Wyoming
Wyoming takes a stand against out-of-control political spending
Clements is the president of American Promise, a nonprofit advocate for amending the Constitution to allow more federal and state regulation of money in politics.
On Feb. 13, in the deep red state of Wyoming, a majority of state House members voted for Joint House Resolution 0002, calling on Congress to propose a constitutional amendment to ensure transparency in election spending and allow states to regulate corporate, union and other political contributions.
Wyoming legislators demonstrated again the deep, cross-partisan support for amending the U.S. Constitution to empower Americans to stop the systemic corruption that comes from out-of-control political spending. While the resolution didn’t receive the needed two-thirds vote, the strong majority support (35-26) shows that Wyoming lawmakers, as with most Americans, know the urgency of ending the domination of dark money and outside influence in elections.
Americans oppose out-of-control political spending because it undermines their own rights of free speech and a level playing field in voting and representation. Past Supreme Court decisions – Buckley v. Valeo, reinforced by Citizens United v. FEC – removed power from voters and state and federal lawmakers to set limits on political spending. The theory – unprecedented for 200 years of American history – is that those with massive financial resources have a “free speech” right to deploy those resources, with no limits, to influence election outcomes. Spending in elections by groups, billionaires and even foreign governments has been rising at an alarming rate. Nearly $16 billion may be spent in the 2024 cycle alone, up more than 30 percent from the last presidential election.
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The American government is supposed to be of, by and for the people, but our current pay-to-play politics has deteriorated into a government bought, paid and sold to the highest bidder. Social media and advertising disinformation campaigns are funded from the shadows, influencing elections with no accountability. Worse, foreign actors exploit the dark money system to manipulate elections and serve their own interests.
Americans have had it with this dangerous Supreme Court-imposed theory about money and free speech. In Wyoming, recent polling shows that 87 percent of voters agree that the coercive influence of money in politics threatens democracy. The constitutional amendment to enable states and Congress to set reasonable limits to regulate campaign spending is favored by 75 percent of Wyoming voters. These extraordinary super-majorities mirror what American Promise is seeing in polling and ballot initiatives around the country.
Now, Wyoming and others are vying to join the 22 states that have taken formal action to advance the For Our Freedom Amendment, the only enduring way to regulate political spending by giving the states and Congress power to set reasonable limits. In November 2023, 86 percent of Maine’s voters approved a law banning spending in elections by foreign government-controlled entities. Maine’s voters, concerned that unhinged claims of “free speech” rights to unlimited election spending might even extend to foreign actors, showed foresight in including a resolution calling for the constitutional amendment: After the foreign money ban was passed, foreign-owned corporations sued in federal court, claiming a free speech right to dominate Maine’s elections with their money. The For Our Freedom Amendment would put an end to such foolishness.
In Pennsylvania, legislators introduced a bipartisan resolution calling for the constitutional amendment solution. Wisconsinites and Arizonans are organizing to move their state into the victory column, and Minnesotans have an amendment resolution moving through the legislative process. Momentum is building because Americans are tired of having the fate of the country and our communities determined by an elite donor class. But that elite is outnumbered. The fact is, 86 percent of Republicans and Democrats agree that money in politics is a threat. It’s time to act, and that’s exactly what these states are doing.
The vote in Wyoming is part of the tipping point that brings constitutional solutions faster than many realize when the need is clear. This constitutional amendment process is the time-honored way that Americans drive reform in the darkest hours. At the beginning of the 20th century, when division, political violence, gender-restricted voting and white supremacy dominated much of the country, The Washington Post’s editors solemnly sniffed at those proposing constitutional amendments. Over the next several years, Americans ratified four amendments, the first of twelve that Americans would secure in the 20th century.
Now the promise of American democracy is on the line again. As Wyoming just showed, Americans know what to do.
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These are fantastic programs across the state that show how much communities care about others. I found another program that I think would really fly here, and it’s already going strong in some places around the country, like Montana.
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Flybrary – Take a fly, leave a fly.
I saw this article on FlyLordsMag.com and thought it was fantastic.
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In the article, Brandi explained why she decided to do it.
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Wyoming
Warrant issued for man suspected of false bomb tip at Banner-Wyoming Medical Center on May 19
CASPER, Wyo. — Casper police believe they know the man who made an unfounded claim about possibly seeing a bomb at Banner-Wyoming Medical Center on the morning of May 19.
In that incident, 20 law enforcement officers responded and the Natrona County Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team did a floor-by-floor search, restricting non-emergency access to the hospital and roadways on the perimeter, according to Detective Andrew Hamilton’s report.
After the case was assigned, Hamilton listened to the recording of the 911 call, which came in at 4:11 a.m. that day. The caller stated, “Listen, I was there, and I think that someone has a bomb there. So I’m just calling in to tell you.”
Hamilton noted that the caller seemed out of breath.
