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

<title>Bonus Video 1: Friday, July 26, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Bonus Video 1: Friday, July 26, 2024

 Call me old-fashioned, but the traditional mail service was working just fine....

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

Renée Jean

Energy

Wyoming has long prided itself on being an energy powerhouse, exporting far more electricity than its residents consume.

The state exports roughly 12 times more power than it uses, a fact regularly touted by data centers planning to build in Wyoming, who suggest their projects will help keep more of that power at home.

But beneath their hopeful rhetoric are a few hard-edged realities that haven’t been talked about as much. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Take Project Jade as just one example. "}]

The massive — or “hyperscale” —data center will come into Wyoming using an initial 2.7 gigawatts of power — roughly three times what the state uses now — and it can scale to 10 gigawatts. 

That’s almost as much power as Wyoming produces in total, according to the federal Energy Information Administration, whose most recent figures list net summer power generation capacity for Wyoming at 10.8 gigawatts in 2024.

Project Jade, meanwhile, isn’t the only large-load proposal in the queue. 

Meta, Related Digital, Microsoft — Cheyenne has 14 data centers that are either under construction or have entered definite planning stages, according to figures from Cheyenne LEADS. 

That makes grid consumption one ginormous elephant trying to squeeze into Wyoming’s electricity room. 

No one is yet sure just how to accommodate the unprecedented power needs of these data centers.

“It’s like comparing the Earth to Jupiter,” state Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s taken us over 100 years to grow the electric grid to where we are today. Over 100 years.”

Now state regulators, utilities and industrial consumers are scrambling to answer the same basic question. How can the electricity grid accommodate this kind of out-size growth without adversely affecting regular residential consumers?

For Wyoming Office of Consumer Advocate Director Anthony Ornelas, the concern isn’t abstract. 

He was blunt about saying that Wyoming’s grid is nowhere near ready to serve the kinds of loads now being contemplated. There’s nowhere that he sees as ready for a 10 gigawatt facility right now.

“I feel very confident in saying that … pretty much anywhere within the state, we are not yet able to handle that type of load growth,” Ornelas said. “It’s going to require new generation, and it’s going to require a substantial amount of high voltage or grid-level transmission build-out as well.”

So far there’s no consensus either on how to get there, even as multiple legislative committees grapple with the questions.

“It’s at the forefront of everyone’s minds,” Ornelas said. “It’s being discussed in the Corporations Committee, in the Minerals Committee, in the Revenue Committee and, I’m less involved, but also the Blockchain Committee.

"Over the past few years, there has been various types and forms of legislation intended to try to get a handle on this or address it … and I would just say there’s a lot of differing opinions depending on which interests are kind of advocating at the moment.”

The only clear consensus, so far, is that whatever solutions are adopted, they must hold regular residential consumers harmless.

Rocky Mountain Power representative Tom Carter told lawmakers during a June 4 Minerals Committee meeting that his company has been working on the problem the past several years. 

“We have conversations about legacy customers and their growth,” he said. “We have conversations around data centers and their growth and opportunities. We have conversations about growth through economic development.”

All of those are different types of loads with different types of challenges. 

For the last century, Rocky Mountain Power’s growth has been built around traditional, “zero-to-25-megawatt” customers, which range from residential consumers to small industrial users and shopping centers, which has grown at a flat rate of around 2 to 3%.

That kind of growth doesn’t trigger much investment due to the regulatory compact utilities operate under. It could mean a substation here or a short line there, nudging capacity forward as communities slowly grow. 

Hyperscale projects, meanwhile, are talking about loads that range from three to 10 times what Wyoming residents consume — a century’s worth of growth in one or two deals.

One problem with those loads, Carter said, is that they often appear speculative in nature.

“Maybe they don’t have an existing customer yet,” he said. “But they could potentially have an existing customer, whether it’s the hyperscaler space or in the economic development world.”

Regardless, there’s no existing revenue model for utilities to handle speculative loads.

“The question we have to ask ourselves, not just as a utility, but as a state, is who should carry the risk on a speculative load?” he said. “The utility does play a role in making this a reality, but we are not necessarily the driver in all economic development. 

"We have a role to play and we want to work with the state, and with this committee, and with our communities and with our customers on making sure these situations can and will move forward.”

Carter added he appreciates seeing what other parts of the state are doing, such as Cheyenne’s large-load tariff, but added that other parts of the state are different, and there “isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.”

“Let’s try not to pigeon-hole a solution,” he said. “But let’s identify ways to allow for regions and industries and organizations to find the solution that works best for them.”

