By a stroke of luck, within the borders of Wyoming lie vast resources our nation needs – coal, oil, natural gas, lithium, uranium, helium, bentonite, trona, rare earth minerals, strong winds, a piercing sun and more.
To date, we have been able to extract a portion of the potential from these resources, which has led to great employment opportunities, low taxes and government services for all Wyoming citizens.
The resources available in Wyoming will continue to be used. They also have unrealized potential that can be extracted as technologies evolve.
There is a hurdle to overcome in realizing this untapped potential, a hurdle uniquely situated across Western states – federal oversight.
To be granted federal approval, companies must undergo intense and time-draining environmental reviews. These are necessary, as undue degradation of our environment is unacceptable.
But since our nation’s primary environmental laws were passed over 50 years ago, they have seen only minor revisions. This has led to 50 years of courts and federal agencies interpreting and morphing the law’s intent. It has left things in a sad state.
In 2023, the Bureau of Land Management estimated that economic activity derived from lands it manages eclipsed $26 billion – 66 percent of Wyoming’s total GDP last year. These activities support nearly 77,000 jobs. That’s 27 percent of Wyoming’s labor force.
If we want this contribution to our economy to continue – to grow – something needs to change. Fortunately, that change is on the precipice of being realized with what is now packaged as the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024.
This bill looks across the spectrum of energy and energy-related infrastructure projects and offers meaningful updates to how they are reviewed and approved. Beneficial to Wyoming, it will inject certainty into our bedrock industries.
The act incorporates logic into the nation’s permitting of electric transmission infrastructure, which has been sorely missing. Electric transmission has allowed for generation facilities to be built across our state, anchoring employment in Gillette to Kemmerer and many communities in between.
It will encourage development of more renewable energy, hardrock mining and geothermal projects. Forecasts project electricity demand will increase by 27 percent by 2050. We’ll need all-resources-on-deck to meet that challenge – why shouldn’t Wyoming be front and center?
The bill will also increase the potential for new, innovative technologies to be built in Wyoming, providing that opportunity to tap into the additional unrealized and substantial potential these resources hold.
And importantly, this act will pursue judicial reform, setting deadlines within which judicial action must be pursued. By creating certainty on permitting and litigation, this act will increase the confidence of the private sector, showing that Wyoming is a solid long-term investment.
The Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 recently passed the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. It needs to make it to the President’s desk.
Passage will pave the way for more economic opportunities at home. That means jobs, low taxes and good government services. Let’s get it to the finish line.
Jared Olsen serves House District 11 in Laramie County and is Chairman of the House Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Committee.