Dispatch asked the caller where he was in the hospital. The caller said, “Just in the main part, anyways.”
The caller hung up after the next question.
Hospital security told Hamilton there hadn’t been any activity in the ER for the three hours prior to the report, and every other entrance would have been locked at that time.
The Casper-Natrona County Public Safety Communications Center logs showed the phone number had no subscriber service, but was still able to call out to 911. The GPS information said the call came from Evansville. Hamilton checked the area, but nothing was located.
The same number had reportedly called 911 eight days earlier, on May 11. That caller said it was accidental. He reportedly identified himself with the first name “Dylan” and confirmed his location to be in Bar Nunn.
A Natrona County Sheriff’s Office deputy went to the residence and contacted several people. One of them, 24-year-old New Mexico resident Caleb Jeremiah Bacallao, reportedly admitted that he’d accidentally called “and didn’t respond to officers because he did not like law enforcement,” the report said.
Hamilton listened to that call recording and noted a strong resemblance in the caller’s voice, as well as the use of “anyways” as a filler word.
Bacallao had no fixed address listed, and the people at the house in Bar Nunn said they’d told him not to come back after the May 11 incident. He was not located elsewhere.
Hamilton’s May 21 warrant request charges Bacallao with falsely reporting an emergency, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Bacallao has pleaded guilty in district court to a felony drug possession charge and two counts of theft over $1,000. In the second theft case, prosecutor Amanda Kirby told the judge Bacallao used a baby stroller to smuggle merchandise out of Walmart.
Bacallao has an agreement for probation in each felony case, with four to seven years suspended on one of them.
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Bacallao is presumed innocent of the false bomb tip unless found or pleading guilty.
The arrest warrant was issued on June 11.
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Wyoming
‘It’s going to kill us.’ Electric utility’s latest rate hike request especially steep for Wyoming ag irrigators
by Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile
The need to flip on electric pumps to irrigate alfalfa fields came early this season for Cokeville-area farmers and ranchers Tim Teichert and Jason Thornock, thanks to extraordinarily dry conditions.
Pumping water from streams and underground aquifers takes a lot of electricity, and ag folks like Teichert and Thornock wince when they have to flick their switches to the on position: Thus begins the ticking of the utility meter. What’s usually a $150,000 irrigation-season electric bill for Thornock and $90,000 for Teichert will be higher — possibly tens of thousands of dollars, they say.
But the drought-induced extra expense might pale in comparison to what their electric provider has in store for them — come drought or not.
Rocky Mountain Power, Wyoming’s largest regulated electric utility, filed a request to the Wyoming Public Service Commission in May for a $71 million rate hike, which averages to an 8.8% increase among its 150,000 customers in the state, according to the company.
For irrigators like Teichert and Jason Thornock, it’s a 37.7% increase — if state regulators give Rocky Mountain Power what it’s asking for.
“It’s going to kill us,” Thornock told WyoFile. “They’re going to make it very difficult to be a farmer in Rocky Mountain Power’s service area.”
Class system
Utilities commonly charge different rates to different customer classifications. Typically, customers with especially large electrical pulls on the system — think oil refineries and trona-and-soda ash operations, for example — pay higher rates because they demand more from the utility’s systemwide infrastructure and ongoing investments. Same goes for “Irrigation, Schedule 40,” where Teichert and Thornock — as well as about 1,000 other Wyoming irrigators — find themselves on the utility’s ledger.
Wyoming farmers and ranchers, who have the opportunity and means, have been shifting from flood irrigation — which requires no or minimal electricity — to pump-and-pivot irrigation in recent years to make more efficient use of limited water resources, Wyoming Stock Growers Association Executive Vice President Jim Magagna said.
“I don’t see how anybody can afford to do it when they suddenly face increases like this,” Magagna told WyoFile. “Particularly at a time of drought and when they’re already facing high costs, at a time when fertilizer costs have increased dramatically due to the Iranian situation.”
Rocky Mountain Power has been under scrutiny for a series of rate hikes in recent years. Excluding annual fuel cost adjustments, Wyoming regulators have allowed the company to increase its base rates nearly 16% since 2024. A 5.5% hike hit monthly bills in 2024, and rates increased another 10.2% in 2025.
Cost of service
So what’s driving this year’s proposed $71 million rate hike?
First, the company — a division of Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp — wants to ensure a 7.56% rate of return, it said.
In public documents, Rocky Mountain Power also cites some $4.5 billion in new capital projects across six states, higher operations and maintenance costs, inflationary pressures and a projected $10 million to create a “Wyoming wildfire liability self-insurance reserve fund.”
For the average residential customer, the proposed hike pencils out to a monthly base rate increase from $23 to $25, according to the company. Base rate is a service charge, meaning customers will see an increase regardless of how much power they use.
