One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"People forget how dangerous fish can be..."}]

One more for 4 25 23

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>One More For The Road: Tuesday, April 25, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

People forget how dangerous fish can be...

One More For The Road: Tuesday, April 25, 2023

 People forget how dangerous fish can be...

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Environment

Wildlife

A proposed 972-megawatt power project at Seminoe Reservoir in Carbon County has cleared a major hurdle, with a federal commission recommending approval despite widespread opposition in Wyoming.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released its final 

 (EIS) on the Salt Lake City-based rPlus Hydro company’s Seminoe Pumped Storage Project on Friday.

Some Wyoming conservationists told Cowboy State Daily they were trying to surmise what the 478-page document means for opposition going forward.

The EIS recommends that FERC license the project, and waive seasonal timing restrictions on construction based on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) policy.  

Project opponents say those restrictions protect the Ferris-Seminoe Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep herd. Because of its disease-free status, it’s Wyoming’s most-prized bighorn herd.

Wyoming conservationists, hunters, anglers and municipal and county officials 

 the Seminoe Pumped Storage Project during a recent meeting of the Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee.

In addition to concerns over bighorn sheep, opponents say they worry how the project could affect blue-ribbon trout fishing on the North Platte River’s Miracle Mile Section, and municipal water supplies.

An rPlus Hydro spokesman said during the legislative committee meeting the project could provide high-paying jobs and much-needed backup power for Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Energy Loser’"}]

But after the release of the EIS, detractors weren’t buying that argument.

“It’s an energy loser. It will use more energy to pump water uphill than it will generate by flowing it back downhill,” Wyoming Wildlife Federation executive director Craig Benjamin told Cowboy State Daily.  

WWF remains staunchly opposed to the project, according to a statement released by the group.

“WWF supports responsible energy development when it is sited well, built responsibly, and delivers real benefits to Wyoming. Based on what we have seen so far, this project raises serious questions on all three fronts. Now that the final EIS has been released, we are reviewing it closely with our partners, and will have more to say in the days ahead,” the organization said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"BLM’s Turn"}]

The fate of the Seminoe Pumped Storage Project could now rest with the BLM. The EIS recommendations hinge on the agency agreeing on the revised sections of its Rawlins Area Resource Management Plan.

That doesn’t seem fair to the BLM, Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation executive director Katie Cheesbrough told Cowboy State Daily.

“It seems like they’re pushing a lot of the burden of this onto the BLM now,” she said.

Cheesbrough noted that, in an ironic twist, public sentiment is running in the opposite direction than over the BLM’s controversial Rock Spring Area Resource Management plan, which many critics said was too restrictive.

"The issue with the Rock Springs RMP was that local people would like to see less environmental regulation and more industry. And here, local people seem to want more environmental regulation and less industry,” she said.

She called the EIS recommendation for the pumped storage project “disheartening” and said it sets a bad precedent.

That’s because it asks for sweeping changes in BLM wildlife and environmental safeguards. The company claims that otherwise, the construction process will drag out too long and they won’t be able to afford it, Cheesbrough said.

From her perspective, it's a poor siting choice on rPlus Hydro’s part. If the company can’t afford to build the project at Seminoe Reservoir while also protecting the bighorn sheep herd and fishery, then the project should be turned down, she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Five-Year Schedule"}]

The company argues that “to retain maximum flexibility needed to timely complete each segment of construction,” seasonal work restrictions related to bighorn sheep, sage-grouse and other species should be lifted, according to the EIS.

That would allow “for construction to occur up to 24-hours per day, seven days a week for the duration of the construction period,” the EIS states.

Construction is expected to last five years, but could take longer due to “weather-related events or logistical considerations,” according to the EIS.

There’s widespread perception that FERC and rPlus Hydro are ignoring what the public in Carbon County and the surrounding region are saying about the project, Patrick Harrington, Trout Unlimited's Wyoming government affairs director, told Cowboy State Daily.

The EIS calling for approval didn’t come as much of a surprise, he said. But the way the process keeps moving forward, despite vocal opposition, is disheartening, he added.

