One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"We're not going to lie, there's nothing better than a good bike race...."}]

One more for 3 16 24

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

<title>One More For The Road: Saturday, March 16, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

We're not going to lie, there's nothing better than a good bike race....

One More For The Road: Saturday, March 16, 2024

 We're not going to lie, there's nothing better than a good bike race....

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Torrington-based state Sen. Cheri Steinmetz asked the entire Wyoming Legislature on Thursday for a poll of who wants to enter a special session to address data center issues and controversies.

Steinmetz sent the request in an email to state House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, all legislators, and Legislative Service Office Director Matt Obrecht.

“I am requesting a poll of members of the House and Senate regarding support for a special session focused solely on data centers, large industrial electrical loads, water resources, electric grid impacts, and associated infrastructure concerns,” wrote Steinmetz.

She told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview that the request reacts to Gov. Mark Gordon’s Wednesday executive order calling for executive-branch state agencies to heed “responsible” and transparent constraints on data center development.

The order also highlighted Wyoming’s attributes that make it comparably fit for the projects, such as its significant energy production and business-friendly climate.

Steinmetz said she sees Gordon's order as fast-tracking the industry projects, and that it raises policy questions the Legislature should answer on the people’s behalf.

"My biggest concern is water," said Steinmetz, adding that Wyoming has a need to see specific metrics on how much water the proposed facilities will use.

"We need to vet this thoroughly and substantially; make sure we are really doing things to the benefit of Wyoming, not the benefit of developers," said Steinmetz.

[{"type":"text","text":"Neiman did not immediately return a voicemail request for comment."}]

Biteman countered Steinmetz's concerns, calling a special session premature. He emphasized that he saw nothing in Gordon's order that usurps the Legislature's role, and various legislative committees are conducting research into this controversy right now. 

"Good policy is made with facts, not fear," said Biteman. "The concerns being raised about water use, ratepayer impacts, wildlife, and permitting are already within the authority of our executive agencies." 

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and state Engineer's Office regulate water, the Public Service Commission protects energy ratepayers, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department manages wildlife impacts, the Senate president added. 

"The Governor's executive order directs those agencies to do the jobs the Legislature has already assigned to them," Biteman said. 

If in the meantime, the agencies find gaps in state law, Biteman said he encourages them to research those problems and produce vetted, thoughtful legislative proposals to the regularly-scheduled 2027 lawmaking session. 

"To reiterate," said Biteman, "the executive order didn't take authority away from the Legislature - it put Wyoming's existing regulatory agencies to work doing exactly what the Legislature created them to do." 

[{"type":"text","text":"How A Special Session Could Happen"}]

Outside of settling disputes about presidential electors, the Wyoming Constitution provides two mechanisms for calling special sessions, or off-schedule sessions for making laws.

A simple majority of all legislators can write to their chambers' presiding officer to call the special session.

The governor also can convene a special session by proclamation, but only “in times of war or grave emergency.”

Gordon doesn’t support calling a special session at this time because lawmakers are already working on this topic, his spokeswoman Amy Edmonds said in a Thursday email to Cowboy State Daily.

“The Governor believes calling a Special Session at this time would be highly disruptive and premature,” said Edmonds.

Multiple interim legislative committees are slated to address data center development questions ahead of the 2027 lawmaking session 

Given the work those are undertaking “throughout the summer and fall to find answers and develop a path forward around data center development, (a) special session would be putting the cart before the horse,” 

Edmonds pointed to the “Wyoming Way framework” listed in Gordon’s 

“Governor Gordon believes it would be more beneficial, given the openness and thoroughness of these processes, to wait for any special session until after this work is completed,” Edmonds said.

Wyoming last held a special session in 2021, from Oct. 26 to Nov. 3 of that year 

to deal with federal COVID-19 issues. Wyomingites faced both federal and state mandates, and a huge influx of grants from the federal government at that time.

[{"type":"text","text":"That cost the public a little over $200,000, according to data from LSO."}]

Now with a higher per diem for legislators, the cost of a special session would cost about $40,000 a day.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Safety Net"}]

Many local Wyoming communities have erupted over data center concerns, 

 ranging from water usage to noise to new worker “man camps” and view corruption.

Conversely, Microsoft Senior Director of Infrastructure Government Affairs Jonathan Noble 

told the Legislature’s Select Water Committee last month

 that “everything you have with a screen” relies on data centers. “This is something that is just growing every day.”

It’s growing across many sectors of society, too, he added, from individuals up to the nation’s military complex.

“This is critical infrastructure to how we operate, how we communicate, how we go to action, how we serve our communities, how we protect our communities,” he said. “Data centers are the backbone of the modern economy, much like railroads, highways, power grids in earlier generations.”

But the company also recognizes that infrastructure should be built the right way, including limits on water use, Noble said. 

He added that the facilities operating in Wyoming take advantage of the state’s cooler climate, which reduces the need for water-based colling.

