Wyoming’s U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, responding to a question during a recent town hall event in Pinedale, said she is “strongly in support of repealing the endangerment finding.” The landmark 2009 doctrine classified greenhouse gases as pollutants and legally obliged federal agencies to regulate their emissions under the Clean Air Act.
The Republican congresswoman added, “The endangerment finding is absolutely based upon false science.”
A chorus of boos rose from the crowd assembled on July 29, along with guffaws and several people shouting, “No!”
Hageman continued over the outburst: “CO2 [carbon dioxide] is not a pollutant. As far as the validity and the science that was the foundation for that, they cooked the books.”
Many of her Sublette County constituents weren’t having it. The booing continued, along with one person shouting, “Lie, lie,” as Hageman pressed on.
The reaction reflected the community’s struggle with air quality over the past 20 years.
Tucked in the northern edge of the Upper Green River Basin, Pinedale and, in particular, the valley south of town began experiencing alarming ozone levels in the late 2000s. At least one measurement exceeded perpetually smoggy Los Angeles. Residents, especially those with preexisting respiratory conditions, were advised to avoid outdoor exercise on high-ozone days. On one such day, a mother was advised by a doctor to drive her newborn 78 miles to Jackson because the baby was hypoxic (suffering from a low blood-oxygen level).
The sudden air quality crisis in what many had long considered a pristine environment coincided with a national headline-grabbing boom in natural gas extraction.
The Pinedale Anticline and Jonah fields were among the first testing grounds for the industry’s wildly advancing use of hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling. Along with the intense industrial activity came emissions of raw methane (an especially potent greenhouse gas) volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides. VOCs and NOx, under the right atmospheric conditions, turn into ozone — a serious respiratory threat and a greenhouse gas.
The endangerment finding brought added pressure on federal agencies to take the kind of action that helped communities like Pinedale fight back.
At the July town hall, Pinedale resident Mary Lynn Worl asked Hageman, “What is your position on this proposal [to rescind the endangerment finding], and what will you do to ensure that the citizens breathe healthy air, especially our children with developing lungs?”
The congresswoman responded with her statement about the endangerment finding being based on “false science.”
Worl was among the founding members of Citizens United for Responsible Energy Development. The group — amid community division and resistance from state and industry officials — helped force state and federal action to address the health crisis.
“At first, I was shocked that people booed, you know,” Worl told WyoFile in a follow up interview. “But then, when I really thought about it, I thought, ‘No. There’s a lot of people in this audience who remember and who have worked hard.'”
Hageman’s office did not respond to WyoFile’s request for comment.
Wyoming stakes, and nuance
Last month, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin chose a car dealership in Indiana as the forum for announcing that his agency will try to rescind the endangerment finding, noting that Obama- and Biden-era policies stemming from the doctrine have had a profound impact on the auto industry.
“With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end sixteen years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers,” Zeldin said in a prepared statement, adding that federal automobile emission standards “stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year.”
Although Zeldin has insisted “the Trump EPA’s proposal to repeal the 2009 Endangerment Finding is about mobile sources (vehicles), not power plants,” many, including Gov. Mark Gordon, see the move as another strategy to continue broad emission regulation rollbacks — a trend his office supports.
“We were never against drilling and development. We wanted it done right. We wanted it to be done as safely as possible.”
Mary Lynn Worl, Pinedale
“The potential rescinding of the endangerment finding would represent the federal government not just moving the goalposts, but eliminating them entirely,” Gordon’s Communications Director Michael Pearlman told WyoFile via email. “This Obama-era doctrine has underpinned virtually all the regulations of greenhouse gases that have been implemented, particularly CO2.”
For example, the endangerment finding helped justify Obama’s 2015 Clean Power Plan, which targeted carbon dioxide emissions at existing power plants and instituted rules to reduce methane emissions in the oil and natural gas industry. Though that effort was mostly struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, Biden revised the initiative, which was commonly referred to as Clean Power Plan 2.0. This time, it imposed a schedule on coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to vastly reduce emissions, retrofit with carbon capture technology or close altogether.
Those, and dozens of other federal regulations to reduce industrial emissions, have been seen by many as an existential threat to Wyoming’s fossil fuel industries.
Since taking office in 2019, Gordon’s administration has initiated or taken part in dozens of lawsuits either challenging federal policies or defending them. Many of the lawsuits challenge emissions rules for coal, oil and natural gas — particularly policies originating under Obama and Biden.