“This thing seems it‘s on railroad tracks, moving forward,” Harrington said.

Harrington said he questions “the fairness and the ability of people to engage and raise their concerns,” regarding the Seminoe Pumped Storage Project.

Seminoe State Park Discover Carbon County 6 17 26

<title>After Feds OK Controversial Seminoe Power Projects, Critics Vow To Fight | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Opponents say the proposed 972-megawatt power project at Seminoe Reservoir in Carbon County threatens the state's most prized bighorn sheep herd and the "Miracle Mile" section of the North Platte River famed for its blue-ribbon trout fishing.

After Feds OK Controversial Seminoe Power Projects, Critics Vow To Fight

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Crime & Courts

Courts

The Wyoming Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a former Casper police officer’s argument that a judge wrongly disregarded his plea agreement when sentencing him to a prison sentence five times longer than the one for which he’d bargained.

This sends a message to all defense attorneys to lock down their clients’ plea agreements in writing, the defendant’s appeal attorney Ryan Semerad told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday phone interview.

“Going forward as a defense attorney, you should make it crystal clear, on the record, that when my client is entering a guilty plea to a charge pursuant to a plea agreement, we’re offering that guilty plea directly in exchange for the state’s promises about the outcome of this case,” said Semerad. “That we’re not offering our plea agreements into the air – for nothing.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Gritty Incident First"}]

Michael Scott Hughes, now 32, was still a Casper Police department officer on Aug. 22, 2024, when he grew frantic and suicidal inside his home at the Quail Run apartments complex, court documents say.

So Natrona County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene. Hughes’ girlfriend was in the apartment and was reluctant to leave Hughes, who was reportedly making suicidal gestures with guns and making suicidal statements.

Hughes told his girlfriend to leave and when she didn’t, he fired a pistol round into the ceiling of the apartment – so the girlfriend left, telling deputies Hughes was now alone in the apartment, and had been drinking.

Deputies evacuated the other apartments and told Hughes' upstairs neighbor to shelter inside her bathtub before evacuating her and two other people – including her teenage son – from the apartment about two hours later.

The neighbor “stepped on something hard in her living room” on her way out, and later found it was a bullet, shot through the concrete and lodged in the carpet.

The sheriff’s office sent a tactical team and crisis negotiators, who stayed in contact with Hughes until the early morning hours of Aug. 23

Hughes kept drinking and deputies kept evacuating neighbors, the high court’s Wednesday opinion recounts.

The standoff continued that day. Hughes called and texted family, friends, coworkers, and crisis negotiators. He “repeatedly attempted to entice law enforcement to enter the apartment and threatened to kill anyone that entered,” the opinion says.

Law enforcement personnel heard other gunshots. The tactical team sent a drone into the apartment through the broken window but Hughes captured it, damaged it, and threw it outside.

Hughes fired a round through a window and toward the tactical team – hitting no one – that afternoon. The round shot toward an unoccupied playground and another building.

Finally, at 4:15 p.m., Hughes handcuffed himself and let the tactical team arrest him. Investigators found three handguns and three spent shell casings in the apartment.

[{"type":"text","text":"Second, What Happened In Court"}]

Once charged and in court, Hughes pleaded not guilty to five counts of aggravated assault (felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison), one count of felony property destruction (also up to 10 years), and one count of reckless endangering (up to one year in jail).

Two months after the not-guilty plea, Hughes asked for a change of plea hearing.

The prosecutor informed Natrona County District Court Judge Catherine Wilking at that time that Hughes would plead guilty to everything except the property-destruction charge, which the state would drop, and the state would agree to limit its sentencing argument to no more than five years in prison.

That’s because while the state could argue for up to five years’ prison time on each felony, it agreed that these sentences would run concurrently, or simultaneously, the court record shows.

The high court’s Wednesday opinion says prosecutor and defense aired this agreement in court, but it wasn’t put in writing.

Wilking told Hughes he couldn’t withdraw his guilty pleas if she rejected his agreement.

