Wyoming

Wyoming files suit against Biden administration's new fuel economy rules

Published

3 days ago

July 3, 2024

Wyoming files suit against Biden administration's new fuel economy rules

Wyoming has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s new fuel economy standards. The rules will require light-duty vehicles to average 50 miles per gallon by 2031.

The rules are meant to save on fuel costs while reducing pollution, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. But Gov. Mark Gordon said the standards aren’t workable in Wyoming, where long distance travel and extreme cold mean that electric vehicles may not be the best option.

“They have no reason to overreach into Wyoming’s driving habits,” Gordon said in an interview. “Most people here drive pickups. They might have loads of livestock that they have to haul and electric vehicles don’t necessarily make sense for that.”

Gordon said the new rule amounts to a federal mandate to force a consumer transition to electric vehicles. In a joint letter from January, governors from 16 states urged Pres. Joe Biden to reel in his ambitions regarding electric vehicles.

Due to the remote nature of the state’s roads, Gordon said the new rules, which would also require charging stations every fifty miles, don’t consider the reality of driving in Wyoming.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that he’s working to find solutions for the unique circumstances of the Cowboy State.

“We’re conscious that a one-size-fits-all approach is not going to work,” said Buttigieg in an exclusive interview with Wyoming Public Radio. “We’re in good dialogue with the governor and with WYDOT [Wyoming Department of Transportation] about how to make sure that we apply that common sense here in this program.”

Wyoming is currently engaged in 58 lawsuits against various federal agencies, according to the governor’s office. Gordon said that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the Chevron doctrine, which had given agencies leeway when ambiguous legal language left room for interpretation, may impact Wyoming’s lawsuits.

“It may mean that regulators will have to take the process more seriously,” Gordon said. “It may rein in some energy regulation and federal overreach.”

This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.

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Wyoming

Angi Bruce appointed first woman to lead Wyoming Game and Fish

Published

3 hours ago

July 6, 2024

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Angi Bruce appointed first woman to lead Wyoming Game and Fish

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Wyoming

Wyoming Outdoor Council Plays Shenanigans With… | Cowboy State Daily

Published

10 hours ago

July 5, 2024

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Wyoming Outdoor Council Plays Shenanigans With… | Cowboy State Daily

Some energy industry participants in next week’s Wyoming-led oil and gas lease auction are wondering if the Wyoming Outdoor Council will try to scuttle the sale, or some activist billionaire for that matter.

Electronic auctions to buy oil and gas leases on state-owned land can be challenging.

Anonymous bidders in auctions operated over a private online network by Wyoming’s Office of State Land Investments don’t always tell the full story of an entity’s ulterior motives.

Take, for example, a July 12, 2023, lease auction when executives with Casper-based oil and gas firm Kirkwood Cos. ran into such a problem.

This is when top executives of Kirkwood and land technicians who understood the value of geologic formations and how to switch over to a backup computer in case it’s needed huddled in the conference room of the family run oil and gas business to bid on a few leases in a 2-minute auction process.

Steve Kirkwood, owner and partner, was at the table, as was No. 2 executive Steve Degenfelder, land manager for the company with more than 3,500 wells in six Rocky Mountain states.

The auction goes quick, and there is little time to think about who is bidding on what, or by how much.

Kirkwood had its eyes on a total of 1,280 acres covering two tracts of land in Sublette County, Degenfelder said.

“There’s an enormous accumulation of gas there,” Degenfelder told Cowboy State Daily of his company’s appetite for oil and natural gas land in the state’s auction.

Rich In Gas

The Bureau of Land Management says the Sublette County land where Kirkwood had interest has one of the richest concentrations of natural gas in the U.S., currently estimated at more than 25 trillion cubic feet.

Kirkwood had its eyes on two tracts in what is technically known as the west flank of the Pinedale (Wyoming) anticline natural gas field in the Upper Green River Basin of west-central Wyoming, located in dusty sagebrush territory just south of Pinedale.

