Dear editor:
Sixteen honorable legislators sent this letter (below) to Governor Gordon this morning.
We feel it is necessary to heighten the Wyoming government's reaction to the lawless Biden administration's attacks on our state's sovereignty and our citizen's way of life. Action must be decisive and immediate.
We are disappointed in the governor's vetoing of Senate File 13 as it was designed to both send a message to the federal government and to seriously take action against their overreach.
I request that you print this letter in it's entirety on your publications.
Please feel free to call with any questions.
Respectfully,
John Bear, Representative
Wyoming House District 31
May 22, 2024
Governor Gordon,
As you know, President Biden’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced last week its intention to end all future coal leasing in the Powder River Basin– a decision in pursuit of the Biden Administration’s anti-American, anti-energy “climate crisis” agenda.
The BLM’s Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) refers to the shuttering of the nation’s largest coal producers as “the no-leasing alternative,” which the agency chose while rejecting the slate of other alternatives before it (including “no action” and “limited leasing” alternatives).
According to the agency, the “no-leasing alternative” was chosen after considering air quality, greenhouse gasses, climate change, public health, socioeconomics, and “environmental justice.”
In the SEIS analysis of the socioeconomic impacts of the “no-leasing alternative,” the BLM admits that millions of Americans presently rely on coal from the Powder River Basin for energy, and even notes that global market coal demands, especially in Asia, are expected to increase.
Nevertheless, the BLM still chose to eliminate the nation’s largest producers of affordable, plentiful, and clean energy. In justifying the unethical and illegal decision, the agency cited Wyoming’s failure to secure a coal export terminal in Washington State:
“A new coal port terminal on the US West Coast is unlikely, as illustrated by the 2021 denial of the US Supreme Court’s acceptance to hear … Wyoming’s complaint that Washington State interfered with their lawful interstate commerce by failing to permit a proposed coal export terminal.” (United States Bureau of Land Management (May 2024). Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) and Proposed Resource Management Plan Amendment, Buffalo Field Office, ES-12).
Wyoming’s appeal was denied by the US Supreme Court not on the merits, but on procedural grounds– the State, at your direction, filed our case too late for it to be heard in a timely manner.
This came two years after your veto of a 2018 bill to initiate litigation against Washington State for blocking access to the pacific markets who desperately wanted our clean coal.
As a cooperating agency under the National Environmental Policy Act, Wyoming has the legal ability– and duty– to resist the BLM’s radical move to destroy Wyoming as we know it.
We implore you to step up, fight back, and protect Wyoming, first and foremost by filing a protest with the Bureau of Land Management, and by preparing for a full-fledged legal battle now– not later.
Sincerely and for Wyoming,
Representative Bill Allemand
Representative John Bear
Representative Jeremy Haroldson
Representative Scott Heiner
Representative Ben Hornok
Representative Chris Knapp
Representative Chip Neiman
Representative Pepper Ottman
Representative Sarah Penn
Representative Rachel Rodriguez-Williams
Representative Daniel Singh
Representative Allen Slagle
Representative Scott Smith
Representative Tomi Strock
Representative Jeanette Ward
Representative John Winter
