From the category archives:

Policy

February 7, 2010

Big Piney CO2 Storage Pilot Nears OK

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Federal regulators are nearing approval of a natural gas development project in southwest Wyoming that would serve as a testing ground for new mineral extraction technology while becoming one of the largest carbon sequestration pilot projects in the world.

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February 1, 2010

Taxing The Wind – Governor Pushes First Statewide Production Levy

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Reprinted from ClimateWire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net. 202/628-6500
By Debra Kahn, ClimateWire
Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) is determined to levy a production tax on wind power to level the playing field against mineral resources.
Speaking recently at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Freudenthal explained why he felt that wind power should [...]

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January 27, 2010

What do we do with all these unbuilt subdivision lots?

January 2010 – The recession and collapse of Western housing markets provides a unique opportunity for rethinking and reshaping how future development in the West plays out.

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January 22, 2010

Will He, Won’t He? Question Looms Over 2010 Gov Race

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The 2010 Wyoming governor’s race is difficult to handicap. The main uncertainty is whether two-term Gov. Dave Freudenthal will challenge the state law for term limits which prevents him from running for a third term.

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January 7, 2010

State Oil and Gas Regulators Are Spread Too Thin to Do Their Jobs

by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica – December 30, 2009 12:38 pm EST

Larry Parrish knew something was wrong as soon as he wheeled his state-owned pickup off the West Virginia highway and onto the rocky field where the natural gas well was supposed to be. Oak trees 18 inches in diameter looked dead as boards, and [...]

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December 22, 2009

Tilting at Windmills: Strange Politics of Wyoming Wind Power

by Jonathan Thompson/High Country News
I first see the turbines as I speed along I-25 near Glenrock, Wyo., clutching the steering wheel as I try to avoid being swatted into oblivion by a wind-whipped tanker truck. The windmills look tiny from here, sprouting from the flat beige plain like sunflowers in a neglected field. Wanting a [...]

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December 14, 2009

Tom Stroock Dies: Wyoming Leader and Iconoclast

He was an easterner who took Wyoming as his home, or as he might have said in his fluent Spanish, his querencia, the place in the ring where the bull makes its final stand. He was an oilman who championed the environment; a Republican state senator who crusaded for Wyoming to get more for her mineral resources; a diplomat who confronted dictators and his own government; a World War II marine who opposed the 2002 invasion of Iraq. He helped launch Dick Cheney’s career, but bitterly opposed vice president Cheney’s support of torture of suspected terrorists.

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December 14, 2009

Underused Drilling Practices Could Avoid Pollution

As environmental concerns threaten to derail natural gas drilling projects across the country, the energy industry has developed innovative ways to make it easier to exploit the nation’s reserves without polluting air and drinking water.

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October 26, 2009

The Sage Grouse Report – Wyoming Ground Zero of Three Year Study

We project that future oil and gas development will cause a 7–19 percent decline from 2007 sage-grouse lek population counts and impact 3.7 million ha of sagebrush shrublands and 1.1 million ha of grasslands in the study area.

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September 16, 2009

Feds Gone Wild

Feds Gone Wild, Part I

Part I
Part II
Part III

From James Watt to Cynthia Lummis: The Inside Story of the Department of Interior Oil and Gas Royalty Scandal and Its Wyoming Roots.
Part One: The Wyoming Stage
By Laton McCartney and Rone Tempest
On a cold, blustery January 28, 2009, the newly appointed Secretary of the Interior of the United [...]

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September 16, 2009

Gov Seeks Fed Royalty Program Accounting

Gov. Dave Freudenthal has asked the federal Minerals Management Service to let the state conduct an audit of three years of natural gas royalties collected under the controversial federal Royalty-in-Kind program.

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September 16, 2009

Feds Gone Wild, Part III: RIP, RIK? New Bill Would Kill Industry’s Darling

For more than a decade, West Virginia Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall watched powerlessly as the Bush administration and a Republican Congressional majority made Royalty in Kind the main method of collecting oil and gas royalties on federal lands.

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September 2, 2009

Gov Mulls RIK Audit

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal  is considering an audit of the state’s share of a controversial  federal gas Royalty in Kind program that paid the state $290-million in  fiscal year 2007-08, WyoFile has learned.
According to State Lands and Investments director Lynne Boomgaarden, the governor asked her and Wyoming Department of Audit director Mike Geesey to brief [...]

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September 1, 2009

Feds Gone Wild Part II: A True Story

When President Bill Clinton signed the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Simplification and Fairness Act of 1996 into law in Jackson Hole, his Washington, D.C.-based Minerals Management Service director, Cynthia Quarterman, came out to attend the August ceremony.

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August 26, 2009

EPA: Chemicals Found in Wyo. Drinking Water Might Be From Fracking

Federal environment officials investigating drinking water contamination near Pavillion, Wyo., have found…

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August 9, 2009

RIK’s Wyoming Connections

Since Royalty in Kind became a priority for the oil and gas industry in the late 1990s, a handful of  Wyomingites have played key roles  in making in-kind royalties part of the nation’s policy for minerals taken from federal lands and seas.
Diemer True
Casper oilman and former legislator Diemer True, scion of the legendary True [...]

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July 26, 2009

GUEST COLUMN: How much is enough? Good Question!

Energy companies now extract over 450 million tons of coal, over 2,254 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and over 53 million of barrels of oil from Wyoming annually. These companies pay severance taxes for the privilege. Why?

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July 15, 2009

Wyoming News Reader

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NEW: For the best, hand-picked, eclectic selection of current news about Wyoming from newspapers, magazines and websites…

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June 22, 2009

GUEST COLUMN: Bring Severance Tax Rates Into State Budget Discussions

Bring Severance Tax Rates Into State Budget Discussions
Hikes should be part of an overall review of revenues and tax investments
By Dan Neal and Sarah Gorin
No more Centennial Singers?
No more Geology Museum, in a state famed for its geology and, more to the point, its energy resources?
As the boom slides toward the bust, it’s appropriate and [...]

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June 15, 2009

Royalty in Kind vs. Royalty in Value? – The $290,024,880 Question

State Received $290,024,880 in 2008 from Troubled Royalty in Kind Program. Gov Dave Wants Review.

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