It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, August 22nd. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by ServeWyoming - Wyoming's center for volunteerism and AmeriCorps service for the last 30 years! For volunteer opportunities, visit ServeWyoming dot org"
The energy-rich Powder River Basin is in upheaval.
Cowboy State Daily’s Pat Maio reports that coal producers Consol Energy., with headquarters in Pittsburgh, and Arch Resources, the nation’s second largest coal producer with headquarters in St. Louis, said Wednesday they’ve agreed to merge in an all-stock deal valued at about $5 billion.
In a separate business transaction disclosed late Tuesday, a Houston-based hedge fund disclosed that it bought a 9.96% position in St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp., which operates the North Antelope Rochelle, Rawhide and Caballo mines.
“It's a double whammy to the Powder River Basin… 40% of all coal that goes to power utilities comes out of the Powder River Basin. And the two largest companies that are in the basin are Peabody and Arch Coal. And with Arch, it's merging with a very company I'm very familiar with back East. They're almost solely into what is called met coal, metallurgical coal….And separate from that, the same time, you have a big hedge fund down in Texas, Houston, Texas, that has invested a nearly 10% stake in Peabody bowl, which is based in St Louis, which is also where Arch is based.”
Mines in the Powder River Basin are struggling to regain their footing. Wyoming recently reported a 25% drop in all coal production in the region during the first six months of the year as compared to 2023 levels.
Read the full story HERE.
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Mudslinging wasn’t just a tactic throughout the 2024 primary campaign, it became a political issue.
One of the most prominent slingers was the dark money-funded, Virginia-based Make Liberty Win, which was active in 40 races around the state. Most of its campaign efforts consisted of negative attacks made against candidates the group didn’t like.
And politics reporter Leo Wolfson says of the 40 candidates MLW supported, 22 won.
“Americans for Prosperity was another group that did some negative advertising… and they did pretty well as well. 12 of their 17 candidates won their races. The Wyoming Freedom Caucus PAC was one of the caught some of the most attention for the negative campaigning it did in its mailers. They won 32 of the 46 races they got involved in.”
During Cowboy State Daily’s live election coverage on Tuesday night, conservative attorney Cassie Craven countered, though, that what can’t be understated in an election is the sheer determination and grit a candidate puts into a campaign.
She said blaming every upset or loss in the primary election on, quote, “nasty mailers is just a disservice,” endquote.
Read the full story HERE.
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A tanker truck crashed into a parked car overnight Tuesday, prompting a jet fuel spill that closed Interstate 80 from Rock Springs to Rawlins for several hours, authorities say.
Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to the Wamsutter Fire Chief, who said a man was in the emergency lane of westbound I-80 changing a tire, but jumped into the back seat of his car just before the tanker crashed into him.
“He was in the backseat for some reason at the moment that the tanker truck collided with the vehicle. It was in the emergency lane,the tanker rolled, and firefighters were able to plug and staunch those leaks when they got on scene, they think between one to two thousand gallons of jet fuel spilled, and they think that the tanker had 10,000 overall.”
The car owner refused medical help, but the driver of the tanker truck was life-flighted to Casper.
Read the full story HERE.
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If you’re wondering where those huge wind turbine blades go after they age and can no longer generate electricity in about 20 to 30 years, there’s a good chance that you’re not the only one wondering.
Landfills across the northern plains states once accepted old wind turbine blades and buried them in their landfills.
But that’s not the case any longer, according to energy reporter Pat Maio.
“I called the Casper landfill, and they haven't taken any blades in since 2021 and then I called another of two other landfills, one in Iowa and one in South Dakota. The one in South Dakota says that, yeah, sure, they'll take them, but you got to mulch them up into little, little, tiny particles, you know, no larger than four inches, and then they'll then you can deliver it to their landfill. And I said, Well, have you done that? And he said, nobody's called to put them there. So where are the blades going? Nobody seems to know.”
Wind farms do repurpose and recycle 90% of all the materials that go into a wind turbine, but the only material not recyclable is the fiberglass, which includes the blades and motor housing components.
Read the full story HERE.