Yet at the heart of the endangerment finding doctrine is climate change and what the U.S. can do to stem the global crisis — also a massive financial risk for the average American, according to top economists and scientists. Though they’re split on the cause, a vast and growing number of Wyomingites — now 86% — acknowledge that climate change is happening and they want something done about it, according to the Wyoming Survey on Climate, Water, and People.
Despite Wyoming’s long history of natural resource extraction and continued reliance on fossil fuels, along with a U.S. market for those commodities, a full-throttled effort to weaken federal emission rules isn’t likely to be fully embraced in the state, according to Worl.
“We were never against drilling and development,” Worl said. “We wanted it done right. We wanted it to be done as safely as possible.
“It’s very disheartening,” she added, describing what she sees as an onslaught of anti-science policies regarding human health and the environment. “It’s just downright depressing.”
Why go back?
“Wyoming didn’t get cleaner by accident,” John Rutecki told WyoFile, referring to efforts to reduce ozone-causing pollutants in the Upper Green River Basin. “It took years of effort, by the Pinedale community and so many others.”
Rutecki serves as the Environmental Defense Fund’s regulatory and legislative manager for Appalachia and Wyoming. The nonprofit shop of scientists, economists and attorneys dedicated staff and resources to Wyoming way back in the 2000s when Worl and other residents were scrambling for help. EDF, along with Citizens United for Responsible Energy Development, played a major role in convincing a Wyoming community wary of being called “anti-development” and “unAmerican,” to take meaningful action.
First came detailed studies, then the hammer of a “non-attainment” status issued by the EPA, forcing the hand of Wyoming air quality regulators. It all culminated in what is generally considered a success story, though air quality still hangs in the balance. While acrimony remains, industry itself got on board years ago and continues to implement voluntary practices that, in some instances, exceed regulatory minimum standards. In fact, top natural gas producers in the region now market their fossil fuel commodity as “low carbon” natural gas, and they’re finding a niche in the market.
“I think Wyoming, on its own, has shown that solutions like this — developing fossil fuels and creating strong air protections — are possible,” Rutecki said. “They can coexist. I think we’ve come to a point where we see industry leadership and engagement on all these issues, and so looking to roll back the endangerment finding, you know, puts at risk all of that hard work.”
Wyoming air quality officials are proud of the efforts as well. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s 2024 State of the Environment Report, published in June, leads with this highlight: “From 2008-2024, air pollution in the Upper Green River Basin has been reduced by 2,042 tons of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and 7,698 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOC’s). NOx and VOCs are contributors to the formation of ozone.”
“Our agency and industry has worked very hard to bring down all emissions,” DEQ Outreach Manager Keith Guille told WyoFile via email. “For instance, CO2 emissions in Wyoming are back down to 1988 levels.”
Meantime, Gordon’s office warns — as do other federal policy watchers — that the EPA’s effort to rescind the endangerment finding, as well as other efforts to rollback emission rules, are sure to face lengthy legal challenges and perhaps a total policy reversal under a future presidential administration.
“Importantly, many states have zero-carbon mandates or renewable portfolio standards, and it’s unclear if that would change in the event of a rescinding of the endangerment finding,” Pearlman told WyoFile.
This article was updated to clarify that Gov. Mark Gordon supports a broad rescission of the endangerment finding. -Ed
Hageman is on the side of oil, gas and coal. She probably gets paid by lobbyists. Wyoming should start moving into the 21st century or it will become a dust bowl when everyone leaves and tourists stop coming because they can’t charge their electric cars. tRump is taking us back to the “gilded” stone age.
I wonder where the “false science” term comes from? I’m sure the oil and gas industry always use “true science” in all their studies. I consider myself a scientist with a wildlife degree from UW in the early 1970s. I took 1 1/2 times more more required science classes than a pre-med major needed. False science is one of those terms some people use to deflect attention from the truth. Just ask the liar-in-chief.
In the late 80s, I led an air quality monitoring effort in the Class I Bridger Wilderness, which was supposedly protected. After analyzing five years of data, we found that there were increasing levels of carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen deposition (i.e. acid rain and snow). Remote alpine lakes showed a warming trend, both in depth profiles and freeze/thaw dates. Not long after we issued our report, the Forest Service and BLM approved the Pinedale Anticline/Jonah Field development, directly up wind of the wilderness area. Later, I worked on a survey of Knife Point Glacier with Craig Thompson and Charles Love, of WWC, that documented a large recession and loss of ice volume, which threatened water supplies. For Hageman to insinuate that our strenuous and often risky collection of ground-level data was somehow false is not just stupid, but a direct insult.