[{"type":"text","text":"Hughes said he understood those conditions."}]

At Hughes’ later sentencing hearing, Wilking heard statements from Hughes' upstairs neighbors and a psychologist who had met with Hughes post-arrest.

She announced she wouldn’t follow the prosecutor’s recommended five-year cap. And she sentenced Hughes to five sets of four- to five-year sentences for the felonies and the maximum one-year sentence for the misdemeanor – for a total of 21 to 26 years in prison.

[{"type":"text","text":"Third, Legal Stuff"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Semerad entered the case to represent Hughes on appeal."}]

The attorney argued to the high court that Wilking understood Hughes’ plea agreement incorrectly, and that its one-count-left-off structure showed Hughes retained the right to withdraw his guilty pleas and go to trial if Wilking rejected the sentencing cap.

“The District Court rejected the plea agreement and sentenced Mr. Hughes to … five times what Mr. Hughes bargained for,” Semerad wrote in Hughes’ appeal brief. “This appeal turns on whether plea agreements are predictable contracts or lottery tickets.”

Semerad argued that the high court should bar trial courts from adding to plea agreements “under the guise of ‘interpretation’” and make those courts explain their reasoning when they reject plea agreements.

The Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion, penned by Justice Robert Jarosh, disagrees with this interpretation.

Firstly, it’s harder for the high court to overturn what Wilking did since Hughes didn’t object to her actions at the time, the opinion says.

The Jarosh opinion also views what Wilking did in an entirely different vein of reasoning than the argument Semerad deployed.

“Mr. Hughes’ second (argument) relies on the premise that the district court rejected, at least in part, the plea agreement during the change of plea hearing. We disagree,” says the opinion. “The district court unequivocally accepted the plea agreement and followed through with its acceptance” by dismissing the property destruction charge and holding her sentence until after the parties argued terms in court.

In the high court’s conclusion, the judge rejected the state’s sentencing recommendation which was nestled within the plea agreement, not the plea agreement as a whole.

Wilking wasn’t required to list her reasons for rejecting the state’s sentencing argument, says the opinion, but the court “nonetheless explained its rationale on the record.”

Wilking had pointed to the severity of crimes, number of victims and “heinous nature of Mr. Hughes’ actions.”

Semerad commented Wednesday, “We strongly disagree with the opinion. We respect the court’s decision, but we strongly disagree.”

“Every sentencing term in a plea agreement is, inherently, something that a defendant is exchanging his guilty plea for.

It’s not window dressing. It’s not, you know, a nice idea. It’s not a gift. It’s an agreement. I’ll give you guilty pleas if you’ll do something the state agreed to do.”

Michael Hughes Casper standoff todd 8 23 241000012153 8 23 24

<title>Supreme Court Upholds 21-To-26-Year Sentence For Casper Cop Who Caused Standoff | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The state Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the 21-to-26-year prison term for a former Casper police officer who shot at other officers during a standoff. He argued a judge wrongly disregarded his plea deal to sentence him to a term five times longer.

Supreme Court Upholds 21-To-26-Year Sentence For Casper Cop Who Caused Standoff

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Energy

Economy

It’s a tug-of-war between hope and skepticism in Wyoming when it comes to massive data centers, and that was on full display at the Uinta County Commission meeting in Lyman on Tuesday.

Commissioners met to consider the conditional-use permit for the 1.25-gigawatt Prometheus Hyperscale data center on 506.2 acres owned by the Thornocks,

In a packed meeting house, public comments ran roughly 50-50 for and against the project, as commissioners worked through a long agenda that ranged from mosquito control to scholarships. They saved the data center discussion for last, ultimately following the

 Planning and Zoning Committee’s recommendation

 and approving the permit unanimously. 

That clears a huge hurdle for the massive facility, which will span eight to nine football fields. 

During the hearing, attorney Parker Jackson urged commissioners to seize what he believes is a rare chance for significant growth in the southwest corner of the state, framing the project as a test of Wyoming’s commitment to property rights and free-market principles.

