If Wyoming doesn't develop a cleaner design for coal-based power plants, it will begin to lose coal customers and an estimated $60 million per year in taxes and royalty revenues, according to a new study released this week.

Western Resource Advocates issued a report Thursday detailing a financial analysis of a new "clean" coal market. The report argues that failure to demonstrate coal gasification and other advanced coal technologies with Western coal threatens not only the region's environmental quality, but could also lead to a loss of market share for Western coal producers, harming local economies.

"Electric utilities in the Midwest -- where a lot of Wyoming coal is shipped -- have announced their intention to go to (coal gasification), not using Western coal," said Bruce Driver, co-author of the report titled "Western Coal at the Crossroads."

Wyoming already got a taste of this reality a week ago when Sempra Energy announced it was dumping plans to build pulverized coal power plants in Nevada and Idaho. The proposed power plant in Nevada, for example, was going to burn 6.5 million tons of Powder River Basin coal annually.

John Nielsen, director of Western Resource Advocates' energy program and co-author of the report, said part of the reason Sempra Energy abandoned its power plans in Nevada and Idaho was pressure from states such as California that have adopted stringent greenhouse emission standards.

"We have a lot of energy options in the West, including renewables in wind. To the extent we need base-load coal capacity, we need to be looking toward (coal gasification) technology for environmental reasons and for economic reasons," Nielsen said.