You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"Little girl imitates her Mom....."}]

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

<title>You Still Here? Wednesday, March 12, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Little girl imitates her Mom.....

You Still Here? Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Ken Buck

Opinion

CSD Columnists

With the midterm elections just around the corner, candidates on both sides of the political aisle are hitting the campaign trail in earnest. As voters consider their options, there's one question they should demand a simple, honest answer to: How much does our national debt increase the cost of everything we buy?

The alarm bells are sounding -- and they have been for a long time. This year, our country's debt surpassed 100% of GDP. In other words, it would require every dollar produced by our economy to pay off our IOUs. And it's growing by more than $6 billion every day.

But there's a more basic truth that should motivate voters to action. Our national debt, and lawmakers' refusal to get it under control, is making life more expensive for ordinary Americans.

For a family with a 30-year mortgage at last year's median home price, the federal debt has added about $2,500 per year in additional borrowing costs, or about $76,000 over the life of the loan.

That's because, as Yale University's Budget Lab notes, Congress's out-of-control spending over just the past decade alone has added a full percentage point to Treasury yields, which serve as an anchor point for lending rates. When the government has to pay more to service the federal debt, Americans pay more to borrow.

In other words, Congress's spending money it doesn't have for programs we don't need is making the goods and services that Americans really do need more expensive.

This isn't hypothetical, pie-in-the-sky economics. It's cold, hard cash that comes out of our wallets. For the average college graduate with $35,000 in student loans, it equates to more than $2,000 in additional costs. For a family buying a new car, it can easily add over $1,500 in extra financing expense.

The average American will pay nearly $650,000 in interest fees over the course of their life, according to a recent study. As the national debt goes up, rates go up, and borrowing costs go up. Which means that the lifetime amount cited above will be even higher if we continue to ignore the ballooning debt.

Think about that for a minute. Lawmakers' refusal to get the federal debt on a sustainable, downward path -- and their insistence on increasing spending -- is putting the dream of owning a home, getting an education and providing for one's family further out of reach for most people.

High inflation and rapidly rising costs of living are the top concern for Americans, and rightly so. As one recent study put it, families are feeling gloomier about their finances than they have in years. Young people are putting off having children and adopting what some have called "economic nihilism." Older adults are delaying retirement. Almost half of Americans feel worse off financially than they did only a few years ago.

As politicians do, policymakers in Washington have launched studies and held hearings to try to understand this burgeoning affordability crisis. We can't have a healthy economy if our debt is unsustainable. It's like driving a car with the "check engine" light on. It will break down eventually.

To be sure, the course our country is on is not sustainable. As a country, we spend more on interest to service the federal debt than we do on national defense. We pay more in interest than we spend on all federal discretionary spending combined. Nearly 20 cents of every tax dollar go directly to interest payments.

This election season, as candidates make all kinds of grand promises, the kind which usually entails more -- more spending, more programs, more entitlement -- voters should ask themselves, is this worth me paying more for my home? For a child's education? For a new vehicle, a family trip or any other big-ticket purchase? Is it worth potentially having to delay retirement, or earning less over the course of a career?

Because those are the consequences of ignoring our debt and continuing on Washington's reckless spending spree. It's the kind of reality politicians -- and we as voters -- need to start operating in to get real about the national debt crisis.

Ken Buck received his law degree from the University of Wyoming and served in the United States House of Representatives from 2015-2024 representing Colorado's 4th congressional district. 

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<title>Ken Buck: The National Debt Is Making Life In America Unaffordable | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Ken Buck writes, "The average American will pay nearly $650,000 in interest fees over the course of their life, according to a recent study. As the national debt goes up, rates go up, and borrowing costs go up."

Ken Buck: The National Debt Is Making Life In America Unaffordable

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Business

Agriculture

There's a big bee emergency in Yellowstone National Park after a semi-truck carrying dozens of beehives crashed Tuesday.

Dalton Broadus of West Yellowstone, Montana, was driving north along U.S. Highway 191 around 9 a.m. Tuesday when he drove past the scene.

Damaged and destroyed beehives were scattered across a quarter-mile stretch of road. Bees were swarming his vehicle, several tow trucks and a Yellowstone ambulance were at the scene, and someone in a beekeeping suit was already assessing the area.

“It happened about an hour before I got there, I believe,” Broadus said.

The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, Hebgen Basin Fire/EMS, the Montana Department of Transportation, and the Montana Department of Agriculture responded to the scene.

James Peterson, dispatch manager for Eaton Road Solutions, told Cowboy State Daily his company received a call from the National Park Service to recover the flipped semi-truck. He wasn’t sure what caused the accident.

“We brought three recovery trucks and two traffic-control trucks from Idaho Falls,” he said. “It took us about three hours to get it back up.”

Peterson said Eaton’s crews were heading back to the scene Wednesday night to start recovering the damaged hives and, hopefully, the bees that had been residing inside.

“We’ve been working one-on-one with the company (that owns the hives), and they’re trying to save what they can,” he said.

The crews will require bee suits while on the scene. Fortunately, Eaton already had some at the ready.

“We haven’t dealt much with bees,” Peterson said. “This was our second bee call in 15 years, and we still have the beekeeping suits we got for the first call."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bee Catastrophe"}]

After viewing Broadus’s video, Cheyenne venture capitalist and beekeeper Michael Jordan said that, from what he could see, the incident was “a devastating loss” for all involved.

“From the way it looks. I’d think about 40 to 50 percent of what’s there is salvageable, maybe,” he said. “It’s a big dump across a long section, so I’d say they’ve got a three-day ordeal ahead of them.”

