One thing about Wyoming’s conservative politics is everything bad is the fault of the Democrats. Look at statements made by U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., over the years and anyone can see this in action -- even when his party is in the majority in Congress.
It isn’t very surprising to see Mark Gordon picking up ideas out of that playbook when he joined Wyoming’s delegation in Washington, D.C., in slamming the Biden Administration in leaving Wyoming communities out of the “Build Back Better Regional Challenge,” a $1 billion program aiming to help regionally-scaled plans to move away from the coal industry through competitive grants. According to Wyofile.com, Wyoming’s four applications, coming from the University of Wyoming, Wyoming Energy Authority, Campbell County and Cheyenne were rejected, with Wyoming not having one application make it to the list of 60 finalists.
Gordon and the congressional delegation allege a political bias in the selections, but the state has repeatedly failed to get on board with anything related to shifting its economy away from coal. Additionally, we don’t think proposals put forth by Campbell County and Cheyenne represent anything on a regional level.
While the newest feather in Wyoming’s energy cap is Kemmerer’s much-anticipated TerraPower nuclear facility, it represents something that didn’t reflect the state’s economic pushes. If anything, Wyoming has fought against any means of diversifying away from coal and historically has rarely supported ideas that don’t involve technology like carbon capture, coal gasification and other branches from the coal industry.
Wyoming needs to get serious about moving beyond coal, or the state will find itself left behind.
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