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According to OSHA, the safest way to take down a silo is with a sledgehammer...

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Wednesday, October 18, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, October 18, 2023

 According to OSHA, the safest way to take down a silo is with a sledgehammer...

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

Renée Jean

Energy

Green

CHEYENNE — Protests and rallies are something f

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"In fact, Thursday marked a first for him."}]

Stephens, whose family has what he describes as a “modest” cow-calf operation south of Glenrock that’s been there since 1910, said he’s spent most of his life avoiding microphones and politics. 

But as wind projects have encircled his part of the county, he felt he could no longer afford not to get involved.

“We’ve got surrounded by wind farms,” he told a crowd gathered Thursday at the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne to call for more study of a wind wall that’s sprung up across a 200-mile swath of southeast Wyoming. 

“If you look at Converse County right now, between the farms that are there and the ones that are proposed, it’s 200,000 acres,” he said. "That’s a lot. And then this 

 showed up. Half of it’s going to be on state land. That was enough for me.”

When he started talking to neighbors, Stephens learned how widespread wind farms had become. That made him feel uneasy. 

So, he decided to come and be part of what was his first-ever rally, even though it meant his family’s ranch would be short-handed that day. 

“I have talked to ranchers all around,” he said. “I’ve talked to 68 ranchers, and there’s 50-some against it, three who won’t say, and six who are for it,” he said. “And this is the ranchers all the way around me. And they don’t have to save the ranch. They’ll go to work and do whatever they need to do to make it.”

At a State Board of Land Commissioners meeting in Douglas that Stephens helped arrange, he saw 200-some people in the crowd, with another 100 or so on Zoom, all against more wind in Wyoming. 

More Than 3,500 Signatures On Petition So Far

For the rally on Thursday, Stephens brought his daughter-in-law Kelsey and two grandchildren, Emory and Acelynn, to Cheyenne. 

“My husband and I built our home with our own two hands alongside family and friends,” Kelsey told the crowd. “We chose this place intentionally for the land, the view, and the life it allows us to live. 

"Picture a summer evening on our front porch — crickets and frogs singing, the smell of freshly cut hay in the air, and the red hills glowing as the sun sets. That’s a view that will take your breath away.”

And it’s exactly where a new wind farm plans to locate.

A petition the family has helped circulate has so far gathered 1,778 signatures from Converse County residents alone, Emory told the crowd, with another 500 from Douglas and another 1,241 coming from Glenrock and nearby areas. That’s more than 3,500 signatures so far.

About 98% of those are from Wyoming residents, Emory added. 

“Based on the most recent available data, Converse County generates approximately 43% of Wyoming wind power and electricity, but only receives 12% of the wind generation tax revenue,” she said. “That’s a small fraction of the benefits compared to what it produces for many residents.”

For her, the point of the rally in Cheyenne was all about making sure Wyoming people, including ranchers, have a say in the decisions that are affecting them.

On a map taped to her kitchen table, Cheyenne Realtor and Dereemer Ranch family member Wendy Volk has plotted an informal picture of what Wyoming’s wind tower surge looks like on the land. 

She started the map a little more than a year ago after receiving a letter notifying her that one or more neighbors planned to rezone their land from agricultural to industrial. The map she received with the notice was all but incomprehensible.

There was a dot for Cheyenne in the right-hand corner of the page and another dot in the lefthand corner for Laramie. Chugwater floated near the top of the page.

“Smack dab in the middle of that was this postage-size stamp, depicting this project,” she said. “And I’m a real estate agent, but I couldn’t make heads or tail of that map.”

A different page offered an enlargement of the postage stamp, a 56,000-acre tract dotted with 189 wind turbines, crisscrossed with access roads and transmission lines, as well as symbols for substations. 

But it was still impossible to tell where her family’s property was in relation to all of that.

She reached out to the company for a better map, and that wasn’t as straightforward as she had expected.