On the other side, data center skeptic and petition organizer Alex Rossi cautioned commissioners not to overlook the state’s long history of booms and busts, arguing that in Wyoming distrust of big promises isn’t cynicism but hard-earned self-defense. 

 as AI-driven data centers and other large-scale projects have come calling. How does a state hungry for a new tax base and better-paying jobs reconcile that need with hard lessons learned from a boom-and-bust past replete with instances of deals gone wrong?

Supporters see Prometheus as exactly the kind of long-term, high-capital investment Wyoming leaders have been trying to attract for years — a project that will anchor roughly 3,800 construction jobs for build-out and then create about 200 permanent technical and maintenance roles, along with generating millions in new tax revenue to support local schools and county services. 

Skeptics, meanwhile, look at the same 1.25-gigawatt, 500-plus-acre complex and see the risk that if markets, technology or corporate priorities change, Uinta County could be left with the footprint of an enormous project and far fewer benefits than advertised.

That’s a dynamic Rossi has already seen play out recently, when Evanston made a deal with a brewery that was to occupy a section of 

At the time, the project was sold to the community as generating $2.8 million over 10 years, Rossi said, but it’s been five years since development and lease agreements were drafted, and there’s still no brewery in the space.

The community, meanwhile, is out $4.8 million for its project rehabbing some of the space in the Roundhouse, giving Rossi the sense that the community is “holding the bag” once again for a project that never materialized as promised.

“My concern is, Prometheus promises all of these things — and I’ve been in the business world for 30 years. I’ve met with many, many public, private-equity people,” he said. “They will say a lot of things, and at the time they kind of mean them, but if their investors come to them or their board comes to them and says, ‘You cut costs here', they’re going to cut costs there.”

That won’t necessarily come with any defense of promises made to the community, Rossi said.

“So my concern is, say something goes a little south for Prometheus,” he said. “And we end up holding the bag again as residents.”

Rossi has organized a petition drive opposing the project, which so far has 86 signatures on change.org and another 55 handwritten signatures from residents worried about the data center and the speed of its approval process. 

Even though the data center has its conditional-use permit, Rossi plans to keep pressing for more transparency and answers, pointing out there are additional items looming, including a man camp to house construction workers.

Prometheus has not asked for any government funding to date. In interviews with Cowboy State Daily, founder Trenton Thornock has repeatedly said the data center on his family’s ranch land will be built with private equity. 

 to answer community questions about the data center, Thornock told a councilwoman he isn’t even asking for any tax abatements.

“I didn’t ask for any handouts,” he said. “The point here is not to extract from the community, it’s to inject economic activity into the community.”

All of the equity will be raised with a bond offering managed by Morgan Stanley, coming from private investors, he said. 

It’s statements like those that have Jackson pulling for Prometheus Hyperscale. He sees it as a generational opportunity for his corner of the state, but he also fears that ignoring property rights and free-market principles would send the wrong message to other businesses.

“What happens when the next project comes along, and maybe it’s something that’s more popular?" he said. “Is it going to be appropriate to apply the same treatment (for Prometheus) to that project down the road? I think we have to have a level playing field, both for property owners and for businesses, so that this doesn’t become an arbitrary process to get things like permits and zoning and all those things you need to be able to improve your property.”

He also said he believes the data center brings more positives than negatives for Uinta County. 

“They’re going to have their own brand-new natural gas power plant, which is a great thing for the Wyoming energy industry,” he said. “And then, just two weeks ago, the president issued an executive order … promoting advanced artificial intelligence innovation and security. So this is something that we can play a part in this kind of broader national conversation about how to be leaders in this industry and also how to do it the right way, both when we’re talking about the infrastructure and the hardware.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Strings Attached"}]

By the end of all the discussion, Uinta County Commissioners had given the data center a green light with the conditional-use permit, but there were strings attached, many of which Rossi said appeared to answer concerns he and other community members have raised. 

Conditions included dust and noise limits, commitment to a closed-loop cooling design and ensuring electric rates aren’t adversely affected. 