This is just a weekly reminder that Haggerman serves not the people of Wyoming but the oil/gas/coal industries.
Her goals have always been two things:
1. Stay in power
2. Get as rich as possible while in power
The Queen of taunting just loves the backlash. In fact, Hageman gets downright giddy. Kind of surprised she didn’t pull a Cody Wy stunt by having the local fuzz skulk the meeting hall to intimidate the public. Next time, let’s send someone to DC that’s for us – not against us.
Charles, prescribed. burns is forest management massive wildfires are all over the planet scientist believe it is from global warming caused by burning of fossil fuels. I am surprised some people still haven’t heard of that.
I recall those heady days of “pedal to the metal” development – when Pinedale was number 1, yep – – #1 as having the MOST polluted air in the nation. Think on that – the air in Los Angeles, home to over 5 million vehicles, was cleaner than the air in rural Sublette County, where more than 30 drilling rigs spit out carcinogenic emissions day and night. Harriet doesn’t live in western Wyoming or even visit (unless she’s running for governor or fundraising) so one might give her clueless remarks a pass. Or not. What if her staff provided real facts for her to relate, not just mimeograph political talking points crafted by some east coast or Denver public relations firm?
Due to the yeoman’s efforts of locals, like Mary Lynn Worl and others, serving on citizen advisory groups, attending BLM PAWG (Bureau of Land Management Pinedale Anticline Working Group) meetings, writing letters, speaking at public events, etc., the oil and gas companies responded to the pressure. They found that changes to procedures, such as reducing or eliminating flaring, resulted in cost savings. Other practices, like cutting off the annulus of a polluted water well, then tilling the soil to obscure the location, continued unabated. Guess you can’t win ’em all.
Still, unlike the Congresswoman, we lived through it and know what happened, as we saw it with our own eyes. It’s insulting for anyone to come here, pontificate and spew hysterical falsehoods. It works in genteel DC, yes, but us country bumpkins call bullfeathers.
Unfortunately, the good folks in Wyoming voted overwhelmingly for this and the other energy industry mouthpieces. Those same voters could certainly make better choices, beginning next year, if they actually do prioritize the quality of the environment that they, their children and their grandchildren will be forced to live in. I’m not optimistic that people consider those things or others to be worth it.
cut those tax benefits from oil and gas to those fine americans then they’ll help you drill a well.
Wow, This story seems odd for coming out of the Pinedale area
OK, let us take a look at CO2 for starters.
Currently, atmospheric CO2 is around 420 ppm ( parts per million)..The total atmospheric approximate gaseous break down in % is as follows: Nitrogen @ 78%,, Oxygen @ 21%,, Argon @ 0.9% ,CO2 @ 0.04%,, other gases @ 0.06%.
Basically not very much of this vital CO2 is present. Overall, crops and most vegetation would be doing much better if instead of 420 ppm, CO2 was running 1,000 to 1,300 ppm atmospheric concentration .
During the regionally verdant Jurassic & Cretaceous Periods,
CO2 was between 1,800 ppm to 2,300 ppm atmospheric . There was also a side benefit, due to all the plant chow, the Oxygen
concentration instead of our current 21% , ranged upwards to
28-29 %.
Now,, know this, if for some reason, the atmospheric CO2 drops to 150 ppm or less,, Plants die ie: AN EXTINCTION EVENT.
The U.S. Navy, long station boomer subs run an avg internal CO2 level ( even with scrubbing) of over 2,000 ppm with no ill effects. NOT only is CO2 at our current level , not a problem, BUT THE PLANET WOULD BE MORE VERDANT, and support more food growth if we could TRIPLE the current level .
Typing on a droid with my Neanderthal fingers is a PIA. ,
So I am not going to even going deep on the money, power and control
lunacy of the post 1850 global temps as shouted out by the AGW crowd Sure it is a bit warmer post 1850 , and that is a very good thing PLEASE note , they do not talk about the 450 years prior to 1850, called the
LIA (Little Ice Age) , or the Medieval Warming prior to that, or the Roman Warming prior to the Medieval Warming, or the
Minoan Warming prior to the
Roman Warming , nor certainly not the long ranging Holocene Optimum after the most previous continental glaciation cycle wrapped up.. ALL OF THOSE WARMINGS WITHIN THE PAST 11,700 Years were warmer than today’s global temps.
Interesting photo of the crowd at the town hall. I am among them. No-one is buying into what Rep. Haggeman is saying.
hng
What did you expect? Harriet the Horrible rode Donald Trump’s soiled coattails to a seat in Congress; with that, he bought her. She will listen to no constituent.
