It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming! I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom, for Wednesday, April 17th.
Customers of Rocky Mountain Power have heard this before — the company wants a double-digit rate increase.
Cowboy State Daily’s Pat Maio reports that the 8.3% increase last year, which went into effect at the beginning of 2024, came in a general rate case. In this case, RMP wants to raise monthly power bills by 12.3%, or about $139.4 million dollars for residential, commercial and industrial customers.
“what Pacific core is requesting is a rate hike of roughly overall about 12. And well, it's gonna be six to over 16%. But 12% is based on fluctuations in the fuel market and whatnot coal costs, there's been a lot of supply disruptions with coals… They call it a true-up, you know, it went up, you know, we were paying down here, so they have to balance out the costs.”
This new hike in power rates comes on the heels of a controversial rate case last year where RMP wanted to boost everyone’s power bills by nearly 30%.
Weston County commissioners unhappy with their representation in the Legislature have voted to declare a state Senate and House seat vacant.
Political reporter Leo Wolfson says some Wyoming legislators say it’s a move that “they have zero ability to do.”
“The situation in Weston is that they have multiple representatives and senators who represent multiple counties. And they only have one representative that actually lives in western County. I spoke to Western County Commissioner Garrett Morton, who said this is just not constitutional and not right. So what their resolution does is it essentially calls for the creation of two new legislative districts, if not more, to fall within the county boundaries, and not cross county lines for this legislative district. It's a peculiar at best proposal, considering that it's the legislature that's in charge of creating new redistricting efforts and those matters.”
The resolution calls for creating new legislative districts based on county borders.
A pair of animal welfare groups have put up a combined $20,000 in reward money for information that might lead to stiffer penalties against a Sublette County man who allegedly captured a wolf and tormented the animal before killing it.
Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz spoke to representatives of the Center for a Humane Economy and Wolves of the Rockies, who said the money is simply to encourage people to come forward who may have witnessed the incident.
“A lot of people around the country and around the world have expressed anger and disappointment that so far, the only only recorded punishment, in this case has been a $250 fine for illegal possession of a warm blooded animal. It's pretty obvious that any further conviction of this is going to have to go beyond Game and Fish again, Game and Fish. ...And that's what these wildlife conservation groups, that's what they're putting the money up for. They're saying, if you can give us tips that can lead to an arrest or conviction, or sentencing related to the stiffer penalties you could possibly be possibly be eligible for a cash reward.”
The Sublette County Sheriff’s Office last week announced that it’s working with the county attorney’s office and Game and Fish to investigate the matter further and possibly file more charges.
Winter officially ended nearly a month ago on the calendar, but that typically doesn’t mean much for Wyoming, which continues a schizophrenic whiplash between blizzards and barbecues.
The next whip cracks on northwest Wyoming this week, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.
“the most important takeaway that I discussed with Cowboy State daily meteorologist Don Day is that this is the pattern that we're going to be settling into as we go into the latter half of April and May. And that means that we're going to get this continuing whiplash winter effect, where we have warm, sunny days and feel almost like summer, followed by dips into colder temperatures, which will have a lot of precipitation and maybe snow in the higher elevations and elsewhere. But the important takeaway from all of that is, is that the wetter it is now the better summer that we have. So it doesn't look like there's a drought on the horizon. We'll have back the back wet years. And that's largely because of the moisture we're getting today.”
The latest spring storm will primarily impact northern Wyoming, from Cody and the Beartooth Mountains to Sundance and the Black Hills, which has experienced a mild winter so far.
And Casper mountaineer Dr. Joe McGinley leaves Sunday to take on the north face of Mount Everest and achieve a bucket-list goal he’s been chasing for years — summiting the tallest peak on each of the seven continents on Earth.
Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck says this will be McGinley’s second attempt at climbing Everest.
“ he's going to try it from the north side, this time from the Chinese side. And that meant that he had to be qualified at 23,000 foot mountain and he did that out of South America. So he's going on a fast ascent. He said, it's probably gonna take, he's gonna be on the mound for probably 10 days after he gets there. And we're all hoping for the best for him.”
McGinley climbed to the top of Mount Vinson, the highest spot on Antarctica, in January.
And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming’s only statewide newspaper by hitting the subscribe button on CowboyStateDaily.com
I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
Radio Stations
The following radio stations are airing Cowboy State Daily Radio on weekday mornings, afternoons and evenings. More radio stations will be added soon.
KYDT 103.1 FM – Sundance
KBFS 1450 AM — Sundance
KYCN 1340 AM / 92.7 FM — Wheatland
KZEW 101.7 FM — Wheatland
KANT 104.1 FM — Guernsey
KZQL 105.5 FM — Casper
KMXW 92.5 FM — Casper
KBDY 102.1 FM — Saratoga
KTGA 99.3 FM — Saratoga
KJAX 93.5 FM — Jackson
KZWY 106.3 FM — Sheridan
KROE 930 AM / 103.9 FM — Sheridan
KWYO 1410 AM / 106.9 FM — Sheridan
KYOY 92.3 FM Hillsdale-Cheyenne / 106.9 FM Cheyenne
KRAE 1480 AM — Cheyenne
KDLY 97.5 FM — Lander
KOVE 1330 AM — Lander
KZMQ 100.3/102.3 FM — Cody, Powell, Medicine Wheel, Greybull, Basin, Meeteetse
KKLX 96.1 FM — Worland, Thermopolis, Ten Sleep, Greybull
KCGL 104.1 FM — Cody, Powell, Basin, Lovell, Clark, Red Lodge, MT
KTAG 97.9 FM — Cody, Powell, Basin
KCWB 92.1 FM — Cody, Powell, Basin
KVGL 105.7 FM — Worland, Thermopolis, Basin, Ten Sleep
KODI 1400 AM / 96.7 FM — Cody, Powell, Lovell, Basin, Clark, Red Lodge
KWOR 1340 AM / 104.7 FM — Worland, Thermopolis, Ten Sleep
KREO 93.5 FM — Sweetwater and Sublette Counties
KGOS 1490 AM — Goshen County
KERM 98.3 FM — Goshen County
Check with individual radio stations for airtime of the newscasts.