Thornock said Prometheus plans a phased buildout of its data centers and said it plans to hire as many people locally as possible.

He also reiterated that the data center’s cooling system will be closed-loop, and will not draw any water from Uinta County’s system. It will also make no wastewater discharges into local infrastructure. Ongoing water usage, mainly for on-site bathrooms and offices, will comprise 15 homes worth of water.

Power will be generated on-site with a natural gas plant, Thornock said, keeping the data center off the public grid, and creating new demand for Wyoming natural gas production. 

Prometheus’ project comes amid unprecedented demand for computing power, with AI, machine learning, and cloud services racing to capture market share.

“I think it’s pretty obvious that there’s a demand for these types of data centers and the extra computing capacity,” Jackson said. “We’re all using our phones and computers more and more. AI is going to accelerate that obviously, so Uinta County is as good a spot as any to benefit from that.”

Industry and economic development voices across the state have echoed that sentiment. 

“Literally to meet the hyperscaler demand for data centers over the next few years, there’s going to have to be thousands across the United States,” Dale Steenbergen, Wyoming Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, told Cowboy State Daily in a previous interview. “And I think the discussions we are having today with folks from Virginia and Indiana and Texas and Louisiana and Kentucky — we’ve got to have these data centers spread out across the country.”

Innovation is making those data centers more efficient when it comes to water and power use, Steenbergen added. 

“They can be good for us,” he said. “If you’re a data center and you’re looking at buying Wyoming natural gas to run turbines to power your data center, that’s a win-win for us. We’re selling one of the products we have plentifully available.”

Steenbergen has been in meetings with chambers from all over the nation, and said data centers and their impact have been a top issue for discussion.

“People have concerns about what data centers might mean to them, whether it be about power rates or water use or all the other things,” he said. “But I think generally in Wyoming, we have done it right. We’ve set it up so that the data centers and their usage of our energy won’t impact the average citizen … and so that’s really good.”

Data centers have also recognized that if they’re going to operate in an arid climate, they have to invest in technology to minimize water use.

“So I think in general they’ve been good corporate partners,” Steenbergen said. “They’ve tried to respond to the concerns of folks as we go forward and as we look at the tax numbers … I’ve got a sheet of numbers about what they are already contributing to help us build better communities across Wyoming, so I think it’s a wonderful thing for us to see good companies expand their footprint in our communities.”

Evanston town hall 3 5 26 26

<title>Uinta County OKs Huge Data Center, Some Fear They'll Get Left 'Holding The Bag' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Residents are split over the proposed massive Prometheus Hyperscale data center, which Uinta County commissioners gave a green light Tuesday. “My concern is, Prometheus promises all of these things ... and we end up holding the bag," said a critic.

Uinta County OKs Huge Data Center, Some Fear They'll Get Left 'Holding The Bag'

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Sunny in most of Wyoming on Wednesday, windy, fire danger in some areas. Mix of cloudy and clear overnight and breezy. Highs mainly in the 70s to the low 80s. Lows mainly in the 40s.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":" "}]

Sunny and breezy today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph.

Sunny and breezy today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 47 and wind gusts as high as 31 mph.

 Red flag fire warning until 10 p.m. tonight. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

 Sunny and breezy today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 36 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 33 mph.

  Sunny and windy today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph.

Sunny and windy today with a high near 77 and wind gusts as high as 44 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 43 and wind gusts as high as 41 mph.

Sunny and breezy today with a high near 75 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 38 and wind gusts as high as 31 mph.

 Sunny and breezy today with a high near 77 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 41 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 40 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

 Sunny and windy today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 38 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 40 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 40 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Sunny today with a high near 70 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 34 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

Sunny and breezy today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph. Increasing clouds and breezy overnight with a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

:  Increasing clouds and breezy today with a high near 75 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph. Mostly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 47 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph.

  Increasing clouds and breezy today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 36 mph. Mostly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph.

  Sunny and windy today with a high near 70 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph. Partly cloudy and windy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 7 p.m., a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 39 mph.

