A proposed pumped-water electricity storage facility at Seminoe Reservoir could decimate the prized Miracle Mile trout fishery on the North Platte River and jeopardize a bighorn sheep herd that wildlife officials rely on to support the species’ populations in other areas, critics of the $4 billion project say.

Anglers, business owners and wildlife biologists joined state and federal regulatory officials Thursday to testify before the Legislature’s Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee. They cautioned that a primary federal permitting review — by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — is too lax on “acceptable” impacts and riddled with inaccurate assumptions fed to it by project developer rPlus Hydro.

“These concerns are not theoretical for us,” Casper Mayor Ray Pacheco told the legislative panel. “Casper relies directly on the North Platte River for drinking water, wastewater treatment, recreation, tourism and the quality of life.”

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s concerns regarding impacts to the Ferris-Seminoe bighorn sheep herd, mostly due to blasting and industrial traffic during the project’s five-year construction period, “may be unresolvable,” one department official said, adding that the agency still has an opportunity to object to the project.

The company’s touted enhancement to the electrical grid is actually a net energy loss, others claimed. Several commenters were concerned about the effect of warmer water temperatures on trout. They cautioned that rPlus Hydro’s assurance that its project will only minimally raise temperatures is based on an analysis of five years of data from the 2010s that is outdated and doesn’t account for climate change-driven drought that has resulted in higher stream water temperatures and has helped sap Seminoe Reservoir to just 32% of its storage capacity today. 

“I think we’re all acutely aware of what’s going on on the Colorado River system and with Flaming Gorge,” Baggs Republican Sen. Larry Hicks said, referring to the drought and water crisis wreaking havoc in the West. “The way I understand the analysis is that there’s going to be many more low water years.”

Seminoe pumped water storage project

“Pumped water storage” involves pumping water uphill during daytime “off-peak demand” hours for electricity when wind and solar power are plentiful and wholesale electricity is cheapest, according to rPlus Hydro. The pumped water would be temporarily stored in a to-be-constructed reservoir above the current reservoir and released to generate hydroelectricity during higher-demand evening hours.

The company proposes building a 13,400-acre-foot reservoir in the Bennett Mountains overlooking Seminoe Reservoir near the dam — one of several reservoirs on the North Platte River. The facility provides “energy‑storage.” “Think of it as a ‘water battery’ that stores energy generated when demand is low,” the company told WyoFile. “When demand increases, water is released from the upper reservoir back into Seminoe, driving hydroelectric turbines to produce electricity.”

“It’s an enormously large project to meet Wyoming’s future energy needs,” rPlus Hydro Deputy General Counsel Kevin Baker told the legislative committee, adding that it would help lower the cost of electricity. “Pumped [water] storage is actually one of the longest duration, most effective and most cost-efficient types of energy storage that’s on the market today.”

Baker said that FERC’s analysis of the project suggests the Seminoe project represents a $200 million annual savings to ratepayers. Further, according to Baker, FERC has suggested, the “absence of this project carries with it its own set of impacts: reduced resource adequacy, higher cost to ratepayers, and the likely need to pursue other projects that may impose greater environmental impacts or plans to the state.”

Hicks objected to the notion that the project will enhance electrical availability or affordability in Wyoming, noting that the state is a net-electrical exporting state, and that rPlus Hydro is relying on federal tax credits to help finance the project.

Despite those facts, Baker responded, the energy storage function does improve reliability and affordability throughout the western grid, including Wyoming. The project, he said, “does not consume serious amounts of water.

“The water,” he added, “will be protected. The fish habitat will be protected. Casper will still have the opportunity to use it as drinking water. Irrigation will still occur. The project will not affect Wyoming’s waters.”

Several people, including local elected officials, Trout Unlimited and local businesses, took issue with Baker’s claims, citing what they say is a flawed federal review process that hasn’t dutifully tested the company’s claims or considered locals’ concerns.

“I think what concerns me the most about this project is the precedent that it sets,” said CiCi Oliver of the Ugly Bug Fly Shop in Casper, which employs 45 people and is dependent on the North Platte River fishery. “This proposal requires exemptions from existing land use and wildlife protections in order to move forward. It is my belief that if a project only works by loosening protections that were specifically created to safeguard habitat and sensitive resources, then perhaps it is not suited for the location in the first place.”

What now?

The FERC is the primary permitting agency for the project because of its reliance on federally managed water storage reservoirs and hydroelectric systems on the North Platte River. That’s a source of heartburn for many stakeholders, including state regulatory agencies, according to Thursday’s testimony.

Members of the Travel Committee lamented that the Legislature doesn’t have a direct role in setting terms for the project. But it concluded that rPlus Hydro and FERC did not meet expectations to engage with locals during the permitting review process, which was initiated some five years ago. 

So what can state lawmakers do?

There are still permitting steps where the Legislature can exert its influence, committee leadership noted.

The federal Bureau of Land Management is a cooperating agency for the project, and agency officials noted that when the FERC issues its final environmental impact statement — expected in June — they may request an amendment process if the BLM is not satisfied with natural resource protections. Wyoming Game and Fish also has an influential say in whether it is satisfied with the FERC’s final review.