“I kept being very tenacious, asking questions, and then the gentleman said I have to go through legal,” she said. “He eventually sent me a better map, which he thought didn’t show that we were even touching.”

With the improved map, though, Volk finally verified that the project was about 1,000 feet off of her property line, as well as some of her neighbors. That’s when she started looking for a bigger picture. 

She hadn’t set out to become an expert on Wyoming’s industrial siting laws or federal permits. She just wanted to see a master map of all the projects to understand their overall footprint on the land. 

She’d noticed, now that her own property was directly affected, that there were an awful lot of wind projects popping up all over the place. She figured someone, somewhere would already have created such a map at the state level.

Nope. And further, there had been no state-level look at the cumulative effects of all these many wind projects.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"So she decided to make her own."}]

“I started putting pink sticky notes on a Wyoming map anytime someone mentioned a wind or solar project,” she said. “All of a sudden, the sticky notes were like connecting dots. And that’s when I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is an entire wall of wind projects that will stretch easily from Casper to Cheyenne and from Cheyenne to Rawlins. It’s just going to fill in and create a triangle.'”

It will be a massive “wind wall” that industrializes well over 200 miles of southeastern Wyoming rangeland and migration corridors, she said.

In Volk’s mind, the problem with that isn’t just any one wind farm in particular. It’s that no one at the state level is looking at the whole picture. 

Across southeast Wyoming, ranchers like Volk and her family rarely show up at hearings in their own communities, much less drive hours to Cheyenne to attend Industrial Siting Council meetings or stand on the Capitol steps for something like a rally.

Making time to be in Cheyenne means leaving their families shorthanded for tasks involving animals and fields. 

But Thursday, Stephens and Volk were there with other ranching families to help make a statement about what they feel is unprecedented and unconstrained growth of wind towers in Wyoming.

“These are not protest kind of people,” fourth-generation Wyomingite and Albany County Conservancy founder Anne Brande told Cowboy State Daily. “But they are calling me from Niobrara County, from Chugwater, from Wheatland, from Casper, from Goshen. 

"People are just tired of these (wind turbines) in these rural communities. They want to have a state conversation about it.”

Brande’s group isn’t asking to stop every wind turbine, but they want tougher siting scrutiny, as well as a cumulative impact review that looks at how so many wind turbines showing up all at once will affect wildlife, migration corridors, viewsheds, agricultural land, and rural communities across Wyoming. 

Wind turbines have already killed a number of golden eagles, Brande said. 

“We’ve been trying to place a golden eagle nest cam,” she said. “We think that’d be a fun project, but we’re having a hard time locating a viable nest, a viable golden eagle nest, and that’s a very different narrative than what we had even two, three years ago.”

Federal policy analyst David Wojick has spent the past two years digging into what wind development is doing to golden eagles across the American West.

He says the Eagle Protection Act is misnamed and is actually a license to kill a certain number of golden eagles every time a project gets a permit. That’s because each permit allows a certain amount of eagle “take” or deaths.

“There’s supposedly a program whereby every eagle that’s killed by a wind turbine, 1.2 golden eagles are saved from electrocution, because the wind people pay to have power poles somewhere in the country fixed,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s all false, by the way. And that’s the thing that I’m the most focused on.”

Wojick has been involved in broad environmental impact assessments of offshore wind in Wales for the last six or so years, and said that’s what he believes Wyoming needs to do about its wind wall.

“We’ve got this huge number of projects, some of which are built, some of which are under construction, and a whole bunch of which have been applied for in various processes,” he said. “And they’re being treated individually. The cumulative effect is obvious, and could be devastating.”

Wojick sees an “ecological death trap” phenomenon with such a widespread swath of land being taken up by wind towers. 

“Somebody’s got to be looking at that,” he said. “The feds should be looking at it. I don’t know if there’s some provision in Wyoming wildlife law for this, but if there isn’t, then the governor should just like convene a task force or committee to look at this.”