One Model: Cheyenne’s Large-Load Tariff

In Cheyenne, regulators and Black Hills Energy have been wrestling with the questions surrounding large-load data centers for more than a decade.

The utility partnered with Microsoft to develop a large-load tariff designed to ensure that data centers would pay 100% of the cost of serving them power, from infrastructure to the power itself.

“The tariff allows us to provide market energy and renewable energy options to data centers without impact on retail rates and creates a clear separation where the large customer is responsible for the costs associated with the new infrastructure needed to serve them,” Black Hills Energy told Cowboy State Daily in an email. 

“While our existing residential and small business customers remain insulated,” the company adds. "In addition to our LPCS tariff, we use service agreements, facilities agreements, deposits, and other negotiated commitments to manage the energy demands of large use customers and potential customers.”  

That approach has worked well so far to insulate regular consumers in Cheyenne from rate hikes.

“Black Hills Energy’s tariff is working somewhat,” Case said. “It’s hard to say it’s not. It’s brought some large loads onto the system. It’s had the blessing of the Public Service Commission.”

But none of those loads were as big as the proposed loads working their way to Cheyenne.

“Only Tallgrass is doing that kind of load now,” Case said, referencing the company developing Project Jade. “And it’s a ways from being operational.”

Ornelas agreed the tariff has so far done a good job of “isolating those we call hyperscale or data center type loads from the remaining customer base.”

“That includes any energy they purchase from the market,” he said. “It includes any generation capacity that they choose to build or contract to have built. It also includes any upgrades or new builds of transmission facilities to transport that power.”

But the solution hasn’t seemed to work for other parts of the state, Ornelas added, despite numerous attempts at legislation to help unlock the economic potential these types of developments offer.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Federal Solutions Needed?"}]

As Wyoming officials wrestle with how to handle the “Jupiter-sized” loads coming at the state, U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, is pushing a federal fix she says is aimed at protecting grid reliability and ratepayers nationwide.

Lummis on Thursday introduced the POWER Up Act to “modernize rules for high-power grid connections, by creating “clear, uniform federal rules for how massive electricity users — anything with the load of a city like a large data center — connect to the interstate electrical transmission grid.”

Lummis’ bill would define the threshold of a large user as 100 megawatts or more. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) could adjust that figure if needed for grid reliability, the release added.

It would also let FERC handle these large loads, ensuring that data centers and advanced manufacturing facilities get the same “just and reasonable” standard that governs transmission services for power generation. 

FERC would have 18 months to issue a final rule setting standardized procedures for large-load interconnection, including hybrid facilities that pair on-site generation with grid-connected loads at a single point of interconnection.

The bill includes a carve-out for state authority, protecting state and local jurisdictions over siting, permitting, construction, retail rates, local distribution and generation.

“When a facility wants to draw as much power as a city, that is not an ordinary retail question. It is a grid question,” said Lummis. “Ratepayers need a clear process, informed by best practices, clear rules, and clear accountability. That is what this bill provides.”

America needs more power for data centers, Lummis added, as well as advanced manufacturing. It’s a matter of economic and national security. 

“The question is whether we handle that growth with clear rules and reliable planning, or with confusion and delay,” she said. “Massive demand is here, and America needs a framework that supports investment in our communities while protecting the grid and the people who rely on it every day.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mixed Reaction In Wyoming"}]

Reaction in Wyoming to Lummis’ POWER Up Act was mixed. Some warned it would weaken state control, while others welcomed it as a needed framework for massive new power demands.

Case said the bill essentially “federalizes” large-load connections like those coming to Cheyenne. 

“This has implications,” he said. “FERC hasn’t always been the most timely agency to deal with. Large loads are 100 megawatts, so way below the scale talked about by the newest data centers.”

Open access, as required by the bill, meanwhile, will increase competition and could mean utilities aren’t supplying the energy — something Case anticipates utility companies will oppose.

Rocky Mountain Power told Cowboy State Daily by email that it hadn’t had a chance to fully review the proposal, but pointed out that 

Wyoming does have an established framework for large electric loads that is designed to protect reliability and existing customers.

“We look forward to seeing how this proposal complements what the state is doing,” the statement said.

Heather Madrid, who has been circulating a petition against data centers, said she saw the legislation as “good for most places,” but added her concerns are about things like land consumption and squeezing out other businesses, and housing impacts.

“(Data centers don’t generate foot traffic and they’re ugly, fenced-off warehouses,” she said. “It’s unattractive for retail, hospitality, tourism, outdoor recreation, etc.” 

She also lamented the sense that taxpayers and voters have lost their voice “because most of our elected leaders are representing the wealthiest people in the world instead of doing their jobs, which is to protect us from them, not the other way around.”

