Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
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Wyoming has narrowed its definitions for who can bid on state oil and gas lease parcels, disqualifying parties that intend to conserve the land rather than produce the mineral resources. The change, made under emergency rulemaking in June, was mandated by House Bill 141 – State land oil and gas leases-operator requirement, which the Legislature passed during the budget session. Rep. Cyrus Western (R-Big Horn) brought the bill on behalf of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming. The association r...
Wyoming joined more than 20 states this week in filing two lawsuits in federal court to stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules to reduce greenhouse gas and other harmful pollutants emitted from coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. The lawsuits allege the EPA has overstepped its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from electrical power plants when it issued four sweeping rules in April, including one that mandates a 90% reduction of carbon dioxide at the smokestack by 2032. Although the EPA’s emission red...
A measure that would provide a $10 million "stimulus" to encourage more carbon capture for use in the oil industry will advance to the upcoming legislative session following a special hearing this week by the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee. The stimulus, according to committee members, aims to enhance a federal tax credit program that they say favors direct storage of the greenhouse gas over pumping it into oilfields to produce hard-to-get reserves. "The intent of...
Gov. Mark Gordon announced this week the state will decline an invitation to apply for millions in federal Inflation Reduction Act funds aimed at shuttering low-producing oil and gas wells. The Mitigating Emissions from Marginal Conventional Wells program would pay the costs of voluntarily closing and remediating wells that produce less than the equivalent of 15 barrels of oil per day - aka "stripper" wells. Wyoming is eligible for up to $5 million of the $350 million program, according to feder...
Backed by the promise of billions in federal dollars, energy companies are lining up to accept an invitation by Wyoming officials to collect industrial sources of carbon dioxide and pump it deep underground. Essentially, the vision is to build a new low-carbon energy industry that scrubs the planet-warming gas from fossil fuels, keeping those fuels in the energy mix and simultaneously helping to address the climate crisis in a way that pays dividends to developers and the state. Wyoming, accordi...
Despite several years and a spate of new laws designed to delay the retirement of coal-fired power generating units, the state may have to press harder to broker a deal that results in a coal carbon capture project, according to some lawmakers. “We’ll see what it’s going to take to make a business deal that will work for everybody — and everybody includes the ratepayers,” Joint Corporations, Elections and Subdivisions Committee member Sen. Charles Scott (R-Casper) said Wednesday morning. Determined to preserve coal-fired power generatio...
Snowpack measured 79% of the state’s average median at the beginning of March, while much of the state recorded warmer-than-usual winter temperatures despite a few record one-day lows. Forecasts for continued warmer temps point toward a possible early runoff season, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data and local meteorologists. “It’s been a winter of extremes,” Riverton National Weather Service meteorologist Brett McDonald said. “It seems like we get the cold air in and we set some cold temperature records. But then...