The technology is also shifting toward closed-loop cooling, which recycles water, he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"A Few Local Approaches"}]

 on data center development last week after four hours of emotional, sometimes angry, testimony by 

In Evanston, the Uinta County Planning and Zoning Commission faced less vocal pushback — despite a packed room — during a similar approval meeting last week.

 to recommend permit approvals for a 1.25 gigawatt data center.

Many tribal members of the Wind River Indian Reservation are still indignant over an April announcement that the Wyoming Business Council has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Northern Arapaho Tribe’s government to study the prospect of a large data center on the reservation.

[{"type":"text","text":"That reservation headquarters a second tribe, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe."}]

LeBeau heads one of the two factions currently vying in court for executive-branch control of the Shoshone Tribe.

The Converse County Commission tried and failed earlier this year to create a special industrial park to fast-track a data center on private land. 

 back — and the commission did, reportedly because the county doesn’t already have a zoning system in place to allow such a targeted land designation.

[{"type":"text","text":"More About …"}]

Data centers are large warehouses full of servers that power parts of the internet and, increasingly, artificial intelligence.

They may use a closed-loop cooling system, which proponents tout as a water-conservative way of keeping the equipment from overheating. 

In a closed-loop system, water still should be flushed periodically because its quality can degrade and cooling chemicals can break down over time, 

Wyomingites have voiced fears of water pollution and consumption, noise, vista degradation and a shift from the state’s agricultural environment with the influx of data centers.

Proponents of the builds, however, have pointed to their capacity to generate immense revenues and create jobs.

 data centers exist currently in Wyoming.

Steinmetz during hearing 6 4 26

<title>Wyoming State Senator Interested In Special Session To Address Data Centers | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming State Sen. Cheri Steinmetz on Thursday said she’s calling for a poll among legislators to see if there is enough support for a special session to address data center concerns, like water use. Both the governor and Senate President called such a move premature.

Wyoming State Senator Interested In Special Session To Address Data Centers

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:

[{"type":"text","text":"• Allocate $425 million to bolster 13 coal plants across the country;"}]

• 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."

Gordon Trump and coal 6 4 26

<title>Trump Sending $700 Million To Coal Industry, Including Wyoming Coal Plant | 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, Including Wyoming Coal Plant

Coal

Energy

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Thursday that it is proposing a rule to change an Obama-era 2014 Wyoming regional haze Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) that would have shuttered the Dave Johnston Unit 3 power plant in Converse County.

[{"type":"text","text":"That plant uses Wyoming coal."}]

Gov. Mark Gordon in an EPA statement Thursday called the maneuver proof “that environmental stewardship and energy production can go hand in hand

and said the proposal reflects a science-driven, sensible approach that relies on real-world data and measurable outcomes rather than predetermined anti-fossil fuel agendas."

Wyoming’s senior Republican U.S. Sen. John Barrasso and Sen. Cynthia Lummis also applauded Trump’s announcement

[{"type":"text","text":"Under the 2014 rule, the plant was expected to close by the end of 2027."}]

The EPA’s new plan is for the plant to meet the emission limits it’s currently operating under, instead of what the EPA under the old rule called “the unattainable Obama-era limits which would have forced its closure.”

EPA doesn’t expect emissions to rise under this proposal, the agency added in a Thursday statement.

EPA's Region 8 administrator and former Wyoming legislator Cyrus Western told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that this maneuver is an answer to "energy demand across the nation (continuing) to go up and up and up."

"We need to meet that challenge. We need to ensure very reliable, very affordable electrons for folks across the bar," said Western, listing uses including both residential and industrial power needs. "There's a direct impact on jobs at the unit and all the mines that unit buys coal from — this is a decisive leadership step form (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin and the president, ensuring we're following through on the promises they made." 

Thursday's announcement is also an ideological about-face from the 2024 maneuvers of President Joe Biden's EPA. 

The administration at that time issued rules designed to hit many of the coal-fired plants from Naughton and Bridger in the southwestern part of the state, to Dry Fork near Gillette and the Dave Johnston plant near Glenrock.

 in northeastern part of the state where more than 4,000 people were employed in the industry.

The EPA in 2024 reported that it sought to improve public health without disrupting the delivery of electricity, and generally push a clean air agenda of alternative forms of energy production, like wind and solar; and to reduce pollution from fossil-fuel fired power plants under 50-year-old federal laws: the Clean Air Act of 1970, Clean Water Act of 1972 and Resource Conservation Recovery Act of 1976.

The 2024 EPA gave Wyoming and U.S. coal-fired power plants specific end dates.

Cyrus Western and Dave Johnston plant 6 4 26

<title>EPA Announces Push To Rescue Dave Johnston Coal Plant Near Glenrock | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it is proposing a rule to change an Obama-era 2014 Wyoming regional haze plan that would have shuttered the Dave Johnston Unit 3 power plant in Converse County.

EPA Announces Push To Rescue Dave Johnston Coal Plant Near Glenrock

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.

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.

One More For The Road: Saturday, March 16, 2024

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