Customer classification rate increases for various “large” electrical-demand users, excluding irrigated agriculture, range from 7.4% to 10.9%, according to public documents.
“The recommended cost of service study incorporated in this case fairly allocates costs among the service schedules in a manner that reflects the demands and energy usage of the customer classes,” Rocky Mountain Power states in documents provided to the state. Irrigation customers account for about 0.4% of total energy usage on Rocky Mountain Power’s system in Wyoming.
When pressed for details about what’s driving the proposed 37.7% rate increase for ag irrigation, Rocky Mountain Power pointed to a 638-page document filed with the Public Service Commission.
“It’s going to kill us. They’re going to make it very difficult to be a farmer in Rocky Mountain Power’s service area.”
Jason Thornock, ag irrigator
“The company proposes a rate design that makes movement towards [cost of service] while balancing impacts to individual customers,” according to one passage regarding the Section 40 classification.
“Rates for the various customer classes should cover the cost of providing service,” Rocky Mountain Power spokesperson David Eskelsen told WyoFile via email. “Different kinds of customers present different costs, such as the magnitude and characteristics of their demand on the electric system, voltage requirements and line extension costs.
“As the company has measured usage during peak periods by irrigation customers, their use of the system increased 30% compared to the 2024 general rate review, which contributes to the need for the above-average increase in rates,” Eskelsen added. “Combined with the smaller increases for this class in the past two general rate reviews, the increase proposed is necessary to move them closer to actual cost of service.”
Beyond a customer’s demand on a utility’s system, other factors define distinct customer classifications. Among them are voltage requirements. While the average home requires 120 and 240 volts, large irrigation pumps can require 480 volts.
If costs to reliably serve high-voltage power to irrigation customers are rising, it hasn’t been fully explained to them, Thornock and Teichert say. Plus, the service they’re paying for hasn’t been reliable.
“Rocky Mountain Power sends us dirty power,” Teichert said, describing power currents that send fluctuating, rather than stable, currents of voltage. He added that their irrigation pumps and motors require a consistent 480 volts. But, “it fluctuates all day long.”
The variation of voltage is problematic, Thornock said, because it can cause pumps to malfunction. “I had to replace a pump-motor yesterday — probably a $10,000 motor — because of dirty power.”
Equally perplexing, Thornock and Teichert said, is this the first time in recent history that Rocky Mountain Power has singled out agricultural irrigation for a major rate hike. In 2023, the state allowed a 1.5% increase, and in 2024 it ordered a 2.9% reduction.
No relief
Two years ago, Teichert and Thornock rang alarm bells about the threat of rising electrical costs to the agriculture industry. They concluded that a personal investment in solar arrays might help — if only the Legislature would raise the cap on net metering from 25 kilowatts of self-generation to 200 kilowatts.
Net metering is a credit system. If a utility customer generates their own electricity, and occasionally more than they need, the extra power goes back onto the grid for use by other customers. The customer feeding electricity back to the utility earns credits at the retail rate for the power on a month-to-month basis. If there are remaining credits at the end of the year, the utility pays out those credits at a lesser, wholesale rate.
But Wyoming law caps the net-metering credit system at 25 kilowatts.
“We can’t provide enough power on demand for those three months when we’re using it,” Thornock said, “but we can bank enough power for the nine months that we’re not using it to offset our power demand.
“We’re not asking for a handout,” Thornock added, “but apparently we can produce power for less than Rocky Mountain Power can. Unfortunately, we have to use their grid to bank the power.”
Although the irrigators earned allies in their net-metering cap increase quest, House Bill 183, “Net metering amendments” in 2025 got so watered down in the legislative process that it died for lack of support, according to proponents.
Without any avenues for relief, Rocky Mountain Power’s proposed increase on ag irrigation is a threat to Wyoming’s agricultural industry, said Magagna of the Stock Growers Association.
“I just don’t think it’s defensible in any way,” he said. “Even if they, perhaps, undercharged in the past, you gradually make up for that. You don’t try to do it in one fell swoop. I think it’s just an embarrassment regarding their understanding of and respect for the ag industry.”
Green River Republican Rep. Scott Heiner, who co-chairs the Legislature’s Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, said he pressed Rocky Mountain Power representatives during a recent hearing about the steep rate hike proposal for irrigators. They were not “aware of this part of the proposal,” Heiner told WyoFile, adding, “I will do all I can to be a voice for agriculture as we oppose this rate increase.
“It appears that [Rocky Mountain Power] may be trying to ‘cost shift’ with this rate increase to put more of the burden on those that don’t have the voice to be heard,” Heiner continued. “With the Wyoming drought and shortage of water, this may drive our ranchers and farmers out of business.”
The Wyoming Public Service Commission is accepting public comment through June 18 for the initial review phase of the rate case. Written comments should mention Docket No. 20000-710-ER-26, and can be emailed to at wpsc_comments@wyo.gov.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
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