Could you please explain the density of those rigs in the picture? It is very difficult to tell how many there are per section or if there are sections per rig.
Thank you
Thanks to Mrs Hagemain it sure in nice to hear some honest thoughts.
shame on those leaders who sponsored and prostituted the science with their science while twisting the reality.
Hageman is trying to dodge her constituents. Her first Fremont County town hall in a long time was yesterday. But rather than hold it in Lander or Riverton – or even in Fort Washakie – she hid at the National Museum of Military Vehicles outside Dubois. She obviously didn’t want it to be easy for folks to attend.
Sad. Two completely different processes conflated to be the same. No one’s dumb here, just a bit sloppy. NOx and sunlight mixed with hydrocarbons like methane react to form more O3 ozone. Bad. CO2 isn’t formed in this process unless hydrocarbons are burned to make NOx. But how poisonous CO2 is to the environment is a completely different question than NOx / ozone creation. Let’s keep the two reactions and conversations separate.
The “Hag” needs to go.
Ms. Hageman is only interested in lecturing, not listening. Her town halls are campaign rallies. She doesn’t want to hear about any concerns that her constituents may have about her “representation”. Didn’t know that she had a science background to go along with her law degree. Apparently, it goes with her vast Geographic knowledge, and the importance of renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
Well that CO2 must be some pretty good stuff because the environmentalists want a lot of it in the air with prescribed burns and massive wildfires because they block forest management at every turn. I myself would like to breathe some air without smoke in it.
There is no such thing as “false science.” The terms “false” and “fake” should be applied to people who deny empirical, data driven facts.
Harriet Hageman is the voice and mouth of the MAGA Republican. She repeats what she’s told no mater what might be true, it would be much better for WY to have representation by Honest People.
We were in the audience in Pinedale when Harriet started reciting, ‘co2 is not a pollutant!’ Over and over like a broken record. Thank you for this article and thank you, Pinedale, for not putting up with Ms. Hageman’s nonsense. We know about the air quality problems!
Ms. Hageman did not present as a congresswoman listening to her constituents, but as someone above the little people she is supposed to be representing. Her constituents seemed to be a problem for her, not the reason she is in office in the first place.
I’m surprised hageman didn’t have people escorted out for disagreeing with her….. again.
How do people support her lies and bullshit?
Is anyone surprised that she regurgitates “Trump”?? The only action is to keep educating ourselves and vote these kind out. Sadly Wyoming is still staunchly supporting Trump.
Amazing, she’s booed at a town hall, yet she got 75% +/- percent of Sublette county vote.
I’m sure she doesnt really care if they boo her or not.
Times and opinions change, hopefully.
Can’t believe she said they “cooked the books”
But you have to realize majority of those people in attendance voted for her and her master.
The Koch brothers cooked the books!
Fossil fuel companies have taken advantage of Wyomingites since the 1960s. Turning our state into an industrial zone while making their stock holders rich. Does anyone other than our governor and a few other corprotist really think they are making our state a better place to live? Other than a few jobs they haven’t helped the everyday citizen at all.
When ever you hear a politician attempting to relax air quality standards, they are in the hip pocket of the oil and gas industry.
If the companies were going to solve this themselves, we wouldnt have needed the regulation in the first place. If the companies are going to keep policing themselves to this standard, why do we even need to repeal it?
Our representatives only care about the dollar going to their pockets.
It’s refreshing that Hageman found out that our Wyoming citizens are smarter than she is, and that they (we) are not taking her attempts to just accept her blatant lies. Next stop – change players in our elections.
Good for you Pinedale, for standing up for science and common sense. And thank you Dustin for good reporting.
Plants do need CO2 to thrive however, plants only absorb a certain amount. Scientists have researched the rainforest and have found the plants are maxed out on carbon. Pinedale is a good example beautiful place low population that reckless extraction has caused pollution levels worse than Los Angeles and through efforts by environmentalist they have improved the areas environment. Biden and Obama simply implemented scientific policies to keep our environment so humans can survive on this planet. If you want fresh air and clean water, you are bleeding hard liberal. Pinedale knows the reality of the extraction activities and they expressed it to representative Hagaman she is the one spreading fake news
Mary Lynn and the other leaders of the Pinedale-based CURED group are Wyoming heros. What they accomplished through grassroots education and advocacy, in defense of a healthy and beautiful Wyoming that we all want for our kids – deserves recognition and praise. It’s important to note too that early on they saw the significance of an 8th grade science project in the Pinedale Middle school – that first identified the problem of winter-time ozone, and supported that student to make her case, all the way to Cheyenne – which led to the WY DEQ later confirming the problem. This is a story of the power of regular Wyoming people who care about their community and I greatly admire them.