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When an alleged drunk driver drove her GMC Yukon off U.S. Highway 14/16/20 between Cody and Greybull two months ago, Zac Beardall of Zac's Towing and Recovery committed to recovering it.
Two months later, it's still there.
It’s not a run-of-the-mill recovery, though. The SUV is wedged between some large rocks and in a remote spot in northwest Wyoming. It’s going to take a team to get it out, Beardall told Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.
“It's a 7000 pound load with no driving capability, so it's dead weight across a cliff and a bunch of large rocks. But the thing that he said that's interesting is that that's why he's in this business. It's a challenge that makes things interesting. So it's going to be a difficult day, and there might not be any compensation in it, but that's the fun. Is figuring these things out and getting these vehicles out of these precarious spots.”
Since June 8, the Yukon has been wedged between several large rocks halfway down a hillside alongside Highway 14/16/20. It belongs to 59-year-old Suzanne Cole, who was driving it at the time of the incident.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s 2024 primary election will not be remembered for voters storming the polls with long lines at polling places and breaking turnout records.
In fact, it will likely be remembered for just the opposite, as only 122,693 ballots were cast Tuesday. Politics reporter Leo Wolfson says that’s the lowest election vote turnout in a Wyoming primary since 2016.
“That is significant, considering that this is a presidential election year, and those typically tend to have a little bit higher turnout… generally, the the lower vote total in a race, the closer race could be, just because there's just less votes at hand… A lot of incumbents lost their seats, and also just a lot of really, really close races altogether, which was interesting to watch.”
Voter participation tends to always spike for presidential elections, so Wyoming voting may come back up for the November election. Early and absentee voting for that election begins on Oct. 8.
Read the full story HERE.
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A fire in northern Wyoming that exploded Wednesday to more than 5,000 acres has displaced between ten and fifteen families and shut down Interstate 90 between Buffalo and Gillette.
The fire started around 11 a.m. or noon Wednesday south of Buffalo near Crook Road, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland.
“It's kind of a rural area of mostly fields, and because the fire crossed I 90 they had to shut down the interstate on Wednesday afternoon. And so the people of Buffalo are organizing, you know, shelter for animals, pets, livestock. They have been people bringing food and water as well.”
A shelter for displaced families is now open at the Bomber Mountain Civic Center in downtown Buffalo.
Read the full story HERE.
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The Thermopolis-based company that operated the Star Plunge hot springs attractions for Wyoming for nearly 50 years is suing state agencies on claims the state chose a new operator in secret and against its own rules.
C&W Enterprises Inc. filed a civil action in Laramie County District Court on Aug. 5, asking a judge to void the state’s April selection of Wyoming Hot Springs LLC as the new operator for Star Plunge. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that C&W is asking the court to make the state launch a new bid process in which the company can have another shot at securing its lease of 49 years.
“detractors of the star planet operator say this, this attraction is in disarray, you know, let's get some fresh blood in there. But the operator himself is saying… the state had this hush meeting where they chose a new concessionaire. And if you do that if you, if you make an action in what's supposed to be a public meeting, but you don't follow the the public meetings act, according to case law cited in this action, those things you did during the meeting are void.”
The hot springs land belongs to the state, but the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources has leased the attraction to C&W Enterprises since 1975.
Read the full story HERE.
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And someone keeps deliberately arranging dead wild animals at an industrial-area intersection just south of Cheyenne.
Cheyenne Animal Control has responded six times in the past four months to the intersection of South Greeley Highway and East Nation Road to deal with wildlife carcasses that look like they’ve been put there and arranged deliberately. That’s according to crime and courts reporter Clair McFarland.
“Two raccoons and a skunk, all dead without those signs of trauma, laid side by side. I struggle to think of, and perhaps Animal Control was thinking this too, I struggled to think of a scenario in the animal kingdom where that would happen… Animal Control is saying this is very weird and it and it is a dark and shady corner without really industrial or home cameras.”
The sheriff’s office reminds the public that it’s illegal to dump dead animals on highways and public grounds; also ditches, rivers and railroad rights of way. It also urged people who live or travel near that area to report any suspicious activity.
Read the full story HERE.