Wojick has seen studies showing the number of golden eagles killed by wind turbines has doubled in the Rocky Mountain West. 

He’s also heard ornithologist and bird biologist Bryan Bedrosian’s say that Wyoming’s golden eagle population has dropped by 30% over the last 20 years. Bedrosian is founder of Sporting Lead-Free, as well as conservation director at Teton Raptors Center.

“When you’ve got around 1,500 turbines at this point and with another 1,500 coming, I mean you could wipe (golden eagles) out, quite literally,” Wojick said. “You need to have a moratorium until somebody decides how many eagles you’re prepared to kill.”

What’s The Legacy For Future Generations?

For ranchers like Stephens and Volk, the wind wall isn’t theoretical. It’s either become the view from their front porches, or will be soon.

They’re not asking to turn back the clock on every wind turbine in the state. They just want a thoughtful look at the big picture, instead of a piecemeal approach.

“Governor Gordon’s recent executive order just yesterday regarding data center development recognizes many of these same concerns,” Volk said. “It acknowledges the importance of stewardship, water resources, wildlife, local communities and the entire region. 

"If Wyoming recognizes the need to evaluate cumulative impacts associated with large-scale data center development, then we should be willing to examine the cumulative impacts of industrial corridors forming across southeastern Wyoming.”

The rally, she added, is not about protesting energy development. 

“It’s about making sure Wyoming residents have a voice and the cumulative effects of these projects are honestly evaluated before our landscapes are permanently changed,” she said. “Today, I respectfully ask our city council members, our county commissioners, our state legislators, our state agencies, governing boards to consider the bigger picture, because southeastern Wyoming is not an empty space on a map. 

"It is ranch land, it is wildlife habitat, it is open space, and it is our heritage.”

Wyoming has a responsibility, she added. to be good stewards of that land, and to consider carefully the legacy that will be left to future generations, a legacy she’s sketched out in pink sticky notes that paint what she feels will be a disquieting story.

Wind rally 20260604 121506 6 4 26

<title>Wyoming Ranchers Rally Against 'Wind Wall' Of Turbines Across The State | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming ranchers rallied at the state Capitol on Thursday demanding action against what they call a “wind wall” of turbines across the state. “We’ve got surrounded by wind farms,” said one rancher about wind power and its impact on Wyoming’s rural future.

Wyoming Ranchers Rally Against 'Wind Wall' Of Turbines Across The State

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark Gordon joined President Trump in Washington, D.C., on Thursday as the president allocated $700 million in public money for the coal industry. 

While calling Gordon a "great guy," the president invoked a Cold War-era law designed to boost energy production in the face of national security threats to allocate $700 million in public 

The announcement enters a whirlwind of increasing demand for energy from AI-driven data centers, the legal greenlight for an 

 and the global energy and development race with China.

At the White House gathering, Gordon touted the comparative cleanliness of the coal Wyoming produces. 

"When a kid grows up in Wyoming their education is paid for, in large part, by coal severance tax," said Gordon, adding that those same kids, when grown, can seek a job in the coal industry. 

"It's not just digging coal like we used to," said the governor, "It's high-tech jobs." 

The governor also referenced his recent trips to Japan and Taiwan, and said leaders there seek reliable, dispatchable and secure energy sources. 

"They can't get it as clean as they can from the Powder River Basin," said Gordon. The building of a coal port in Oakland, California - which part of the $700 million grant is slated to fast-track - is "absolutely essential for the lifeblood of our state and our coal mines," he added. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Gordon thanked the president for his vision. "}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"About Trump’s $700 Million Grant"}]

Coal leasing on federal land in the Powder River Basin — a coal trove centered mostly in Wyoming — has brought in billions of dollars in revenue to the state and its coal mining industry, as it supplies roughly 40% of the thermal coal needed by power plants owned by electric utilities in the United States.

