Energy

Thumbnail image for Niobrara Confidential

Niobrara Confidential

by Dustin Bleizeffer December 2, 2010

Investors and royalty owners itching to see initial production results from exploratory Niobrara oil wells may see a logjam of information released after the first of the year.

Wyoming Oil and …

Thumbnail image for Industry, Regulators Square Off Over Fracking Disclosure

Industry, Regulators Square Off Over Fracking Disclosure

by Environment & Energy Daily November 30, 2010

A major fight is set to erupt over how much information oil and gas drillers should be required to publicly disclose about the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, government and …

Thumbnail image for Group Says Coal-Bed Methane Plan Threatens Powder River Basin Elk Herd

Group Says Coal-Bed Methane Plan Threatens Powder River Basin Elk Herd

by Environment & Energy Daily November 23, 2010

Environmentalists blasted federal plans for allowing nearly 500 new coal-bed methane wells in northeast Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, arguing that the proposal imperils an elk herd and threatens the area’s …

Thumbnail image for Wyoming Pursues Carbon Sequestration Near Rock Springs

Wyoming Pursues Carbon Sequestration Near Rock Springs

by Dustin Bleizeffer November 16, 2010

Representatives from the University of Wyoming and its industry partners in the Wyoming Carbon Underground Storage Project are studying the viability of injecting billions of tons of carbon dioxide — …

Thumbnail image for Study: Carbon Sequestration Could Foul Drinking Water

Study: Carbon Sequestration Could Foul Drinking Water

by Environment & Energy Daily November 16, 2010

Carbon dioxide leaking from underground storage sites could contaminate drinking-water aquifers with dangerous levels of pollutants such as uranium under the wrong conditions, a new study finds.

If stored CO2 bubbled …

Thumbnail image for Potential Oil Boom in SE Wyo Raises Water Questions

Potential Oil Boom in SE Wyo Raises Water Questions

by Environment & Energy Daily October 19, 2010

In the arid rolling hills and grasslands of southeast Wyoming there is no surplus of groundwater to allocate, said Bern Hinckley, a hydrogeologist who runs a consulting firm in the …

Thumbnail image for Before Deepwater Horizon Disaster – Wyomingites Had Key Roles in MMS

Before Deepwater Horizon Disaster – Wyomingites Had Key Roles in MMS

by Rone Tempest June 2, 2010

The federal agency cited for an overly “cozy relationship” with the energy industry, which may have contributed to the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster, has enjoyed extensive Wyoming political and economic …

Thumbnail image for Caps & Coal The Wyoming-California Connection

Caps & Coal The Wyoming-California Connection

by WyoFile March 22, 2010

In the summer of 2008, Wyoming’s governor, Dave Freudenthal, went to California for meetings with state officials and utility executives. What he brought was, quite literally, a burning question.

California was …

Thumbnail image for Big Piney CO2 Storage Pilot Nears OK

Big Piney CO2 Storage Pilot Nears OK

by Environment & Energy Daily February 7, 2010

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 …

Thumbnail image for Taxing The Wind – Governor Pushes First Statewide Production Levy

Taxing The Wind – Governor Pushes First Statewide Production Levy

by Environment & Energy Daily February 1, 2010

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 …

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

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

by ProPublica January 7, 2010

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 …

Thumbnail image for Tilting at Windmills: Strange Politics of Wyoming Wind Power

Tilting at Windmills: Strange Politics of Wyoming Wind Power

by WyoFile December 22, 2009

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 …

Thumbnail image for Underused Drilling Practices Could Avoid Pollution

Underused Drilling Practices Could Avoid Pollution

by ProPublica December 14, 2009

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 …

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

by WyoFile October 26, 2009

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 …

Gov Seeks Fed Royalty Program Accounting

by Rone Tempest September 16, 2009

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 …

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

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

by WyoFile September 16, 2009

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 …

Gov Mulls RIK Audit

by Rone Tempest September 2, 2009

Gov. Dave Freudenthal -Photo Courtesy Governor's Office

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 …

Thumbnail image for Feds Gone Wild Part II: A True Story

Feds Gone Wild Part II: A True Story

by WyoFile September 1, 2009

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 …

Thumbnail image for Feds Gone Wild

Feds Gone Wild

by Laton McCartney September 1, 2009

On a cold, blustery January 28, 2009, the newly appointed Secretary of the Interior of the United States, Ken Salazar, arrived at the headquarters of Minerals Management Service at the …

