Wyoming
Wyoming, Slow To Take Federal Clean Energy Funds, Gambles State Money on Carbon Sequestration and Hydrogen Schemes to Keep Fossil Fuels Flowing – Inside Climate News
Microorganisms are fantastically adaptable, living almost anywhere from the subzero temperatures of the Arctic to boiling volcanic soil. Somewhere on that spectrum are the microscopic organisms that reside thousands of feet below the earth’s surface, munching through reserves of coal.
In Wyoming, the nation’s top producer of the flammable rock, Cowboy Clean Fuels, a Western energy company, has proposed feeding these microbes molasses to produce a different source of energy.
The process begins with beet sugar crystalized into molasses, which the company plans to inject into coal seams. There, microbes feasting on it would secrete two gasses—carbon dioxide and methane, a process called methanogenesis. The CO2 would, the thinking goes, be sequestered in the coal while the methane gets “induced” back up the seam to be burned as natural gas, which emits more CO2.
In the bid for funding it submitted to Wyoming’s Energy Authority, Cowboy Clean Fuels said the process would allow the company to repurpose Wyoming’s underused natural gas infrastructure to create a “low-carbon renewable natural gas,” the harvesting of which would permanently sequester carbon dioxide.
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Last month, the Wyoming Energy Authority, the state agency Gov. Mark Gordon tasked with distributing $150 million from the newly created Energy Matching Funds program for “projects related to Wyoming energy needs,” awarded the project $7.79 million dollars. So far, the Energy Matching Funds have paid out $57.6 million to projects that would creatively generate fossil fuels, capture or sequester carbon or explore hydrogen fuel generation.
The Energy Matching Funds appear to be Wyoming’s largest bet on its energy future, and as more of those funds get tied up in industries that could extend the Cowboy state’s dependency on fossil fuels, some who follow the state’s energy sector have wondered how wisely Wyoming is spending its own taxpayer dollars, of which there are few to begin with.
Compounding the need to spend wisely is the state’s apparent lack of interest in the millions of dollars in clean energy funding available to Wyoming through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which have gained little traction in the state. Last November, Gordon rejected IRA grants to tamp down pollution, in part due to his desire to preserve “Wyoming’s ‘all-of-the-above’ energy development.” Wyoming school districts are the only ones in the country yet to utilize IIJA funds to purchase electric school buses.
Environmental organizations in Wyoming have been working to ensure local municipalities and residents are ready to take advantage of federal dollars if and when they become available. But there is little those organizations can do to speed up the state’s pursuit of federal funding and even less that can be done without access to the money itself.
The federal clean energy money the state has applied for and received is mainly focused on grid updates and energy efficiency improvements for existing infrastructure, said Patrick Millin, the Energy Authority’s state energy program manager, in a statement to Inside Climate News.
Going forward, the Energy Authority, created in 2020 when the state legislature voted to merge Wyoming’s Infrastructure Authority, the Wyoming Pipeline Authority and the State Energy Program, “will pursue those programs that are beneficial to Wyoming,” Millin said.
Rob Creager, the agency’s director, added that “projects seeking federal funds from the IIJA and the IRA are eligible for EMF funding.”
That pursuit, to the extent that it is aimed at clean energy, can be complicated in a sparsely populated state with very few public resources.
“Wyoming really lacks capacity” to aggressively pursue the large sums of money up for grabs in the IRA and IIJA, said Monika Leininger, director of external affairs and climate policy at the Nature Conservancy. “We have a lean state budget. Local governments lack expertise and capacity to compete for these funds.”
The strong conservative current pulsating through state politics can also make it difficult to take the kind of sweeping action on climate change that the federal funding is intended to drive, she said. “Of course, we want to see emissions reduced, there’s no doubt about it,” she said. “But I think we also need to be reasonable about what can be done in this state. Sometimes going after these federal funds when they’re really controversial doesn’t help the conversation on addressing climate change. If anything, it kind of makes things worse.”