Steff, thank you for calling attention to Sublette County’s history of grassroots activism and science fair students (assisted by great parents and teachers)! Sublette’s lifeblood has been the minerals industry for many decades; doing it right is critical. Citizens for Responsible Energy Development follows in the proud tradition of the Wagon Wheel Information Committee: https://www.wyominghistoryday.org/index.php/theme-topics/project-wagon-wheel-and-nuclear-power
Sadly, Harriet Hageman is no Teno Roncalio.
Hageman is a grifting fool that got where she is by lying. I have a tiny bit of hope that the Wyoming public is starting to see the light. Let’s vote out the three stooges and the unfreedumb caucus. Ladies, you need to unite. They are not good for you.
What about the glaciers melting and flooding Juneau? Wildfires in Canada year after year? You don’t have to be a scientist and you certainly don’t have to fake anything to know the climate is changing, and you don’t have to be a genius to know that 8 billion people burning fossil fuels is a pretty sure bet to be the cause.
Do not believe politicians. There is no question that natural gas is the cleanest burning fuel on the planet, second only to hydrogen. The perpetual problem has been the processes of extraction and production. Drilling, completion (including fracing), well testing and long term production are what create that pollution. Air, water and wildlife have always been compromised by these practices. Though tried and true, they have never been environmentally friendly, nor have most oil & gas companies been willing to spend money to change their ways for the better outside of traditional “norms” without the pressures of regulation. From the time a well is “spudded” (when the drill bit starts into the ground) cumulative costs begin to spool up daily and everything from then on, is being done with laser focus on those costs. The Pinedale anticline has been an example of how concentrating these practices in one area will inevitably change that environment. The scale of the project is in fact the real problem. They created a short term horse race/gold rush scenario that will ultimately yield no more production than a long term scaled down project. They went too big out of greed. In a similar vein (pardon the pun) the process of coal extraction, though it yields a far dirtier fuel, is not nearly as toxic to the environment. Strip mining disturbs an often unproductive tract of land that can be effectively reclaimed back to a close facsimile of its original contour and seeded for the better. After that, the pollution comes from burning the fuel. Again, if we were to put 10,000 feeder cattle inside the UW auditorium they too would create their own toxic ozone with ammonia and methane. Nobody would ever do that, though it is being done out in the open air somewhere daily. I would not want that to stop either. Despite the current high prices, I do like my occasional steak.
MEMO to William Stocks:
You’ll have to recalibrate . We have satellites and remote sensing now that pinpoints the sources of emissions. Politicians and corporations can no longer hide or obfuscate.
Here’s some interesting factoids. Human industry releases 120-140 times more CO2 than all volcanic eruptions and geologic outgassing combined. Natural sources of CO2 ( from , say Wildfires ) are recycled by natural carbon sinks and biochemical loops worldwide… forests , plants, topsoil, ocean. But the CO2 added by humans exceeds the capacity of the planet to process…by whole orders of magnitude. As for your assertion that natural gas is clean fuel , it…is… not. 40 percent of man caused CO2 comes from burning coal. Next comes oil and fuel at 32 percent. Natural gas produced 21 percent of the anthropogenic volume of CO2. The remainder of man caused C02 ( such as cement plants ) contributes only a single digit percentage. Natural gas is very significantly.
Wyoming is on the Problem side of all the equations in mitigating climate change, and very little of the Solutions. Carbon mitigation in Wyoming is a red herring, rhetorical, Republican masquerade.
Rubbish. Pinedale and Jackson only want tourists. Nothing else. CO2 is not killing anyone.
Recalibrate, bro.
Man-caused CO2 overburden drives extreme weather events, heat stress, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and food and water insecurity globally. Wyoming is a provider of the carbon pathogen .
The willfully ignorant and uneducated are hageman’s target audience.
It’s not a matter of CO2 killing people. Excess CO2 is one of the leading causes of climate change. Maybe you can open the link below to understand the concern.
Of course Hageman also denies climate change is real – likely based on more of her “alternate facts”.
If only that religious cross she often wears would actually connect her to the creator she believes in, that creator could advise her to help save the planet she exists on before it’s too late. Or is that fake news too?
https://www.climate.gov/media/12990