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<title>You Still Here: Sunday, December 15, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

You Still Here: Sunday, December 15, 2024

 The story behind the hilarious Nate Bargatze 'George Washington' sketch from Saturday Night Live....

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, June 19th.  I’m Mac Watson

Data centers with huge power needs are lining up to plug into Wyoming’s power grid. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that regulators, utilities and lawmakers are wrestling with how to serve massive electric loads without spiking rates for regular consumers.

“As Senator Case put it to me, it's like comparing Earth to Jupiter, the kind of loads that we used to deal with versus what we're looking at, it's Earth to Jupiter, orders of magnitude different. so into all that matrix comes Senator Lummis. She is pushing a federal fix to, you know, ensure that data centers can connect in a reasonable timeframe to the grid and get the transmission that they need. Does this kind of federalize the grid when it comes to data centers, so is that bypassing local control? Senator Case told me, well, that has implications, you know.”

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

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The Drug Enforcement Administration has installed license plate cameras on or around the Wind River Reservation, authorities confirmed Thursday. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Sen. Cale Case calls it “somewhat '1984'-ish.” 

“The BIA finally confirms, ‘Look, it wasn't us.’ The DA, the Drug Enforcement Administration, has an agreement with the tribes, and so my efforts over the past several months to get the tribes to comment have been futile, but Senator Cale Case, at a committee meeting on Tuesday, said this is the growing surveillance state. In an interview Thursday, he said, ‘This is 1984 ish.’ that doesn't mean everyone within the tribe agrees, but the statements, the public statements, have been that the tribal governments entered into an agreement with the DEA to put these up.”

Sen. Case added that the installation of the camera is “a big step in our surveillance society.”

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John Bear, one of the most powerful members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, has a GOP challenger for his Gillette House district. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports challenger Doug Moore says the difference between him and his opponent is he doesn’t see himself “being a career politician.” 

“So you got Doug Moore, who works in the coal sector, who's a business owner, longtime resident of Gillette, and you've got John Baer, who also has has backed the coal industry and has been a budget hawk in the legislature. So, looking at these two men, I asked Doug, like, ‘What's the differences? Are you going to join the Freedom Caucus?’ Because John Baer is a big Freedom Caucus, a big voice for the Freedom Caucus, and Doug Moore said, ‘No.’ He feels that the Freedom Caucus derives too much direction from its national umbrella entity, and he said he wants to represent the people.”

Bear countered Moore’s statement with “I am the only conservative in this race.”

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A man in Yellowstone who was caught stepping illegally onto a fragile hot spring could get jail time and a hefty fine when park rangers catch up to him. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that a visitor who posted a photo of the trespasser said, “Don’t be this guy.”

“When Yellowstone catches someone in the act of thermal trespass, they impose fines and even jail time as a way to deter people from repeating the behavior, from straying off the boardwalk, from stepping on the fragile thermal features, because it protects themselves from serious injury or even potentially death, and it protects the fragile landscape, so everyone can enjoy it, but apparently all the fines and jail time and signs and boardwalks aren't enough to stop people, as was evidenced by this person who was caught stepping onto the very fragile terraces at Mammoth Hot Spring, looking for what I can only assume to be a better selfie.”

Earlier this year, 50-year-old Eric Bedient was 

for walking directly across Canary Spring, Mound Terrace, Palette Hot Spring, and Jupiter Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs in November 2025.

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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A long-awaited speed test to see whether Wyoming pronghorn are faster than Africa’s cheetahs was a bust. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that a buck and a doe antelope were captured this spring near Pinedale by Wyoming Game and Fish researchers, with the animals outfitted with high-tech speed tracking collars and set loose.

“They went through all this and everybody was excited, and the darned antelope never got the, I think, the buck that his fastest speed was 27 miles an hour, and it's, it is because what they were hoping for is after they were captured and messed with and set free, they take off running really fast, they didn't, I mean, they went like 20 miles an hour, which, you know, it's probably like a trot for an antelope. for the rest of the two or three hour testing period, they were just wandering around.”

Officials are hoping to do another test in the winter with the challenge being how to nudge the pronghorn into an all-out sprint, without unnecessarily harassing or stressing them.  

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. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland that Mocsary says “the case is ultimately about whether government can take away a constitutional right.”