President Donald Trump’s Thursday announcement lists three key objectives:

• Allocate $425 million to bolster 13 coal plants across the country, helping mines in Wyoming. 

• Allocate $75 million to boost construction of a coal export terminal in Oakland  — a project Wyoming’s coal industry has long sought to uncork the Asian buyer market;

• Send another $200 million in U.S. Department of Energy grant 

 to help build two new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia — the first new U.S. coal plants since 2013 — and restart a Maryland coal plant. 

Companies in each of those states are expected to match that money or exceed it with their own investments, the announcement says.

The first two appropriations hinge on the Defense Production Act of 1950. The act of Congress calls U.S. security dependent on the nation’s own ability to supply materials and services for national defense “and to prepare for and respond to military conflicts” as well as disasters and terrorism.

The act authorizes the president to elevate national defense contracts over other government contracts, to interfere with the civilian market only where scarcities impede national defense, and incentivize the production of “critical components,” critical technology and other recourse needed “for the execution of the national security strategy of the United States.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Smells Like Coal"}]

When state Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, walked into a Riverton elementary school for a tour in 2019, he sniffed aloud and said, “Smells like coal.”

Coal production in Wyoming peaked in 2008,

 when the Powder River Basin produced nearly 450 million tons of coal,

 and has trended unsteadily downward since then. 

Wyoming surface coal production has fallen by 59.1% over the past 16 years. Thermal coal, which Wyoming produces, has seen lower demand in recent years.

lowering their demand nationally as the market has shifted to both natural gas and renewable energy.

Calendar year 2024 marked the first time Wyoming coal production had fallen below 200 million tons since 1992.

The industry saw it as a dark year, as President Joe Biden’s U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a 

Coal in 2025 yielded $134 million in severance taxes for Wyoming – the lowest since 2003.

That’s 19.5% of Wyoming’s severance tax haul, with oil generating 54.9% and natural gas yielding 21.9%.

U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis lauded Trump's Thursday announcement, calling it "exactly the leadership our nation needs."

"The growing demands of AI and modern industry require more affordable, reliable electricity which coal delivers,' said Lummis in a statement. "The West Gateway export terminal alone will open critical new pathways for Wyoming coal to reach global markets. Americans cannot afford an energy policy that leaves them in the dark, and with this investment, President Trump is making sure they never will."

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso praised the move as well, noting customers and Asia and globally would buy Wyoming coal, "if we could actually ship it to them." 

"Now is the time to unleash Wyoming's coal industry, and today's announcement is a crucial step down that path," added Barrasso. 

Gordon Trump and coal 6 4 26

<title>Trump Sending $700 Million To Coal Industry, Boosting Wyoming Coal Mines | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon joined President Trump in Washington, D.C., on Thursday as the president invoked a national security law to send $700 million to the coal industry. That includes $75 million to boost construction of a coal export terminal in Oakland.

Trump Sending $700 Million To Coal Industry, Boosting Wyoming Coal Mines

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Riverton man who admitted to slitting the throat of a Wind River Reservation man, binding his hands and feet, wrapping his body in hotel bedding and dumping it in the snow was sentenced Thursday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Fremont County District Judge Jason Conder imposed the sentence on John William Goodman, describing the case as a "brutal killing of a human being" and one "replete with an overwhelming abundance of aggravating factors."

The sentence comes more than three years after 37-year-old Gustave Elmer Yellowhair's body was discovered by "little kids," partially buried in snow on the Wind River Reservation, Conder said during Thursday's hearing.

Fremont County Attorney Micah Wyatt urged the court to impose the maximum sentence available, arguing Goodman had already received "substantial mercy" through a plea agreement that reduced the charge from first-degree murder to second-degree murder and dismissed a separate kidnapping charge.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"This is not a normal second-degree murder,\" Wyatt told the court."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Even After The Victim Was Dead'"}]

Wyatt argued Yellowhair was not killed in self-defense or during a drunken fight.