  Sunny today with a high near 72 and wind gusts as high as 41 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 44 and wind from 11-16 mph.

:  Sunny today with a high near 70 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 44.

Sunny and windy today with a high near 71 and wind gusts as high as 41 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 33 mph.

  Sunny and windy today with a high near 71 and wind gusts as high as 41 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph.

:  Mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 65 and wind gusts as high as 33 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 10 p.m. tonight. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 51 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 10 p.m. tonight. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 71 and wind gusts as high as 38 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 33 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 10 p.m. tonight. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Sunny and windy today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 42 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.

  Red flag fire warning until 10 p.m. tonight. Sunny and windy today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 50 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 47 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph.

  Sunny and windy today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph.

  Sunny and windy today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.

  Sunny and windy today with a high near 82 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 42 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph.

Daycap 6 17 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Wednesday, June 17, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Wednesday, June 17, 2026

A federal judge in Montana has thrown out more than 1.5 million acres of Wyoming oil and gas leases sold under the Trump administration, a sweeping ruling that Wyoming attorneys said will force the state to return $50 million in payments and imperil $180 million in future revenue for schools and other public services. 

The ruling also affects an additional 185,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Montana and the Dakotas.

The decision, issued by Chief Judge Brian Morris out of the U.S. District Court of Montana on June 12, is sparking outrage in the oil and gas community. It’s the third time Morris, an Obama appointee, has ruled against the U.S. Department of the Interior over the protection of sage-grouse habitat.

“The environmental group found a sympathetic venue in Montana to file their case and ultimately hurt Wyoming,” oil and gas landman Steve Degenfelder told Cowboy State Daily. “I am hopeful the State of Wyoming will appeal this decision with everything they have. Other than a successful appeal, it’s my understanding we would need an act of Congress to overturn this injustice. I wonder how Montana would feel if a Wyoming judge hurt their state to this magnitude?”

Ryan McConnaughey, with the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said it’s just the latest example of how activists are misusing the judicial system to attack industries they dislike.

“Anti-oil and natural gas activists have a sympathetic ear in Montana, which is why they continuously file cases there,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “The hard truth is that until Congress steps in to restore the original intent of laws like NEPA and the Endangered Species Act, every land management decision will be decided out of public view by the courts. It’s further proof that permitting reform is absolutely necessary if the United States wants to be a country that harvests energy and builds things again.”

Wyoming’s Bureau of Land Management office referred Cowboy State Daily for comment about the case to Montana’s office, which did not respond. 

It was not known Tuesday afternoon whether BLM will appeal the case, or what its next step will be for the leases.

The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office was also consulted, but had not responded at the time this story was posted.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Sage-Grouse Protection At Issue"}]

At the heart of the case brought by the Montana Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation and Montana Audubon is how the BLM applied its 2015 sage-grouse conservation plans in Wyoming. 

The groups argued that leasing should have been steered first to areas outside of key habitat so the bird would stay off the federal endangered species list. 

The 2015 sage-grouse plan required the agency to “prioritize” oil and gas leasing and development outside of sensitive habitat, particularly in designated priority areas.

But, in 2018, the BLM issued a new instruction memorandum that effectively told staff to disregard those prioritization requirements when offering new “fluid mineral” leases in sage-grouse country.

Wyoming has a voluntary sage-grouse protection plan, one that guides development away from those areas without any prioritization on BLM’s part, Wyoming attorneys argued.

A federal judge in Montana has thrown out more than 1.5 million acres of Wyoming oil and gas leases sold under the Trump administration, forcing the state to return $50 million in payments. “The environmental group found a sympathetic venue in Montana,” said a Wyoming landman.

One More For The Road: Tuesday, April 25, 2023

In case you missed it

More in One More For The Road

One More For The Road: Wednesday, June 17, 2026

One More For The Road: Tuesday, June 16, 2026

One More For The Road: Monday, June 15, 2026

One More For The Road: Sunday, June 14, 2026

Most read