“I was asking him about this law, and he's like, this is bigger than marijuana, or I was asking him about this case, you know, and he said, this is bigger than marijuana. Firstly, guns are part of our everyday life here in Wyoming, but secondly, if the government can just kind of create a broad category untethered from specific showings of danger for that person in that category, then who's next? I mean, I'm paraphrasing, but that's kind of the indication he gave.”

A federal law 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.

Wyoming's congressional delegation says they don’t support a Democrat bill that bans the sale of large swaths of federal lands. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Rep. Harriet Hageman says she opposes any effort that threatens our Western way of life. 

“Senator Cynthia Lummis, Senator John Barrasso, and Representative Harriet Hagman, all oppose this. They say it's, it's kind of a devil in disguise bill that they see it just causing more problems and causing more federal control and less public access to Wyoming's public lands. I also talked to some Wyoming conservationists who are at least from what they can tell kind of like what they know of the bill so far.”

The lead bill is H.R. 9176, the Public Lands Integrity Act, introduced to the House earlier this month by Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-New Mexico. A mirror bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado.

For 15 years, Steve Braithwaite has driven a 23-foot banana across the country. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that on Wednesday, just like hundreds of times before, he was pulled over by law enforcement. 

“Steve Braithwaite was pulled over in Billings, Montana by a highway patrol trooper. The trooper said that his luggage on the back was covering up his license plate, but Braithwaite claims this happens all the time. He says he is one of the most pulled over men in America. He believes that law enforcement officers are just, just trying to get a closer look at his banana car. He's been driving this car for over 12 years. He got started because he was an antique car collector, and he says that he got bored going to the old car shows. When he was standing in the gas station line, he noticed a banana, and it wasn't curved like a regular banana, it was straight, and that got the wheels turning, and he began to think about how he would make an automobile out of a piece of fruit.”

Braithwaite tells Cowboy State Daily that he’s driving from his native Michigan to Seattle, Washington with his goal to reach all 50 states in his banana car.

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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 2 6 19 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Friday, June 19, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Friday's headlines include:
* Outrage Over Surveillance Cameras
* Delegation Says No To Banning Land Bill
* Unprecedented Power Demand From Data Centers

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Friday, June 19, 2026

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

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Mostly sunny to sunny in Wyoming on Friday. Partly to mostly cloudy overnight. Highs from the low 70s to upper 80s. Lows in the 40s and 50s.

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Mostly sunny today with a high near 82 and partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 53 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph.

Sunny today with a high near 85 and increasing clouds overnight with a low near 55.

 Sunny today with a high near 84 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 50 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

 Sunny today with a high near 84 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 53.

  Sunny today with a high near 87 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 53 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

Sunny today with a high near 88 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 55.

Gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

 Mostly sunny today with a high near 84 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 49.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 83 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Increasing clouds overnight with a low near 50 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

 Sunny today with a high near 77 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 86 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Increasing clouds overnight with a low near 49.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Mostly sunny today with a high near 77 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 42.

:  Sunny today with a high near 77 and increasing clouds overnight with a low near 53.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 82 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 53.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 73 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 52.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 76 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 48.

:  Mostly sunny today with a high near 72 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 49.

Sunny today with a high near 75 and wind gusts as high as 16 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 50 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph.

  Increasing clouds today with a high near 76 and wind gusts as high as 17 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 54 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph.

:  Mostly sunny today with a high near 69 and wind gusts as high as 16 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain after midnight, a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 17 mph.

  Sunny today with a high near 84 and increasing clouds overnight with a low near 59.

  Sunny today with a high near 82 and increasing clouds overnight with a low near 57.

  Sunny today with a high near 83 and increasing clouds overnight with a low near 57.

  Mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Increasing clouds overnight with a low near 53.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 79 and partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 50 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 82 and wind from 10-20 mph. Increasing clouds overnight with a low near 54.

  Sunny today with a high near 82 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 54.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 82 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 53.

  Sunny today with a high near 88 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 51.

Daycap 6 19 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Friday, June 19, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Friday, June 19, 2026

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

A federal agency has an agreement with Wyoming's two tribes to run license plate reader cameras on the reservation, authorities confirmed Thursday. 

Cowboy State Daily has observed license plate reader cameras already installed on roadside posts at the north entrance to the reservation abutting Riverton, and the south entrance from the Lander side.

The license plate readers are put up by DEA (the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) through an agreement with the tribe, said U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs spokesman Joshua Barnett in a Thursday email. Barnett added that the BIA is "not part of that agreement." 

Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP) Lt. Col. Karl Germain told lawmakers during a Tuesday committee meeting that the WHP was working with the BIA to put up the cameras. 

But Germain clarified in a Thursday phone call, saying he misspoke and was trying to highlight the cameras can be a good tool in crisis situations. 

"Highway Patrol doesn’t have any LPRs," said Germain. "We have no mechanism to purchase those or put them up." But the patrol's umbrella agency, the Wyoming Highway Patrol, manages the highway right-of-way and is responsible for authorizing camera installations, he said. 

The Select Committee on Tribal Relations, which is a state legislative panel,

discuss how state law interacts with the two tribal governments of Wyoming: the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone

There, Germain said, “Those (cameras) are obviously helpful for a number of reasons, and you know I fully recognize some of the privacy concerns of with that."  For missing person cases or Amber alerts, those cameras “can be invaluable to help recover that person in a timely manner,” said German. “There aren’t a lot of cameras in Wyoming right now. If the reservation is able to put those up, it’s just another tool at the disposal of law enforcement.”

Committee Co-Chair Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, voiced concern, calling the cameras a facet of “big surveillance.”

“It’s a big step in our surveillance society,” said Case. “Not quite as far as England where they have facial recognition all the way through London but … it feels that way a little bit.”

 the controversy surrounding the cameras. 

License plate readers are cameras, generally facing roadways, that capture images of vehicles and license 

 and log dates and times for those images. The devices can also capture images of drivers and occupants of vehicles and passersby.

Case amplified his comments in a Thursday interview, saying the license plate readers, government-accessible DNA databases, facial recognition technology and other government surveillance measures now in play would have been "appalling" to the Founding Fathers. 

"All this stuff is somewhat '1984'-ish," said Case, referring to George Orwell's dystopian novel about an authoritarian surveillance state. 

[{"type":"text","text":"This Drug Trafficking"}]

The cameras have been posted for "months" Wyoming Department of Transportation public relations specialist Cody Beers told Cowboy State Daily. 

An advocate of the license plate readers, Nicole Wagon touted them as useful and important during a Jan. 27 meeting of the Tribal Relations Committee. 

Wagon, who lost one daughter to murder and another to hypothermia amid suspicious circumstances, is an advocate for better safety measures for indigenous people.

“It’s a component to stop the violence. It’s a component to make it safe for all the community members,” said Wagon of the cameras, 

She said the Wind River Intertribal Council, which comprises executive-branch governments of both tribes, signed a resolution in 2024 to work with license plate reader efforts on the reservation.

Neither the Eastern Shoshone Business Council nor the Northern Arapaho Business Council responded to Cowboy State Daily’s 

requests for comment, however the ESBC’s spokeswoman requested more information on the topic, which 

Cowboy State Daily inquired of the BIA at that time, and the agency said on Feb. 3 that it “does not have license plate readers on the Wind River Indian Reservation” and to check with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). 

The agency’s spokesman Joshua Barnett said Thursday in a follow-up exchange that the DEA puts up the license plate readers “through an agreement with the tribe,” of which BIA is not a part.

While he did not confirm the cameras’ presence or use, DEA Public Affairs Officer Stephan Tubbs wrote in a Jan. 28 email that, “The key trafficking routes for the Mexican Cartels across our Rocky Mountain Field Division are the I-25, I-70, and I-80 corridors in Colorado and Wyoming.”

“These highways are arteries for the cartels to bring their poison — namely fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine — into and across our nation,” Tubbs said, adding that targeting cartel routes is “vital.”

“Any and all tools available need to be utilized to save American lives from the continuing deadly impact the cartels and their dangerous drugs inflict on our communities,” said Tubbs. He referred back to that statement when Cowboy State Daily sent a follow-up inquiry in May. 

The FBI, which also performs law enforcement functions and investigations on the reservation, declined in a Feb. 2 email from FBI public affairs officer Vikki Migoya to comment “about investigative techniques or law enforcement tools we might or might not use.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Criminals Or 'Complete Morons'"}]

Erick Blackburn, former chief of the Wind River’s BIA outpost, discussed the cameras on a public Facebook exchange last month.

 map showing two of the cameras stationed at the reservation’s Riverton entrance.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has installed license plate cameras on or around the Wind River Reservation, authorities confirmed Thursday. "All this stuff is somewhat '1984'-ish," Sen. Cale Case said. "It’s a big step in our surveillance society.”

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