"Even after the victim was dead, the violence did not stop," Wyatt said.

Goodman attempted to decapitate Yellowhair after killing him, Wyatt argued, a fact he said demonstrated an "extreme de-valuing of human life."

[{"type":"text","text":"\"That fact matters,\" Wyatt told the judge."}]

Wyatt argued Goodman then treated Yellowhair's body as "disposable," abandoning it in a remote area before later bringing two underage girls to view the remains.

"This is not an isolated event from an otherwise peaceful person," Wyatt said before walking the court through a lengthy and violent criminal history that included multiple assault and battery convictions.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Defense Argued For Lesser Sentence"}]

Assistant Federal Public Defender Valerie Schoneberger acknowledged the gravity of the crime but argued for a lesser sentence.

"This case involves the death of a human being and it's tragic," Schoneberger said. "We don't dispute a serious sentence."

Goodman endured a lifetime of instability and hardship, Schoneberger said, noting he was arrested when he was only 14 years old.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He has a history of being mistreated by the system,\" she said."}]

She also pointed to a family history of alcohol abuse and described a life shaped by dysfunction and trauma.

Then Schoneberger reviewed five homicide cases she considered similar to Goodman's, including one she characterized as more egregious, involving a father who killed his premature infant and attempted to conceal the child's remains.

Schoneberger argued those cases demonstrated that a lengthy prison sentence could be imposed without condemning Goodman to spend the remainder of his life behind bars.

[{"type":"text","text":"Goodman declined to address the court before sentencing."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Judge Rejects Comparison To Other Cases"}]

Judge Conder said Schoneberger was "spot on" when describing the many hardships Goodman had faced throughout his life, and that he had endured "innumerable tragedies."

At the same time, Conder noted that Goodman had inflicted tragedies on others.

Conder rejected the defense's invitation to compare Goodman's sentence to punishments imposed in unrelated cases.

"That's illogical,” the judge said, adding that what happens in "some other court" does not dictate what sentence should be imposed in a case with a different set of facts.

In addition to the life sentence, Conder ordered Goodman to pay $6,355 in restitution to victim services.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Jailhouse Boasting"}]

in March 2023 after the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs was alerted that Goodman had shown two underage girls a dead body on the reservation.

When FBI Special Agent Scott Jensen arrived at the scene, he found Yellowhair partially buried in snow, according to an affidavit filed in his case. His feet protruded from the snowpack, and investigators discovered the body wrapped in bedding with the feet bound by a cord.

Despite the gruesome discovery, it would take more than two years before prosecutors formally charged Goodman with murder.

During that time, investigators with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation and Riverton Police Department continued working the case while Goodman sat in jail on unrelated charges.

They reviewed recorded jail calls, interviewed associates and cultivated multiple confidential informants, the affidavit says.

According to court records, several witnesses told investigators Goodman had spoken openly about killing a man at a Riverton motel, cutting his throat, wrapping the body in motel bedding and dumping it on the reservation.

Investigators also reviewed calls in which Goodman discussed a gang he called the "Maniacs" and made statements they interpreted as admissions connected to the killing.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Single Hair Becomes Critical Evidence"}]

While witness statements helped investigators piece together the timeline, forensic evidence ultimately provided one of the strongest links to Goodman.

When Yellowhair's body was discovered, investigators recovered a hair clutched in the victim's hand. During the investigation, Goodman reportedly told an associate he had learned his hair had been found with the remains and said that was why he cut his own hair short.

[{"type":"text","text":"The breakthrough came when FBI laboratory testing analyzed the hair."}]

Initial testing found a possible DNA association with Goodman. Investigators later collected cheek swabs from Goodman and submitted them for comparison.

Results returned in April 2025 showed it was 13 sextillion times more likely that Goodman contributed the DNA found in the hair than an unknown person, according to court records.

Investigators also found DNA on motel room keys and USB cords recovered from the crime scene that showed strong support for a mixture containing DNA from both Goodman and Yellowhair, according to the affidavit.