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

by ProPublica August 26, 2009

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

RIK’s Wyoming Connections

by WyoFile August 9, 2009

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 …

GUEST COLUMN: How much is enough? Good Question!

by Equality State Policy Center July 26, 2009

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 …

Thumbnail image for Wyoming News Reader

Wyoming News Reader

by WyoFile July 15, 2009

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

GUEST COLUMN: Bring Severance Tax Rates Into State Budget Discussions

by Equality State Policy Center June 22, 2009

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 …

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

by WyoFile June 15, 2009

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

U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis on Royalty in Kind

by WyoFile June 15, 2009

Rep Cynthia Lummis

Wyoming’s U.S. Rep Cynthia Lummis responded to WyoFile questions on Royalty in Kind via e-mail through her press secretary Ryan Taylor.
Here are the WyoFile questions and Lummis’ responses:
WyoFile: …

Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal on Royalty in Kind

by Rone Tempest June 15, 2009

(Telephone Interview with WyoFile editor Rone Tempest, June 3,2009)
WyoFile: On October 6, 2005, the then Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners (Gov. Freudenthal; Treasurer Cynthia Lummis; Sec. of State Joseph …

Editorial: WyoFile Calls for Reform of Severance Tax

by WyoFile February 23, 2009

Get Involved! Ask Your Lawmaker for Change Here!
Wyoming has not raised its basic severance tax for oil, gas, and coal for 28 years.
WyoFile would like to see that change.
Right now, …

A Quick History Of American Severance Taxes

by WyoFile February 8, 2009

Severance tax collections evolve in stages that depend upon price, the amount of mineral left in the ground, and the shape of a state’s finances.
In America, severance taxes began in …

Misguided Midnight Madness: Interior’s Oil Shale Revival

by jason November 24, 2008

Casper — Watching Wyoming voters line up out the polling-place doors earlier this month, in lusty support of the “drill baby drill” philosophy of natural resource management, one recalls the …

The Wyoming Petrocracy: State’s Biggest Strength Also Vulnerability

by Samuel Western October 27, 2008

Sheridan — The ancient Greeks had a word, ?????? or kairos, which means an era of unique opportunity. It’s an unspecified period of time ripe for taking advantage of changing …

For Wyoming’s New Coal Power Plants, ‘Best Available Control Technology’ Seldom Best

by jason October 13, 2008

Casper — So, you want to build a coal-fired power plant in Wyoming. How clean do you want to make it? Because it turns out, it’s largely up to you …

How Wyoming Could Cut My Heating Bill

by Samuel Western May 19, 2008

Sheridan – It’s the beginning of May and my furnace is running like hell. The problem isn’t my furnace, which is only a few years old, it’s my house.
It was …

Showdown at Glenrock: Brad Enzi rides to rescue Two Elk Power Plant

by Rone Tempest February 12, 2008

After years of construction inactivity and several false starts, some wags in Wyoming’s coal rich Powder River Basin began to refer to the proposed billion dollar Two Elk power plant …

Does Wyoming Get Enough for Its Mineral Riches? Severance Tax Reform in the Cowboy State

by Samuel Western February 8, 2008

In December 2007, Governor Sarah Palin gave Alaskans a nice present.

Courtesy Image

She signed legislation boosting Alaska’s severance tax. The state would now take 25 percent of taxable income derived from …