What Wyoming does appear prepared to do is fund emerging technologies that could preserve fossil fuels’ role in the state’s economy, which relies on tax revenue from the industry to fund schools, senior centers and other public services. The dalliance between Wyoming and companies promising to provide life support to its extractive industries in the face of a clean energy economy strikes a familiar refrain for some.
“For the most part, they all have quite a long way to go for commercial viability,” said Shannon Anderson, a staff attorney at the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a conservation organization working the coal-rich northeast corner of the state, of the six projects receiving the most recent round of Energy Matching Funds.
Along with Cowboy Clean Fuels’ coal methanogenesis, two other projects dealt with carbon capture or sequestration, two more proposed methods for turning fossil fuels or their byproducts into hydrogen and one company asked for money to develop artificial intelligence that could detect pipeline leaks.
“All of them have a risk of failure,” said Anderson. “The state has been down this road before.”
In 2007, Anderson moved back to her hometown of Sheridan and began working with the Powder River Basin Resource Council. While her new organization took no official position on it, Anderson remembers following the High Plains Gasification plant, a partnership between the University of Wyoming and General Electric to build coal to oil conversion technology. Extracting oil from coal before burning the rock made it easier to capture the resulting carbon emissions, the university and GE said.
The state looked favorably on the project proposed for construction in the Powder River basin, and eventually contributed $50 million towards its funding.
But in 2011, after years of planning, GE backed out of the project, citing uncertainty over how the Obama administration planned to regulate greenhouse gasses.
“It shows the volatility of these energy markets,” Anderson thought at the time.
Today, the economic picture for experimental energy projects looks much the same as it did 15 years ago, even if the details have shifted a little. It is still unclear, for instance, how carbon capture, hydrogen and other developing energy technologies will be deployed and regulated in the future.
“Some of this technology doesn’t compete in an unregulated market” where utilities are still not required to use carbon capture systems at fossil fuel power plants, Anderson said. Betting on such nascent industries to deliver on unproven technologies leaves Wyoming in danger of once again doling out tens of millions of dollars to projects that may not yield a return on the state’s investment, she said.
The Energy Matching Funds are “a lot of money for our small state,” she said, and feeding that money to unproven technology creates an opportunity cost for Wyoming that can pull investments away from clean energy. Anderson pointed out that wind and solar projects, while still costly, have become cheaper and have a much clearer role in a decarbonized energy industry.
Even as carbon capture and hydrogen projects snag the lion’s share of state funding, local organizations have worked hard in the last few years to make sure clean energy projects in Wyoming hit the ground running if and when they receive access to state and federal dollars.
“We need to be nimble and responsive to where the market tells us we need to be now,” Anderson said.
Jonathan Williams, an energy and climate associate at Wyoming Outdoor Council, a state-based conservation organization, works on encouraging school districts across the state to apply for funding through the Clean School Bus Program, an IIJA grant that funds the transition from gas-powered school buses to electric ones.
“Wyoming is the only state that has not successfully implemented any electric buses through this program,” Williams said. “Between funds from the EPA and some DEQ, we figured out ways to fully fund these buses at no up front cost to the school district or to the state.”
But despite the prospects of potentially free, zero-emissions buses, Williams says the state Department of Education has not been proactive in making sure schools know these funds are available to them, and hasn’t addressed how buses using new EV technologies would be insured or regulated.
“There are some barriers we need to address,” Williams said. “This is a new technology and we need to do this right.”
The Wyoming Outdoor Council has also done some of the groundwork to help Wyomingites utilize energy efficiency rebates baked into the IRA, a task that can be difficult in a conservative state with a reputation for spurning government programas. But John Burrows, the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s energy and climate policy director, said he’s noticed “there’s increasingly an incentive that isn’t political” for people to rethink how they power their homes. “It’s about saving dollars and cents,” he said.
Even with growing interest from other residents, Burrows has learned just how challenging it can be to move tens of millions of dollars through a state with a sparse population.
Local communities don’t have the resources to “reach out and grab the money” being offered by the law, Burrows said. Even if they did, he said there are only two certified energy auditors in the whole state who are equipped to help homeowners understand which areas of their property would benefit from upgrades.