Combined with witness statements, jail calls and other evidence gathered during the two-year investigation, prosecutors said the forensic findings helped solidify the case that ultimately led to Goodman's murder conviction.

John W Goodman Wind River Indian Reservation sign 7 9 25 copy

<title>Riverton Man Who Slit Man’s Throat And Dumped Body Gets Life In Prison | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Riverton man who admitted to slitting the throat of another man, wrapping his body in hotel bedding and dumping it in the snow was sentenced Thursday to life in prison. "Even after the victim was dead, the violence did not stop,” said the prosecutor.

Riverton Man Who Slit Man’s Throat And Dumped Body Gets Life In Prison

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Public Lands

President Donald Trump’s decision to lift restrictions on motorized use of federal lands dating back to the 1970s has some Wyoming motorsports enthusiasts saying the move prioritizes much-deserved public access.

Others worry that it will cause a wildlands disaster, subjecting wildlife and non-motorized users to noise and destruction of habitat.

The Trump administration on Friday rescinded Executive Order (EO) 11644, issued in 1972 by President Richard Nixon, along with President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 EO 11989, which amended and strengthened Nixon’s order.

Throughout the ensuing decades, those orders shaped how federal land agencies managed the use of ATVs, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, and other motorsports vehicles.

The orders directed the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to designate where off-road vehicles could and could not be used.

The stated goals of the orders were to protect resources, mitigate user conflicts, and minimize environmental damage.

Trump’s move is good news for Sweetwater County Commissioner Taylor Jones.

An avid off-roader and snowmobiler, he’s been a vocal critic of the controversial BLM Rock Springs Resource Management Plan, which he argues is too restrictive for motorized use.

"Certainly, I’m thrilled,” Jones told Cowboy State Daily. “I've always been a strong proponent for public access to public lands.

“There are a lot of areas in the national forest and in the mountains that should be open for access,” added Jones, who sits on the Wyoming State Trails Advisory Council.

Jones said he understands the misgivings of hikers, birdwatchers and others who seek isolation and silence on public lands.

As he sees it, the current restrictions push off-roaders into certain areas. That increases friction between motorsports enthusiasts and other public lands users, Jones said.

Lifting restrictions could disperse motorized users across the landscape and ease tensions, Jones said, adding that it could make it easier to maintain a balance between those user groups.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Terrible’ Idea"}]

Avid mountain biker, hiker and skier Amber Travsky of Laramie told Cowboy State Daily that lifting motorized restrictions is a “terrible” idea.

“There are roads and trails designated for ATVs, and I have no problem with that,” she said. “There is so much opportunity already for off-road vehicles, I don’t see why it needs to be everywhere."

Off-road vehicle use can have wide-reaching effects on other uses, Travsky said, because of noise and potential damage to the landscape, particularly fragile areas such as wetlands.

Travsky has long been an advocate for the non-motorized Medicine Bow Rail Trail in Albany County. She said she’s not sure how Trump’s rescinding of the previous executive orders will affect that trail.

However, there’s been “chronic” unauthorized motorized use of the rail trail for years, so she wonders if lifting restrictions will just make that worse.

She understands why motorized users are tempted to jump on the rail trail. A nearby route intended for motorized use is in horrible shape, she said.

“We’ve sat down with the off-road vehicle people and worked toward a solution,” she said, which could entail improving the ATV trail.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Low-Impact Dirt Bikes"}]

Jason Harris of Lyman has participated in long-distance dirt bike races and said he welcomes Trump’s decision.

“If it means that I can ride my dirt bikes in some new places, then I’m stumping for it,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

President Trump’s lifting of restrictions on motorized use of federal lands dating back to the 1970s has some Wyoming motorsports enthusiasts cheering a move they say prioritizes public access. Others worry that it will cause a wildlands disaster.

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, October 18, 2023

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