Cheyenne LEADS Executive Director Betsey Hale called the proposed legislation a “win-win-win-win.”

“(It’s) a win for large users, a win for rate payers, a win for communities, and a win for Wyoming energy,” she said. “Uniformity in regulations and predictability in process are critical for economic growth of all large load users and for protection of existing rate payers.”

Rep. Daniel Singh, R-Cheyenne, on the other hand, sees it as much-needed clarity.

“I’m very glad to see Sen. Lummis leading on this,” he said. “She understands Wyoming’s role as an energy powerhouse, and she has consistently been ahead of the curve on the intersection of energy, technology and federal policy.

Transmission bottlenecks are real, Singh added, especially when it comes to data centers, AI facilities and other large industrial loads coming online. Clearing that up just helps Wyoming, which he sees as the “mitochondria of America.”

“Wyoming is one of the great power-producing states in the country and we should be able to move Wyoming energy efficiently to major loads across the country,” he said. “That helps our producers, strengthens the grid, and keeps America competitive.”

Naughton substation 6 18 26

<title>Wyoming Wrestles With Unprecedented Power Demand From Massive Data Centers | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Data centers with huge power needs are lining up to plug into Wyoming’s power grid. Regulators, utilities and lawmakers are wrestling with how to serve “Jupiter-size” electric loads without spiking rates for regular consumers.

Wyoming Wrestles With Unprecedented Power Demand From Massive Data Centers

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

Clair McFarland

Crime & Courts

Courts

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday held that marijuana use alone isn’t enough to let the federal government charge a person with a felony for possessing a gun.

A federal law known under its short statutory code of 922(g)(3) bars habitual users of unlawful drugs from knowingly possessing guns. People convicted under that law can face 15 years in prison and lose their carry rights for life.

In the case of a Texan with dual Pakistani-

citizenship, some marijuana in his house, an every-other-day habit of using, and a gun, the government can’t prosecute him without violating his Second Amendment rights, says the unanimous Thursday opinion 

The opinion upholds an earlier Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and also dismisses the Trump administration’s arguments in defense of the drug-user gun ban.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming is one of 10 states where marijuana remains illegal."}]

This opinion should matter to Wyomingites as well as any other American,

George Mocsary told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

“We should care here in Wyoming because the case is ultimately about whether government can take away a constitutional right, including one we care a lot about here, based on a broad label rather than proven dangerousness,” said Mocsary. “The court said it can’t.”

The case isn’t just about marijuana, but about the government’s ability to hinge one’s rights on its own broad characterizations of certain people as dangerous, added Mocsary, 

who is a professor of law at the University of Wyoming and founder and director of the UW Firearms Research Center.

He emphasized that guns are part of ordinary life in Wyoming, from self-defense to hunting, ranching, and protection in remote areas.

“Once the government can disarm people simply by declaring a category dangerous, the same reasoning could be invoked against other common conduct said to correlate with risk, including something as ordinary as repeated speeding,” he said.

Mocsary said the court preserved an important distinction: the government can regulate dangerous conduct, but not “simply convert broad public-safety concerns into categorical disarmament of peaceable citizens.”

In the unanimous opinion, Gorsuch wrote that the Trump administration’s arguments that the ban on marijuana users possessing guns is rooted in the nation’s historical gun-laws tradition is unpersuasive.

That’s a reference to recent case law saying the government has to justify gun restrictions as on par with the nation’s historical tradition.

The federal government had tried to show that the ban equates to historical laws exposing habitual drunkards to restrictions like guardianships, commitments, and tougher bond arrangements.

ted people who were so habitually drunk, they were “practically incapacitated” and couldn’t conduct their affairs. Those laws would also involve a pre-judgment test to determine if a person fit that description, Gorsuch countered.

For this case’s defendant Danial Hemani, “the government claimed Mr. Hemani faced up to 15 years in prison and disarmament for life,” since he had a gun in his home and admitted to using marijuana about every other day.

“As the government construes 922(g)(3) and seeks to apply it here, the law automatically bans an individual from possessing a gun from the moment he becomes an unlawful user of any controlled substance until he ceases being one,” wrote Gorsuch. "(In the government’s view) it doesn’t matter what controlled substance an individual uses, in what amounts he does so, or whether his drug use has ever made him a danger to himself or others. 

"It doesn’t even matter why he keeps a gun or how safely he does so.”

The opinion courses over the heavy drinking habits of many of the Founding Fathers, the increasingly permissive stance the federal government has taken toward marijuana over the past 13 years, and the logical lapse between the government’s Controlled Substances Act and drug-user gun ban.