Environmental conservation groups have a disdain for exploration and drilling in this region.

The Nature Conservancy calls the Upper Green River as Wyoming’s take on the Serengeti plains of East Africa, a natural bottleneck where wildlife moves through ancient migratory pathways.

The migration of pronghorn and mule deer from summer ranges in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem mountain highlands to winter stomping grounds in the Upper Green River Basin’s sagebrush-covered valley is one of the longest in the continental United States.

“We were bidding on some tracts, and we became the successful bidder,” said Degenfelder, whose suspicions on the auction were aroused when he was contacted by an official with the Wyoming Outdoor Council who left a voicemail on his phone.

The senior official with the statewide conservation advocacy group wanted to know if Degenfelder would be willing to give up the leases.

When Degenfelder returned the call, he was told that the two tracts that his company bid on were in an “antelope migratory bottleneck” and that drilling on the land could impact the pronghorn who live there.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council official also admitted to Degenfelder that it was his group that had engaged in a bidding war with Kirkwood and had significantly driven up the price of the two tracts.

Driving Up Costs

“We estimated that we overpaid on the land by $14,000,” Degenfelder said.

“We would have gotten it for $6 an acre had the Wyoming Outdoor Council not been bidding,” he said. “This is very exploratory acreage, and that $19 an acre doesn’t sound like much, but this is for exploration, which is the first thing you need to do before getting a lease.

“There is concern for billionaires like (Michael) Bloomberg or (Bill) Gates or (Warren) Buffett putting in bids for these leases with no intention of ever developing them for oil and gas.”

This could wreak havoc on a state like Wyoming, which depends on oil and gas revenue for funding everything from education to penitentiaries.

Carl Fisher, executive director of Wyoming Outdoor Council, did not return phone calls or emails seeking comment on his conversancy group’s strategy in last July’s auction and whether the group would attempt to engage in the same type of bidding process in next week’s scheduled auction.

Degenfelder said that the OSLI turned down his company’s request to be reimbursed in the land auction for overpayment of several thousands of dollars.

“Our request was turned down,” he said.

Dianna Wolvin, the OSLI senior lands management specialist, did not return phone calls or emails seeking comment about the dispute with Kirkwood.

Emergency Help

This week, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon ran interference on the issue with the hope that this doesn’t happen again.

The governor signed an emergency order to implement changes in next week’s state-led oil and gas lease auction to keep environmental activist groups like the Wyoming Outdoor Council from driving up bids and taking energy-rich properties out of the hands of developers.

During the 2024 Legislature, lawmakers passed State House Bill 141, which redefined qualified bidders.

The State Board of Land Commissioners approved the rule changes at its June 6 meeting as part of its regular business.

Since the auction is scheduled for July 8-10, the board also approved emergency rules to implement the changes before the auction to ferret out unqualified bidders.

The new law requires the OSLI, which runs the auction three times a year, to determine a qualified bidder and nip in the bud any shenanigans in advance.

Not The First Time

This isn’t the first time that the OSLI has encountered problems with outsiders trying to hurt Wyoming’s interests.

James Magagna, vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, told Cowboy State Daily that a similar problem erupted about 15 years ago when the Jon Marvel-backed Western Watersheds Project in Hailey, Idaho, attempted to foil his bid to renew leases on state-owned land that had been in his family for more than a century.

“It happened to me personally,” Magagna said.

Magagna had used his state-leased land in the southeast corner of Sublette County to graze more than 8,000 sheep, but the Western Watersheds Project tried to outbid him because the group believes in “livestock-free public lands.”

Marvel retired in 2014 from the group he formed in 1993, where he became a major player in the legal fight over protecting the sage grouse and its habitat. Marvel also gained a reputation for bidding against ranchers for grazing rights.

He drove up the prices of those grazing rights through legal battles with ranchers over their operations’ effects on water quality and wildlife habitat.

Eventually, the Legislature came to the aid of Magagna.

“What saved me was the fact that Western Watershed wasn’t properly registered to do business in the state of Wyoming. They are now, but not then,” Magagna said.