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Help may soon be on the way: Millin said the Energy Authority “plans to apply for two energy efficiency workforce development programs—the State-Based Home Energy Efficiency Contractor Training Grants Program, and the Energy Auditor Training Grant Program.” The latter could help grow Wyoming’s small number of energy auditors while the former could train contractors to install heat pumps and induction stoves and make other energy efficiency upgrades to residents’ homes.
Mills added that the agency is “closely monitoring” the Home Efficiency Rebates and Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates ahead of their August application deadline.
It is no guarantee the state will apply for those funds. When Gordon withdrew Wyoming’s application for a $3 million federal grant to develop and implement plans to curb greenhouse gasses and other harmful emissions, he said pursuing the grant “does not make fiscal sense to Wyoming.” Gordon added that Wyoming’s “limited resources” would be better spent reviewing new EPA air quality rules that would affect the state’s industries—presumably its fossil fuel sector—and “removing federal roadblocks that stand in the way of common-sense, lower cost solutions that use innovations tailored to meet the needs of Wyoming’s citizens and industry, across the entire energy spectrum.”
Any influx of federal dollars is likely at least several months away. Until then, capitalizing on clean energy funds in Wyoming remains “a slow burn,” Burrows said.
Jake Bolster
Contributor
Jake Bolster is a freelance multimedia journalist who covers climate and the environment across the United States.
Wyoming
Hoping to draw Colorado interest, construction begins at $80M betting facility in Laramie County
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Foundation work is beginning this week on Wyoming’s next horse betting and gaming house.
The $80 million Wyoming Downs facility in Laramie County, one of two the company is investing in over the next couple of years, is poised to be one of the largest facilities of its kind in the state. The company is aiming for a spring 2027 opening.
The facility will host upwards of 600 historic horse racing machines, Wyoming’s largest TV wall, multiple dining options and more across 58,000 square feet. More land was bought for future hotel development. Commuters driving between Cheyenne and the Colorado border can see clearly from Interstate 25 the expansive development.
That placement along the travel corridor is purposeful, Wyoming Downs and 307 Horse Racing President Kyle Ridgeway said.
“I think that the targeted consumer for this is from Colorado or from the Front Range,” Ridgeway said. “I anticipate we’re going to have plenty of people from Cheyenne come down here to play and enjoy the amenities, but when you look at 600,000 people within a 30-minute drive, that’s what justifies this investment and brings all that tax revenue in from another state, which is fantastic.
“We don’t get the opportunity to do that in Wyoming very often.”
There is still plenty to offer Cheyenne residents besides the facility’s amenities. Ridgeway said in a speech to attendees at the project’s groundbreaking Tuesday, June 2, that more than 150 permanent jobs will be supported by the facility on top of the dozens supported by the companies’ corporate offices and the 400-plus involved in the project’s construction.
Groathouse Construction, a Wyoming business, is the project’s general contractor. Wyoming Downs said it believes putting the project in local hands also helps keep the project uniquely Wyoming-focused.
Ridgeway added the facilities have already proven themselves to be effective tax revenue generators for the local governments. The Wyoming Gaming Commission’s 2025 report, released in late May, shows bettors wagered $2.49 billion on historic horse racing machines last year, a jump from the $2.11 billion wagered in 2024.
Wyoming Downs facilities generate roughly $25 million in taxes annually across the state, and Ridgeway estimated after the ceremony that the upcoming $80 million facility alone will generate an additional $3 million for Laramie County once the property has been in operation for a few years.
Horse betting sites have been increasingly popping up across Wyoming this decade. The Wyoming Downs location will be Cheyenne’s second large-scale horse betting facility since 2024, when the 30,000-square-foot Horse Palace at Swan Ranch opened. Ridgeway said Wyoming Downs is still offering something fresh for tourists and residents.
“This’ll have amenities that Swan Ranch doesn’t have, including the largest TV wall in Wyoming and a pretty super-cool sports viewing area with a restaurant and just a level of finish and class that I don’t think Wyoming has quite seen yet with these types of properties,” he said.