Plus, others noted, the project still must go before Wyoming’s Industrial Siting Council for approval.

The committee’s cochairs suggested drafting a letter to Wyoming’s congressional delegation, as well as FERC and other permitting agencies, imploring them to address concerns expressed by Wyoming stakeholders. The committee approved that idea in a unanimous vote.

For more than a decade, the Ruby Pipeline has carried natural gas across the West, cutting through northern Utah with little public attention.

Now, the 683-mile pipeline has been thrust into the spotlight after developers touted it as a key piece of a project that could turn a remote Box Elder County valley into one of the nation’s largest energy and data center hubs.

State backers and developers have described the pipeline as a “catalyst,” saying it could fuel on-site natural gas generation needed to power energy-intensive artificial intelligence facilities at a proposed “hyperscale” data center and energy campus backed by celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary and Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority.

The data center project, however, has quickly drawn widespread opposition across the Beehive State, fueled by concerns over what the project could mean for air quality, water resources and the already stressed ecosystem around the Great Salt Lake.

The pipeline’s renewed attention comes years after the company that owned it filed for bankruptcy following the expiration of long-term shipping contracts, court records show, and a financial downturn that reshaped how much of its capacity was being used.

However, Vladimir Dvorkin, a power systems professor at the University of Michigan, said the massive data center project could effectively breathe new life into the pipeline by tapping some of its unused capacity.

Dvorkin said the pipeline has been underutilized over the years, but it “looks like the data center project is sort of a revival of this project.”

What is the Ruby Pipeline?

The pipeline stretches across the high desert from the Opal natural gas hub in southwestern Wyoming, crossing northern Utah’s remote rangelands and Nevada before ending in Malin, Oregon, a major hub for energy trading in the West.

It relies on four compressor stations along its route, including the Wildcat Hills station in western Box Elder County.

Built during the shale gas boom, the pipeline entered service in 2011 and was hailed as a major piece of Western energy infrastructure. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, it increased the region’s capacity to move natural gas west by more than 50% and expanded delivery into northern California.

The 42-inch interstate pipeline can transport up to 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, according to the federal agency.

Debts pile up

But the economics that once supported the Ruby Pipeline began shifting soon after it was built.

In 2022, Ruby Pipeline LLC — the company that owns the pipeline — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because it didn’t have enough cash to pay off $475 million in debt, according to bankruptcy court filings.

Ruby Pipeline was a joint venture between energy infrastructure giant Kinder Morgan and Calgary-based pipeline operator Pembina Pipeline Corporation.

In bankruptcy filings, Will Brown, vice president of business management for Kinder Morgan’s Natural Gas Pipelines West Region, wrote that market conditions changed in ways the project’s original business model had not anticipated.

When the pipeline was built in 2010, he wrote, the company signed long-term agreements with 12 customers to reserve about 1.1 million dekatherms of natural gas capacity per day — covering most of the pipeline’s capacity.

However, most of those agreements lasted 10 years and expired in July 2021, Brown wrote.

The company struggled to replace those contracts as Western energy markets changed, according to Brown. Growing natural gas production elsewhere drove down prices and weakened demand for Rocky Mountain natural gas, he wrote.

By March 2022, about 40% of the pipeline’s daily capacity remained under contract, Brown wrote. As those contracts expired without replacement customers, the company’s revenue declined, leaving it unable to meet upcoming debt obligations.

Later that year, Tallgrass Energy agreed to buy the pipeline out of bankruptcy for $282.5 million, according to court filings. In a court-ordered auction in December 2022, Tallgrass outbid competing offers, including a $276 million bid from a Kinder Morgan affiliate, filings show.

Will the data center raise gas rates?

The project’s backers initially said the first phase, which would be built in Hansel Valley where the pipeline runs through, would require about 3 gigawatts of power, nearly matching Utah’s average statewide electricity use of roughly 4 gigawatts. Amid growing public outrage over the project, Gov. Spencer Cox said developers had agreed to scale the first phase down to 1.5 gigawatts.

At full buildout, Paul Morris, MIDA’s executive director, said the campus would reach 9 gigawatts.

Austin Pritchett, co-founder of developer West GenCo and a partner with O’Leary on the project, said during an April 27 Box Elder County Commission meeting that the pipeline could help supply fuel for on-site natural gas generation to power energy-intensive AI computing facilities.

The data center would tap into some of the pipeline’s unused capacity not currently under contract, Pritchett said. Because of that, he said it should not affect existing gas customers or raise rates.

But Dvorkin, who studies how data centers interact with electrical grids, said tapping the pipeline’s unused capacity could have a broader effect on energy costs.

To generate more power than Utah’s current statewide electricity use, the project could require a substantial amount of natural gas, Dvorkin said. While the Ruby Pipeline may have capacity to move that fuel, he said the question is whether regional supply can keep pace with a major new source of demand.

Rocky Mountain Power’s gas-fired plants draw fuel from the same broader supply network connected to the Opal Hub in Wyoming, where the Ruby Pipeline begins, Dvorkin said.