“We eventually got Wyoming legislation passed that said if you bid on state trust lands to lease, then you must have a necessary use for the land, like a business for grazing livestock,” he said. “Based on my experience, perhaps legislation is still needed.”

Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.

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Wyoming

New Wyoming Game And Fish Director Announced On… | Cowboy State Daily

Published

15 hours ago

July 5, 2024

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New Wyoming Game And Fish Director Announced On… | Cowboy State Daily

As the first woman to direct the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Angi Bruce said she’ll make wildlife habitat a priority when she takes the helm in September.

A looming concern for Wyoming wildlife is “loss of habitat, both quality and quantity,” Bruce told Cowboy State Daily on Friday afternoon shortly after Gov. Mark Gordon announced her appointment.

“We’re seeing these effects on sage grouse, mule deer and other species,” Bruce said.

She said she’s looking forward to working with landowners, non-governmental conservation groups and others to continue Game and Fish habitat preservation and restoration projects across Wyoming.

Gordon picked Bruce from three internal finalists to replace Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik, who plans to retire in September.

The other finalists were Rick King, chief of the department’s Wildlife Division, and Craig Smith, deputy chief of the Wildlife Division.

Bruce is now the agency’s deputy director of external affairs.

Best And Worst Of Times

She’ll take over as director during a time that is both exciting and challenging for Game and Fish.

On one hand, the agency is about as financially stable as it’s ever been. Wyoming continues to be a premier destination for out-of-state hunters. They’re willing to pay big fees for nonresident hunting licenses, which generates a large portion of Game and Fish’s revenue.

On the other hand, Game and Fish has been harshly criticized from people and wildlife advocates from around the globe for what some claim was light punishment for a Daniel man who reportedly captured, tortured and killed a wolf in February.

According to court records, Cody Roberts, 42, forfeited a $250 bond for a Game and Fish citation for illegal possession of a live, warm-blooded animal. But many have clamored for much stiffer penalties for the wolf’s cruel treatment.

There’s also ongoing controversy over whether grizzly bears should be delisted from federal endangered species protection and hunted in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

There also are squabbles over hunter access, even as many of Wyoming’s elk herds have ballooned to far above their objective population.

Hunters claim that landowners won’t give them enough access to shoot more of the elk, while landowners say they don’t want to be pressured into just throwing their gates wide open.

Regarding the elk quandary, Bruce said she’s familiar with that sort of situation. She previously worked in wildlife management in Iowa and saw it happen there with whitetail deer.

Some plots of land became “essentially refuges” for the exploding deer population and hunters couldn’t get to them, she said.

Like whitetail, elk “are a species that can become very adaptable to human disturbances to the environment,” she said.

“They’re two very different species, but the issues are similar,” she said.

Regarding the controversies, Bruce said she’s confident that Game and Fish can continue to take a balanced approach and stay on course with its mission to conserve wildlife and serve the public.

“One thing I’ve noticed is that we never shy away from those difficult issues,” she said.

First Woman Director

Bruce has been in her current position with Game and Fish since 2019, and worked with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for 17 years before that.

She said it’s meaningful to be selected as the first woman to lead Wyoming Game and Fish.

“I’m thrilled to represent the first female director for the department. That’s exciting. This is a very male-dominated field, it always has has been,” she said.

However, she added that her appointment in no way detracts from the excellent record of the men who previously directed Game and Fish and got the agency to where it is today.

Bruce added that she’s “honored” to set an example and be an inspiration for women and girls who are interested in careers in natural resource and wildlife management.

The Right One For The Job

Selecting from the three finalists was challenging, Gordon said in a statement released by his office.

“The Game and Fish Commission forwarded three exceptionally well-qualified candidates reflecting Wyoming’s commitment to wildlife and our natural resource heritage,” Gordon said.

“In her role as deputy director, Angi has demonstrated the department’s dedication to protecting our state’s leadership role in science and policy on wildlife issues large and small,” he added.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.

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