The Controlled Substances Act was passed to protect Americans’ “health and general welfare,” so some of its various drug categories can have “little or nothing to do with (drugs’) potential to induce violence.”

That severs the gun possession ban’s reliance on the Controlled Substances Act from a presumption that banned drugs make all users dangerous, the opinion notes.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion to say that a federal ban on gun possession isn’t justified under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, because merely possessing a gun isn’t the same as sending or receiving one through interstate commerce.

Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson wrote and Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined their own concurrence, agreeing with the outcome of the case but disputing the newer, more permissive gun-rights test the majority used to reach it.

Pot smoker and supreme court 6 18 26

<title>Firearms Expert Says Supreme Court Marijuana Case Important For Wyoming Gun Owners | Cowboy State Daily</title>

George Mocsary, a firearms law expert, says the U.S. Supreme Court's Thursday opinion upholding a marijuana user's right to keep a gun is important for Wyoming. "The case is ultimately about whether government can take away a constitutional right," he said.

Firearms Expert Says Supreme Court Marijuana Case Important For Wyoming Gun Owners

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

CHEYENNE — A jury trial remains scheduled to start in less than two months for a 14-year-old charged as an adult with first-degree murder, accused of shooting his mother in the head after an argument over a stolen electronic tablet.

Laramie County Sheriff’s Office investigators say Havoc Leone admitted to shooting his mother, 41-year-old Theresa McIntosh, after she had called him “retarded” and a “thief” on March 6.

If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. The death penalty isn’t an option in this case because of Leone’s age.

, one of Leone’s attorneys outlined an alleged pattern of emotional abuse that may have driven the teen to act out.

Leone is an emotionally vulnerable child who had been subjected to a pattern of degrading treatment by a mentally ill mother, argued defense attorney Jonathan Foreman.

“If I called you ‘retarded,’ would you believe it?” Foreman asked Laramie County Sheriff’s Office Detective Miles DePrimo, who testified about the details of the case during the March 18 preliminary hearing.

Those details included Leone admitting to hating his mother and shooting her.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"DePrimo answered, “No.”"}]

“Would a child who had been hearing that his whole childhood start to question that?” Foreman followed up.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Maybe,” the detective answered."}]

“Ms. McIntosh, who was mentally ill … regularly called him ‘retarded,’ pulled his hair,” and slapped him, said Foreman.

Conversely, Laramie County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Strickland argued that Leone expressed a long-simmering hatred for his mother, had thoughts about killing her, and then followed through when presented an opportunity.

“Right before pulling the trigger on the gun, Theresa yelled at him again if he was ‘retarded,’” Strickland said, recounting an interview Leone had with an investigator. “He said, ‘Yes mom,’ and pulled the trigger.”

 to the first-degree murder charge, setting up a jury trial scheduled to begin Aug. 10.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Argument"}]

McIntosh was still alive when sheriff’s deputies arrived at their house, summoned by a 911 call from his father, who heard the shot while he was playing video games in the basement of their home, according to DePrimo’s court testimony and an affidavit of probable cause he wrote and filed in the case.

After Leone, his mother, and father argued about the electronic tablet he allegedly stole from a client of his mother’s cleaning business, they all went their separate ways in their three-level home just south of the Cheyenne city limits, according to DePrimo’s affidavit.

The father went into the basement to play video games, McIntosh was upstairs in Leone’s room doing a puzzle on the floor, while Leone was at the kitchen table doing homework.

At some point, Leone went up to his room where McIntosh was, and they began arguing again, DePrimo wrote.

A gun the teen stole from his mother’s car the week prior, a Taurus 9mm pistol, had been stashed in a boot in Leone’s closet, the detective wrote. 

At one point during their argument, Leone went to the closet to retrieve a notebook that supposedly had a password to access the stolen tablet, the affidavit says. Leone also pulled the gun out of the boot and held it by his side to hide it from McIntosh.

With McIntosh sitting back on her knees on the floor, Leone told detectives that he tossed the notebook at her, which forced the woman to lean forward away from him, exposing the back of her head, DePrimo testified at the preliminary hearing.

“As she knelt forward, he revealed the gun and shot her,” he said, adding that being called “retarded” seemed to be a trigger for the teen.

“By tossing that notebook, he put her in a position to be shot in the back of the head?” Strickland asked, to which DePrimo answered in the affirmative.

McIntosh was shot once in the head behind her left ear, he added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Dad Heard And Saw"}]

Leone’s father heard the gunshot from the basement and went upstairs to see what had happened. There, he encountered his son outside the bedroom, DePrimo wrote.