If a large data center campus begins buying substantial amounts of natural gas, it could increase competition for gas and tighten supply, potentially pushing prices higher even though the project may never touch the grid, he said.

Those fuel costs, he said, can then be passed on to customers through electricity and heating bills.

“It feeds Oregon, California and Nevada’s gas utilities, meaning that the presence of such a large consumer in Utah will also affect gas prices for everyone downstream the pipeline,” Dvorkin said.

However, Dvorkin said any rate impacts depend on future gas production, how the gas is contracted and how much fuel the project ultimately uses.

While project backers have said the development would rely completely on the Ruby Pipeline to supply natural gas for on-site power generation, Gov. Spencer Cox said last week that the project would “never” run solely on natural gas and that later phases should incorporate other energy sources, including nuclear, geothermal and solar power.

CASPER, Wyo. — A proposed pumped storage hydroelectric facility at Seminoe Reservoir drew strong criticism Wednesday at a public meeting in Casper that featured dozens of community members, conservationists and elected officials. The event was hosted by a number of organizations, including Friends of the North Platte, Trout Unlimited, the Wyoming Wildlife Federation and the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation.

In an April presentation to the Natrona County Board of County Commissioners, representatives from rPlus Hydro — the company behind the proposed project — said the facility would generate 970 megawatts of power. The planned system would pump water from Seminoe Reservoir to a new 120-acre upper reservoir during periods of surplus energy, releasing it back down through turbines when demand peaks to provide up to 12 hours of full-output energy storage. The project requires the construction of an access bridge, an underground powerhouse, a main access tunnel and a 29-mile transmission line to the Aeolus substation.

However, community members at the meeting voiced a wide range of concerns about possible drawbacks to the project.

Trout Unlimited representative Jim Hissong said the project could have serious impacts on the fish populations of Miracle Mile, a 5.5-mile tailwater stretch of the North Platte River located about 50 miles southwest of Casper, where the project is planned to be built.

Hissong said the impact on fish and insects will be twofold. First, he said the facility is expected to raise water temperatures, which would endanger the fish.

“Trout, when it’s about 68–70 degrees — when you hook them, the stress on the fish will be so great that it’ll kill them,” he said. “That’s why Game and Fish puts on the restrictions where once it hits a certain temperature, you pick up your rods and go home.”

Hissong added that the expected increase of sediment in the water could kill insects like mayflies and stoneflies, as well as suffocate trout eggs.

However, the project could impact more than just the aquatic species in the area, Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation Executive Director Katie Cheesbrough said. According to Cheesbrough, the area’s bighorn sheep population — which she said is the biggest in the state and critical for the species’ health in the region — could also be harmed.

“For those of you who don’t know, you have a very special bighorn sheep herd above and around the Miracle Mile,” she told attendees at the meeting. “It’s a huge success for bighorn sheep conservation. This is a reintroduced herd and it went from 13 sheep maybe in 2003 to close to 400 sheep now. That effort came with a lot of partnerships, funding and work. Currently, it’s the healthiest bighorn sheep herd in the state. … This is the only bighorn sheep herd that we can use to reintroduce sheep to their native range in other parts of Wyoming or other parts of the country.”

But it wouldn’t be the impacts to the water that would pose the largest threat to the sheep. Instead, Cheesbrough said, the sheep would likely be driven away by blasting that is expected to take place over several years as the project gets underway.

When the sheep are driven out, Cheesbrough said they will migrate east to the Pedro Mountains in Carbon County, though they are not allowed to live there and will be subsequently removed. From there, she said, the animals will likely die.

“Removal is killing,” she said.

With impacts to the animals and environment expected, Trout Unlimited Wyoming Government Relations Director Patrick Harrington said impacts to outdoor recreation and tourism would follow. Citing a draft environmental impact study, Harrington said the area is projected to see roughly 117,000 lost recreation visits during the five-year construction period. Once completed, he said, the disturbance to the water, wildlife and landscape would likely continue to affect recreational visits.

“I think we’ll see a decline in the fishery, first initially in construction, when we may see large fish kills from large plumes of sediment going downstream. But over time, through consistent operation, we’ll see what was once a world-class fishery decline into just an average fishery,” Harrington said.

Sen. Larry Hicks, who represents Wyoming’s 11th district, said that the electricity generated by the project likely won’t be used by Wyomingites.

“This is going to go out of state, folks. We don’t need this electricity in Wyoming,” Hicks said, adding that 75% of the energy consumed in Wyoming is generated by oil and coal. “Let’s just make that clear: We’re a net exporter right now.”

“It isn’t going to be the people in Las Vegas or southern California or Phoenix that suffer the impact — it’s you and your family. Sometimes you just have to know what’s not for sale,” Hicks added, drawing applause from attendees.

On Thursday, the Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee of the Wyoming Legislature will meet at 8:35 a.m. at the Thyra Thomson State Office Building, 444 W. Collins Drive, to discuss the project.

Harrington urged those in attendance to attend the Thursday morning meeting, and said he was encouraged by the turnout at Wednesday’s event.

“This is a community that cares about their river and their wildlife, and it was awesome to see so many turn out to support it,” he said.

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