Ridgeway said he thinks resident fatigue with these facilities isn’t as strong as it appears, especially given the tourism benefits of off-track betting.
“Wyoming’s been built on mineral extraction and tourism, and what this is is a touristic facility. I’m not aware of any particular pushback about this specific facility outside of — you see random social media comments where people say, ‘Oh, another gambling facility.’ But where this is located, I think people in Cheyenne have generally been supportive of,” he said.
The Laramie County facility will be just one part of a larger project Wyoming Downs is working on over the next few years. Construction will begin in early 2027 on a similar facility in Evanston looking to draw in Utah and western Colorado crowds.
Some of the company’s current facilities, notably in Casper, Cheyenne and Rock Springs, will see millions poured into renovations as well. New smaller-scale parlors will also go up in Gillette and Green River this year, according to an information packet provided by the company.
More details will come as the construction process develops, Ridgeway said. Details about amenities, such as what the complex’s dining options will look like, remain undisclosed, though Ridgeway promised that options will be “excellent.”
“We haven’t made final selections on what the options are, but we have a number of different options on the table that we’re considering for what we want to offer for the customers,” Ridgeway said. “You have to have something that’s high quality for where this is located. If somebody’s going to drive 25 or 35, or even 45 minutes to come here, they got to be able to sit down and have a quality meal.”
For more information as it becomes available and to learn more about Wyoming Downs facilities and 307 Horse Racing‘s events and offerings, see the companies’ websites. Renderings for the upcoming Cheyenne facility commissioned by the company are available for viewing below.
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GILLETTE, Wyo. — Two of the Republican candidates for Wyoming governor, Megan Degenfelder and Brent Bien, went head to head in Campbell County this evening. They both highlighted differences in some areas but agreed on energy, public lands, government oversight, abortion and election security.
Degenfelder, Wyoming’s superintendent of public instruction, introduced herself as “a Wyoming ranch kid whose parents clawed their way into the middle class” and said she believes Wyoming is “worth fighting for” because she believes the Wyoming people’s lives are at stake.
Bien, a retired Marine Corps colonel and combat veteran, pointed to his military career and leadership experience.
“My whole adult life has been about leadership, about principled conservative leadership,” he said. “My objective is to restore principled conservative leadership, accountability and discipline to Cheyenne.”
Nuclear energy
Both candidates supported Wyoming’s role in energy production but opposed bringing outside nuclear waste into the state.
“I do not want Wyoming to be … the permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel. I will not allow that to happen on my watch,” Bien said.
Degenfelder said Wyoming should consider nuclear power as part of its energy future but added, “If it works for us to be able to have nuclear as part of the portfolio, then it has to be right for Wyoming and that is ensuring that we do not accept anyone else’s waste, period.”
Public lands
The candidates also opposed privatization of public lands.
“No one loves public lands more than I do,” Degenfelder said. “You start selling that to the highest bidder, Wyoming loses who we are.”
Bien said he is “absolutely opposed” to federal lands being sold to private interests.
“If they do decide to dispose of it, then we as the state of Wyoming should get first-right refusal at no cost,” he said.
Attorney general and judicial appointments
When asked what each would be looking for in an attorney general and judicial appointment, both candidates called for conservative leadership.
Bien said he would seek an attorney general from outside state government.
“I want a clean set of eyes to look at what everything’s been that’s been going on,” he said. “I want someone who will put people first and it will put Wyoming first.”
Degenfelder said she wants stronger advocacy from state agencies.
“I want a bulldog in not just the attorney general’s office, but in all state agencies,” she said. “I want an attorney general that is so aligned to my mission and vision and what I believe that there’s an amicus brief on my desk the next morning after an action takes place.”
Immigration
Both candidates supported stronger immigration enforcement.
Bien explained he wanted to cooperate with ICE “to the fullest extent possible” and to make sure immigrants who are not in the United States legally would be sent out of the state.
Degenfelder said illegal immigration is already affecting communities in Wyoming.
