plan, which calls for a 47 percent cut in Montana’s carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. Lost property tax revenue would hit $474.5 million in 2030.

Cloud Peak Energy, which mines coal in Southeast Montana, argues that Headwaters is exaggerating coal’s decline.

“The Obama Administration’s own forecasters project coal will continue to be an important part of America’s energy mix for decades to come, with a quarter or more of the nation’s electricity coming from coal,” said Rick Curtsinger, of Cloud Peak. “In addition, Asian nations, with growing middle classes and millions rising up out of poverty, will need more electricity with much of that generated by coal.