Hackneyed phrases that were part of the public lexicon in the West for years, like the so-called “war on coal” and promise to “drill, baby, drill!” are back with a vengeance. So are federal land swaps, gutting environmental regulations, and other proposals that will make Wyoming officials and the minerals industry salivate, and conservationists cringe.
No, we’re not trapped in a time warp. It’s just preparation for Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the 2.0 version that wants to strip all of President Joe Biden’s federal public lands protections to spur huge corporate profits at the expense of public access.
It’s a trade-off many Wyoming politicians are willing to make to keep mineral tax revenues flowing to state government, while communities hope to preserve jobs and improve the local economy. I understand the motivation to protect what’s “ours,” but federal lands belong to all Americans, and aren’t meant to only benefit the states where they are located.
The new Trump administration will likely resemble his first. He promised to save the coal industry, but only oversaw its rapid decline because it failed to compete with cheaper wind and solar energy and natural gas. There was never a federal war on coal, just a natural free market response to a dying industry.
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In this year’s presidential election, there was a clear public policy choice to address climate change by lowering greenhouse gas emissions through increased renewable energy use. Trump continues to call climate change a hoax and never listens to scientists who say it’s the biggest existential threat to the planet.
I won’t pretend Biden’s energy policies were perfect, or that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris would make them so. Her flip-flop on fracking dismayed supporters and wasn’t believed by critics, and was a detriment to her failed campaign.
But Harris promised that as president she would “unite Americans to tackle the climate crisis as she advances environmental justice, protects public lands and public health, and increases resilience to climate disasters.”
Trump, in sharp contrast, pledged to “unleash” domestic fossil fuel production, slash royalties that corporations pay to drill on federal lands, expedite oil and gas permitting, and withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement.
To understand the dark days ahead, read the section on public lands proposed by Project 2025, the blueprint for Trump’s second term published by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation.
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Trump back-pedaled as fast as he could when people condemned the agenda written by key members of his first administration. He put so much distance between himself and the 900-page document, that it was largely forgotten in the final days of the campaign.
After Trump’s victory, advisers like recently released felon Steve Bannon bragged that Project 2025 is precisely what his old boss has in store for the nation. It spells out a forthcoming disaster for our public lands, giving extractive industries nearly unfettered access to them while gutting the Department of the Interior and severely restricting the power of the Endangered Species Act.
Republicans have long sought to turn ownership of federal lands over to the states, under the specious claim state governments have more expertise to manage them. In reality, states like Wyoming have nowhere near the financial resources to take on such responsibility and would sell the lands to private developers as fast as they could.
It speaks volumes that the Project 2025 chapter on the Interior Department was written by William Perry Pendley, Trump’s former acting director of the Bureau of Land Management. Pendley’s entire career has been focused on defending land grabs like the infamous Sagebrush Rebellion in the 1980s, which sought — but fortunately failed — to either outright transfer federal lands to states or privatize them.
Unbelievably, Pendley simply turned writing the section on energy production on federal lands over to Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas trade association, and two industry allies. It’s a perfect example of what to expect from Trump’s administration on this and other vital public matters: let industry write the rules.
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Pendley’s enemies list includes environmentalists, whom he has compared to communists and Nazis, and the Interior Department itself. He claims the latter has grown beholden to radical environmentalists and now abuses U.S. laws “to advance a radical climate agenda.”
Expect a deluge of conservation lawsuits that will hopefully tie up many of Trump’s most egregious proposals in court for years, so they can be overturned by judges or voters in 2028.
Speaking of litigation, there’s no doubt Wyoming officials view Trump’s win as a huge plus in their efforts to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court — with its conservative supermajority, thanks to the president-elect — to rule in favor of Utah in its federal public lands lawsuit. Utah claims the federal BLM shouldn’t be able to own land in the state without giving it a designation, like national park or national monument status.
Utah’s lawsuit has separate friend-of-the-court briefs filed by U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyoming), Gov. Mark Gordon, and 26 members of the Freedom Caucus, which will take control of the Wyoming House next year. If Utah wins its suit, it could pave the way for 17 million acres of federal land in Wyoming to be transferred to the state.
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman holds a town hall in Jackson on Jan. 20, 2023. (Angus M. Thuermer Jr./WyoFile)
During her career as a lawyer, Hageman carved out a reputation as a fierce opponent of federal environmental laws. Her participation in the suit, which is a disservice to her constituents, at least makes political sense. So does the support of the anti-federal government zealots in the Freedom Caucus.
But what is Gordon’s excuse for joining this sinking ship? In a 2022 interview with the Keep It Public Wyoming Coalition, the governor said large-scale federal land transfers were “a fool’s mission … before we ever gave up those lands [to the federal government], our act of admission required that of us.”
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Gordon added he supports public lands and access to sportspeople, so he would oppose such federal transfers. So what’s changed, governor? It’s certainly not Rocky Mountain residents’ broad and bipartisan support for protecting federal public lands, which has been consistent for many years.
Hageman has joined other Republicans in a scheme to get control of federal lands: use it to build affordable housing. In a Washington Examiner op-ed in June, Pendley agreed with the proposal and wrote that Westerners’ future is now “impeded unnecessarily by vast swaths of federal land largely unused, unnecessary, and exorbitantly expensive to maintain.”