When he asked the teen what happened, the father told detectives Leone answered, “I don’t know, it just went off,” DePrimo said.

Leone himself at first told detectives that McIntosh had the gun and handed it to him, the detective testified. During that act, he said that “his finger slipped” and the gun fired.

Later, he told another detective the account involving getting the gun out of the boot.

Leone also said that “he had thought about killing Theresa then” at the time he stole the gun from his mother’s car, “but he didn’t,” DePrimo testified.

“He didn’t like to be called names and didn’t know how to express his anger and hatred to her,” he added.

When cross-examined by Foreman, DePrimo admitted that while Leone was asked about his negative feelings toward his mother, he wasn’t asked about the opposite.

“Did you ever ask him if he loved his mother?” Foreman asked. “Are you familiar with the term ‘love-hate relationship?’”

Foreman also explored the initial report to 911 by McIntosh’s common-law husband that she may have tried to kill herself.

“But the initial assumption by her husband was that she killed herself, is that right?” he asked, to which DePrimo answered he didn’t know.

Leone remains at the Laramie County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.

Havoc Leones house and Theresa Mc Intosh 3 18 26

<title>Cheyenne 14-Year-Old Charged As Adult In Mom’s Shooting Set For Trial | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Cheyenne 14-year-old charged as an adult with first-degree murder in the death of his mother is set for a jury trial in less than two months. His defense claims he was emotionally abused, while investigators say he admitted he hated his mother.

Cheyenne 14-Year-Old Charged As Adult In Mom’s Shooting Set For Trial

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wyoming Life

A Montana police officer spotted the giant banana rolling through Billings on Wednesday afternoon and did what countless law enforcement officers have done before him.

[{"type":"text","text":"He turned around and pulled it over."}]

For Steve Braithwaite, owner, builder and full-time driver of the 23-foot-long Big Banana Car, the stop was less of a surprise than a tradition.

"I would see a police car going the other way and get my documents ready," Braithwaite told Cowboy State Daily from Seattle on Thursday morning. "I knew they were going to loop around and pull me over." 

After 15 years, more than 250,000 miles and enough roadside conversations to fill a produce aisle, Braithwaite has learned that driving a giant banana attracts attention.

[{"type":"text","text":"Especially from cops."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They always find a reason to pull me over,\" Braithwaite said. "}]

in this case it was an issue with the license plate, but ultimately he was not given a ticket.  

Braithwaite figures he may have spent the better part of a decade as one of the most frequently pulled-over drivers in America.

[{"type":"text","text":"Not for speeding, but simply because he was driving a giant banana."}]

"For the first eight or nine years I was the most pulled-over man in America," he said. "It was constant."

[{"type":"text","text":"Often officers simply wanted photographs."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Other times they invented reasons to start a conversation."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"His favorite stop happened in a small mountain town in West Virginia."}]

A traffic light turned red. Braithwaite stopped. The light turned green and he made a leisurely turn through the intersection.

[{"type":"text","text":"A few moments later, flashing lights appeared behind him."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"A police officer marched up to the banana and delivered the news."}]

"'The reason I pulled you over, that light back there, you peeled out.'"

[{"type":"text","text":"For a moment, Braithwaite didn't know if he was being serious or not."}]

"He said it so straight-faced," Braithwaite recalled. "And I'm like, 'Oh yeah.'"

[{"type":"text","text":"The banana jokes, he said, are \"never-ending.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Fortunately, so are the laughs."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"How It All Started"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The whole thing began in a gas station in 2008."}]

Braithwaite, a lifelong hot-rod enthusiast, had become bored attending car shows.

Then he watched an episode of the British television show "Top Gear" featuring bizarre custom-built vehicles, including a street-legal garden shed and a drivable couch.

[{"type":"text","text":"For the next month, his brain worked overtime."}]

"Everything I looked at, I thought, 'can I turn that into a car?'" he said. "My drill, my neighbor's lawn mower, everything."

Then one day he found himself standing beside a bowl of fruit in a gas station. 

[{"type":"text","text":"On top sat a banana."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Not the curved cartoon banana he'd always pictured, but a straighter one."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Suddenly, he could see it."}]

"The windshield would go there. The wheels would go there."

[{"type":"text","text":"Then came the moment that changed everything."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I pictured it driving down the road and died laughing,\" he said."}]

For 15 years, Steve Braithwaite has driven a 23-foot banana across the country and, on Wednesday, just like hundreds of times before, he was pulled over by law enforcement. "They always find a reason to pull me over," Braithwaite said.

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