The silver lining of the closure of Transalta’s Centralia mine had been that they’d expected in about five years to have another mine open:

TransAlta is one of Canada’s biggest private power producers with coal, natural gas and hydroelectric plants in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Australia. The company said the Centralia mine was too expensive to maintain.

TransAlta officials have said they will seek approval for coal mining nearby at a site known as West Field, but that process could take up to five years.

According to Paul Hirsch at Environmental Law in Washington State blog, that isn’t going to happen either. As of yesterday, when the Corps of Engineers filed a notice in the federal register, Transalta is no longer working to open another mind down there.