Vice President-elect J.D. Vance concurred during his debate with Democratic opponent Tim Walz. He said Trump believes we have a lot of federal lands that aren’t being used for anything, and “they could be places where we build a lot of housing.”
Naturally, Vance and Trump don’t see the value of public lands for hunting, fishing, and recreation, or keeping natural landscapes intact to safeguard clean air, water and wildlife habitat.
Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Colorado-based conservation group Center for Western Priorities, told HuffPost the GOP realizes selling off federal lands wholesale is a political third rail, so now they’re trying to frame it as a housing solution.
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“But what they’re actually proposing is just more sprawl and McMansions,” Weiss said. Of course, that’s not what the vast majority of Wyomingites want, but I suppose the 75% of Wyoming voters who supported Trump weren’t thinking about the mess states like ours would be left to clean up when they cast their ballots.
GLENROCK, Wyo. — A 55-year-old Wyoming man died Monday night after his vehicle went over a bridge rail and caught fire on Interstate 25 near Glenrock.
Gavin Stanek was traveling north in a Cadillac Escalade around 9:13 p.m. when the vehicle drifted into the median near milepost 156, according to a Wyoming Highway Patrol report. The vehicle continued through the median until it struck a bridge retaining wall.
The driver’s side of the Escalade scraped along the rail before the vehicle went over the edge toward the river. The Cadillac rolled toward the passenger side and landed on its roof on the river embankment, where it was engulfed in flames, the report states.
The Wyoming Highway Patrol identified driver fatigue or the driver falling asleep as a possible contributing factor in the crash. Road conditions were dry and the weather was clear at the time of the incident.
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This story contains preliminary information as provided by the Wyoming Highway Patrol via the Wyoming Department of Transportation Fatal Crash Summary map. The agency advises that information may be subject to change.
As a plaintiff in the 2022 lawsuit that kicked off years of legal sparring over Wyoming abortion rights, Dr. Giovannina Anthony had waited a long time for Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision on the state’s abortion bans.
“It has been a long road,” she said. One with ups and downs, drawbacks and delays. And even though the high court ruled against the state’s abortion bans, she’s not under the illusion that the fight for abortion access is over.
“But at least today, we can claim a victory and say, it was really worth it,” said Anthony, a Jackson obstetrician. “It was worth it to go four years and keep it up and keep raising money and keep the awareness going. I’m really proud of our team. I’m really proud of what we accomplished.”
In reading the Supreme Court’s decision siding with plaintiffs, Anthony said, “Clearly, this is a court that holds a lot of respect for our constitution.”
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That’s because much of the decision hinged on constitutional language.
Anthony and other plaintiffs argued that abortion is enshrined in the “right of health care access” in Article 1, Section 38 of the Wyoming Constitution. The clause states, “Each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions.”
The state’s attorneys, meanwhile, countered that abortion isn’t health care.
But in deciding what that language means in this case, “all five Wyoming Supreme Court justices agreed that the decision whether to terminate or continue a pregnancy is a woman’s own health care decision protected by Article 1, Section 38,” the court’s summary stated.
As abortion rights activists in Wyoming and beyond celebrated the decision, the anti-abortion camp decried it and called for legislative action.
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“This ruling is profoundly unfortunate and sadly serves to only prolong the ultimate proper resolution of this issue,” Gov. Mark Gordon said in a statement. While the ruling may settle a legal question for the time being, Gordon said, “it does not settle the moral one, nor does it reflect where many Wyoming citizens stand, including myself.”
Anti-abortion activists in the silent March for Life in Cheyenne in January 2020. (Nadav Soroker, Wyoming Tribune Eagle/Wyoming News Exchange)
Gordon asked the Attorney General’s office to file a petition for rehearing the decision, which it will file within 15 days.
The voters of Wyoming should settle the matter once and for all, Gordon argued. “A constitutional amendment taken to the people of Wyoming would trump any and all judicial decisions.”
He called on the Legislature to pass such an amendment during the upcoming session and deliver it to his desk. A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate to appear on the ballot in the following general election.
Gordon may get his wish during the Legislature’s 2026 budget session, which convenes Feb. 9.
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State lawmakers are already preparing a bill to modify the Wyoming Constitution and clear a path for another attempted abortion ban. Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, a Republican from Hulett, said that he’s been workshopping language with Torrington Republican Sen. Cheri Steinmetz.
“I’ve got to run it by a lot of other people,” Neiman said.
Reps. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams and Chip Neiman listen during a 2023 hearing on their request to defend Wyoming’s abortion ban. (Brad Boner/Jackson Hole News&Guide/Pool)
Ideally, he added, a single constitutional amendment would be considered, although the legislative strategy is still up for discussion.
“We’ve got a little over a month before we have to be in session,” Neiman said. “That’ll give us time to kind of see which is maybe the best plan of action.”
A constitutional amendment would have to navigate the legislative process in a 20-day session geared toward passing Wyoming’s budget. Then, in the 2026 general election, more than half of Wyoming voters who cast a ballot would have to agree to the constitutional change.