“If you’re here legally, you got nothing to worry about. If you aren’t, it’s time to go home,” she said.
Energy development and green energy
Energy policy generated some of the sharpest comments of the night.
Degenfelder argued renewable energy projects should compete without government support.
“I’m also an economist and so I’ll tell you the way that you kill these green energy, you make them play on the same playing field,” she said. “No more tax subsidies, no more handouts, ensuring the regulatory environment is just as equal.”
Bien took a firmer stance against renewable development.
“Folks, there’s no place in Wyoming for this green energy,” he said. “I want these things bonded up front and where we’re not paying for these like we did all the gas wells. The answer for me is absolutely, unequivocally no.”
Economic development
Degenfelder argued government should focus on infrastructure such as water and sewer systems rather than directing economic development.
“Government does not create jobs. Private business does,” she said.
Bien echoed that sentiment.
“The only business that government has in business is simply to get out of the way. It’s to cut taxes. It’s to deregulate,” he said. “Right now, we’re turning into state capitalism where we have our own state government picking winners and losers.”
Government audits
Both candidates supported increased auditing of state government.
“This state has not done a full-blown budgetary audit since 1989,” Bien said. “Whoever’s belly-aching loudest is going to get audited first.”
Degenfelder agreed.
“We should be auditing every single state agency, every single budget line all the time,” she said. “Government is a beast, and you need someone in there who can tame it and who knows how to do it.”
Abortion
Abortion was another topic where both candidates expressed strong opposition.
“Life starts at conception and there are no exceptions,” Degenfelder said. “We are now one of the most openly abortion states in the country because of that ruling by the Supreme Court. We’re working against the devil here.”
Bien also opposed abortion.
“Folks, for me, there are no exceptions. Life does begin at conception,” he said.
Election integrity
Bien advocated for hand-counting ballots.
“I am very much a proponent of hand tabulation being the primary method of counting all cast paper ballots and I will push that way,” he said.
Degenfelder called for paper ballots statewide.
“Every single ballot should be a paper ballot,” she said, adding that she supports “banning dropboxes.”
Republican platform
Both candidates pledged support for the Wyoming Republican Party platform.
“80% is a no-brainer, and we need to require that out of our elected officials,” Degenfelder said.
Bien said he expects to be held to “100%” of the platform.
“The party’s been co-opted. You have to have an ‘R’ behind your name to win in this state,” he said.
Candidate priorities
During a segment where candidates selected their own discussion topics, Degenfelder highlighted school choice, career and technical education, removing pornography from school libraries and protecting Wyoming’s water rights.
Bien focused on education and agriculture, criticizing student proficiency rates and proposing policies aimed at strengthening Wyoming’s agricultural industry, including declaring agriculture critical infrastructure and reducing regulations on small butcheries.
Technology and education
Although technology and its place within education was not discussed during the debate, County 17 asked both Degenfelder and Bien their thoughts regarding student technology in schools.
Bien said technology is being used too much in classrooms and is making it harder for students to think on their own.
“What it’s doing is it’s dumbing down our kids,” Bien said. “Our kids aren’t learning how to critically think anymore. They go straight to one of the AI things and it generates an answer for them.”
Degenfelder said she backed a bill to ban cellphones during instruction time.
“I supported a bill that came through the legislature a couple of years ago that actually would ban cell use during instructional time, and I stand by that,” Degenfelder said. “I think that it’s appropriate to take cellphones out of classrooms, and what we find is that kids thrive.”
Closing statements
In closing remarks, Bien emphasized his experience as an outsider candidate.
“I am the only outsider in this race, but I am the only one who’s got an inordinate amount of leadership experience,” he said. “Folks, you deserve a government that you can trust.”
Degenfelder pointed to her endorsements from President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman.
“I get asked a lot, ‘How did you get the Trump endorsement?’” Degenfelder said. “The answer is really simple. I earned it.”
Alongside other candidates, Bien and Degenfelder will be competing for support in Wyoming’s Republican gubernatorial primary Aug. 18.
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