Powder River Breaks Newsletter, January – February 2024

January – February 2024, Volume 52, Number 1 Last year, High Plains Power became the third rural electric cooperative, and the largest, to significantly reduce the compensation it provides to customers who generate their own solar electricity. Called net metering, Wyoming law provides that a utility has to credit or compensate a solar owner for […]

Powder River Breaks Newsletter May – June 2022

May – June 2022, Volume 50, Number 3 On June 13, energy experts from Crossborder Energy released a new report analyzing the benefits and costs of rooftop solar in Wyoming, from the perspective of utilities and their customers. Powder River hosted the experts to present their findings in a webinar, Rooftop Solar in Wyoming: Analyzing […]

Powder River Breaks Newsletter March – April 2022

March – April 2022, Volume 50, Number 2 Wyoming’s Zero Emission Vehicle Strategy is the state’s plan to use federal infrastructure funding to accomplish its zero emission infrastructure visions. The strategy recognizes the electric-vehicle-centric nature of much of the federal rollout, by including both short-term needs to take advantage of the current funding, and longer-term […]

Powder River’s Statement on Governor’s 2022 State of the State Address

Powder River’s statement on Governor Gordon’s 2022 State of the State Address: As the 2022 legislative session opened on Valentine’s Day, Governor Mark Gordon delivered an ode to Wyoming. It is wonderful to be led by a person who has had some of the most awe-inspiring and authentic experiences that our state has to offer. […]

Powder River Breaks Newsletter March – April 2021

March – April 2021, Volume 49, Number 2 Wyoming’s dependence on coal means that the entire economy is in transition as markets shift to cheaper and cleaner sources of energy. Finding grassroots solutions to this reality has been Powder River Basin Resource Council’s work for some time. Last spring, we launched our Reclaiming and Growing […]

Powder River Breaks Newsletter January – February 2021

January – February 2021, Volume 49, Number 1 In an effort to demonstrate widespread concern about air quality related to oil and gas development in Laramie County, Cheyenne Area Landowners Coalition (CALC), an affiliate of Powder River, teamed up with Earthworks’ Community Empowerment Project to film several leaking wells with state-of-the-art infrared cameras. The organizations […]

Powder River Breaks Newsletter November – December 2020

November – December 2020, Volume 48, Number 6 In November, over 125 Wyoming citizens filed comments with the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) urging a denial of Aethon Energy’s proposal to dispose of up to 30,000 barrels per day of polluted oil and gas wastewater into the Madison Aquifer Aethon must get approval […]

Powder River Breaks July – August 2020

July – August 2020, Volume 48, Number 4 In the summer of 2019, Governor Gordon, a couple of legislative leaders, and the state land office began discussions about the purchase of millions of acres of mineral rights and land owned by the financially troubled Occidental Petroleum (Oxy). The purchase entailed approximately 1 million acres of […]

Powder River Statement on Wyoming’s Failed Occidental Petroleum Land Bid

Powder River Basin Resource Council says Wyoming has been saved from a potentially serious financial blunder. Powder River Basin Resource Council expressed optimism that Wyoming’s bid for millions of acres of land and mineral rights has apparently failed. Occidental Petroleum (OXY) is negotiating with another bidder instead. “Luckily, Wyoming seems to have dodged a bullet, […]

2019 Ad Valorem Mineral Tax Delinquency Update

Powder River Basin Resource Council has been tracking ad valorem mineral production tax (ad valorem tax) debts in 13 Wyoming counties since 2017. This year, the Wyoming County Commissioners Association (WCCA) joined our efforts and collected data from all Wyoming counties. We applaud the Select Committee on Coal/Mineral Bankruptcies for putting forth well thought-out proposals […]