Neiman struck an optimistic tone about an amendment’s prospects of passing the first hurdle during the session in Cheyenne.
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“I can’t speak for the other chamber,” he said, “but in my chamber I’ve got a lot of phone calls and a lot of texts from a lot of my legislators who are just beside themselves at what happened.”
Senate President Bo Biteman did not return a phone call before this story published.
Victorious
Chelsea’s Fund, an organization that helps pay for abortion services, was another of the plaintiffs that challenged Wyoming’s abortion bans. Executive Director Janean Forsyth said Tuesday’s decision affirms what her organization has long known: “that abortion is essential health care, and Wyoming women have a constitutional right and the freedom to make their own health care decisions, and that should be without government interference.”
Forsyth was flooded with messages and calls Tuesday, she said, especially from the community of reproductive rights organizations.
“I think that [the news is] a beacon of hope for, not only Wyoming communities and families, but also nationwide,” she said.
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Christine Lichtenfels was Chelsea’s Fund executive director when the original suit was filed and throughout much of the legal battle. Relief wasn’t quite the word to describe how she felt Tuesday, she said.
“In reading the decision, there is just a sense that, ‘Oh, there is reason in the world,” she said. “It makes me think that, yes, Wyoming is the Equality State. We can say that now without cringing.”
(Disclosure: Lichtenfels is currently working with WyoFile on an unrelated legal matter.)
The Wellspring Health Access clinic in Casper is pictured in December 2022, and shows signs of May 2022 arson, including boarded up windows. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile)
Wyoming’s only abortion clinic, Wellspring Health Access in Casper, was also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Knowing the decision would directly impact the facility’s fate, Clinic President Julie Burkhart was nervous when she opened it. Reading quickly dispelled her fears, she said, as it dawned on her that the justices sided with the plaintiffs’ legal team.
“We are delighted,” she told WyoFile.
Many people questioned her 2021 decision to open an abortion clinic in such a conservative state, she said. The court decision solidifies an intuition she felt back then about Wyoming residents’ sense of what’s fair and right.
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Burkhart and colleagues expect future challenges to arise, however.
“While we celebrate today’s ruling, we know that anti-abortion politicians will continue their push to restrict access to health care in Wyoming with new, harmful proposals in the state legislature,” Burkart said in a statement. “Patients should not have to live in fear that their health care decisions will be suddenly upended at the whim of a judge or lawmaker.”
Across the state in Jackson, Dr. Anthony anticipates the Wyoming Freedom Caucus will attempt to pass laws that impose targeted restrictions against abortion providers — such as forcing patients to hear a fetal heartbeat or wait a certain time period before the procedure.
“Unfortunately, the fight’s not over,” Anthony said, “but this is a great moment for us.”
Heartache
Abortion opponents expressed sadness Tuesday and vehemently disagreed with the court’s opinion.
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State Rep. Rachel Rodriguez Williams was lead sponsor of one of the abortion bans. The Cody Republican and chair of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus did not respond to a request for comment, but posted about the decision on X.
“My heart aches for Wyoming today,” Rodriguez Williams posted. “Thanks to the decision of four unelected, unchecked attorneys, it’s open season in Wyoming for innocent, preborn babies. Make no mistake: courts can get things wrong, and they sure did get this wrong. I’ll never stop fighting to protect life.”
Anti-abortion billboards can be seen along some Wyoming highways. (Tennessee Watson/WyoFile)
Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray also protested the decision, which he called “outrageously wrong” and “a leftwing activist decision totally out of touch with the Wyoming Constitution.”
Natrona County anti-abortion activist Bob Brechtel, a former Wyoming House member, also expressed frustration with the courts, criticizing the nearly two-year-long wait for a decision and saying he was “ashamed” of the outcome from the high court.
In 2011, Brechtel co-sponsored the bill authorizing a later-successful constitutional amendment ballot measure that now protects individuals’ rights to make their own health care decisions. Born out of opposition to the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, what became Article 1, Section 38 caused some lawmakers to worry about potential unintended consequences.
Fifteen years later, one unintended consequence came to fruition. Reached Tuesday, Brechtel confirmed that he did not intend to protect women’s right to have an abortion in Wyoming.
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“There was nothing in the legislation about killing innocent human beings,” he said. “This whole thing has been completely regenerated into something that it was never intended to be.”
It is Week 4 in the 2026 Wyoming High School boys’ swimming and diving season. It features several medium-sized competitions. After a dual in Douglas on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday are packed with meets. Jackson hosts its two-day invitational with four teams heading to Teton County. There are three-team events in Casper, Gillette, and Sheridan on Friday, plus two five-team meets at Cody and Rock Springs.
WYOPREPS BOYS SWIMMING AND DIVING WEEK 4 SCHEDULE 2026
Saturday also has swim invites at Evanston, Powell, and Sheridan. The schedule for Week 4 of the prep boys’ swimming and diving season in the Cowboy State is below. The schedule is subject to change.
RAWLINS AT DOUGLAS – dual
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CASPER TRI at NCHS – Cheyenne East, Kelly Walsh, Natrona County.
