Wyoming
Wyoming Turns Down $35 Million From Feds To Clean Up Orphan Wells
Wyoming doesn’t want the federal government’s $35 million offer to plug orphan oil and gas wells.
The Biden administration’s Interior Department this week offered the availability of $775 million to 21 states to clean up legacy pollution.
Orphan wells are abandoned wells for which no owner can be determined. That number is fractional on public lands. It’s a different story on private lands, where there are substantially more.
The government’s offer to help clean up orphan wells in Wyoming was the sixth largest dollar amount made available to the 21 energy-producing states.
Other cleanup offers larger than Wyoming’s include $52.8 million to California; up to $102.6 million for Oklahoma; $86.6 million to Ohio; up to $152.8 to Pennsylvania; and $119.5 million to Texas.
Oklahoma and Texas could receive less money based on ongoing negotiations for previous grant funds offered.
Tom Kropatsch, oil and gas supervisor for the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) in Casper, told Cowboy State Daily in an email that his agency isn’t interested in the offer.
“We do not intend to apply for this second phase of the formula grant,” said Kropatsch, who did not immediately offer an explanation why his organization is turning down the money.
The commission has tracked the orphan well program with electronic records since the early 1990s, when it saw a peak of 7,250 orphan wells on its list. Of those, the commission has plugged 6,250.
Manna From Heaven
The orphan well cleanup money was made available to states through the 3-year-old Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a catchall piece of federal legislation designed to help build everything from wind turbines and solar farms to cleaning up environmental messes and plugging leaky wells.
The orphan well program was designed in two phases.
Since August 2022, the federal government has awarded $565 million in initial grants to 25 states and another $444 million in a first phase of the cleanup program to 18 states.
Details of the second phase of the cleanup program were released this week, which begins the next phase to apply for an estimated $775 million in formula grant funds. The 21 states have until Dec. 13 to apply.
Kropatsch previously told Cowboy State Daily that the orphan well issue is well under control in Wyoming.
In April, Kropatsch said that the 538 orphan private and state wells that are not under contract for plugging will likely be put out for bid with plugging to begin in late 2024 and continue into 2025.
At that time, the state’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission had 1,010 private and state wells on its orphan list, with 472 of those wells under contract to be plugged, all of which will likely be plugged in 2024.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management believes that orphan wells are big issue.
Some critics like the Petroleum Association of Wyoming disagree.
The Wyoming trade group worries that a new BLM rule could force oil and gas developers to leave Wyoming — or worse, America.
BLM issued the new rule April 11 that could make it difficult for some oil and gas companies to bid on energy leases on public lands.
The energy industry’s biggest beef with the rule is that the BLM may force developers to pay higher bonding amounts to drill on public land. The higher bond amount is meant to deter some developers from walking away from the drilling site and leaving a mess behind without any financial incentive to clean up.
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
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Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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