According to Jordan, an average honey box can hold between 75,000 and 125,000 bees. Each box costs around $500 and generates $2,000 in profit from honey production.

A semi-truck like the one that crashed can carry 250 to 500 honey boxes, and potentially double that if they’re trying to save space.

[{"type":"text","text":"“There could be up to 1,000 of those boxes in one load,” he said."}]

That’s easily millions of bees and hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in Yellowstone.

Jordan has been involved in similar incidents. He helped coordinate a salvage effort after a beehive-carrying semi-truck was involved in an incident on I-80 near Arlington.

“The first four hours are critical,” he said. “The truck drivers, the insurance company, and the owners of the colonies have to work together and approve everything. Somebody on-site is going to be the manager, and they’ll figure out how to fix the problem, so there’s a lot of communication that needs to happen.”

In this incident, all parties will have to coordinate with the Park Service. They’ll need to have a lot of input, given the accident happened in Yellowstone, and fines could be assessed.

“When your boat sinks in Glendale Lake, they charge you for littering, not to mention salvage,” Jordan said. “It’s going to be a pretty big loss, and that’s just the property damage. The owners will need approval from the insurance companies, and then there’s whatever liability the trucking company will have with the NPS. If the mitigation takes too long, they could lose everything."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bee Recovery"}]

Jordan wasn’t sure how the NPS would manage a 500-hive bee recovery in Yellowstone.

In a high-traffic area, such as a highway through Yellowstone during the summer, the first step in a successful recovery might be to call the fire department, he said. That’s potentially the worst-case scenario for the bees and the beekeepers, but the quickest solution for the NPS.

“If the bees are deemed a hazard to traffic, the fire department might go ahead and foam the whole area,” Jordan said. “That kills everything in the area, but you can go in and clear everything out without having to close down the highway.”

As for the bees, Jordan said everyone involved in the salvage operation must make critical moves within 48 hours. That’s how long they have before the surviving bees move on.

“The queens are going to be looking for locations where they feel safe,” he said. “If you can’t get new hives set up in 48 hours, the queens will migrate and leave a pheromone trail that the bees accommodating her in that hive will follow.”

Tracking down and individually placing the queens in new or rebuilt honey boxes is the best strategy, assuming the surviving queens can be located. Otherwise, there might be a big bee population in northwest Yellowstone.

“If the queens are in Yellowstone, they’re going to migrate into Yellowstone’s forests,” he said. “You can prevent that if you find the queens and put them in individual hives, but you have 48 hours to do it.”

When Jordan helped salvage the scene near Arlington, they successfully recovered 70% of the bees that had been on the semi-truck. They accomplished this by quickly setting up new honey boxes in a safe spot near the scene.

“Bees are very communal,” he said. “They work on a swarm mentality, and they can migrate and integrate into a new colony pretty easily. Once the new housing is set up, they’ll typically migrate to those locations within 24 hours.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Busy As Bees"}]

Jordan imagines the companies that owned the damaged honey boxes are coordinating a large response and rushing new housing to the scene.

“I’d say salvaging those colonies and hives will be a three-day ordeal, working 18 hours a day,” he said. “It depends on who’s managing the cleanup. The owners will want to keep as much product as they can, and there are many factors that go into that.”

That already complicated and urgent effort will likely become even more complex, given that it all needs to happen within a national park. The NPS might implement its own strategy to ensure the safety of visitors, traffic and the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

, a Yellowstone spokesperson said there were no reported injuries.

"Although the highway remains open, expect delays and traffic control measures as cleanup and mitigation work continue at the site of the accident,” the statement reads.

Broadus had the same takeaway from the incident as he’s had for years driving that 55-mph section of road in Yellowstone's northwest corner: slow down.

“I’m surprised there aren’t more accidents like this,” he said. “I drive from West Yellowstone every day during the summer. People speed quite a bit and pass within tight margins of oncoming traffic. They need to slow down.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Any way you look at it, it’s not good."}]

“I feel bad for all the people involved,” Jordan said. “There could be two or three owners of those hives, and that’s a lot of money. That’s their livelihood. That’s at least one whole company that has to rebuild.”

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<title>Semitruck Carrying Millions Of Bees Crashes In Yellowstone National Park | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A semitruck carrying millions of honeybees flipped over on U.S. Highway 191 in Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday. Cheyenne beekeeper Michael Jordan called the scene "a devastating loss" of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the owners of the bees.

Semitruck Carrying Millions Of Bees Crashes In Yellowstone National Park

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

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

A sprawling, high-tech medical center that once envisioned itself as the "Mayo Clinic of the West" and promised to reshape rural health care in northeast Wyoming might yet be able to fulfill at least some of that vision.

The Hoskinson family is in talks to sell its Gillette clinic to a large hospital chain, according to a post the family made Wednesday on the Hoskinson Health & Wellness Clinic Facebook page.

The sale could happen quickly, with an eye on maintaining continuity of patient care. Hoskinson Health announced in May that it would 

, citing months of multi-million-dollar financial losses. 

A potential buyer now raises the possibility that some of the family’s vision — highly advanced specialty care in a small energy town — can be retained. 

“We want to share a very hopeful and exciting update with our amazing community,” the post read. “We are currently in advanced discussions with a large hospital chain about potentially taking over the clinic’s operations!”

An agreement has not yet been finalized, but negotiations are at the stage where final words are being put to paper, the post added. 

“Both sides are fully aligned, and the spirit of the terms makes sense for everyone involved,” the post continued. “We are working diligently to get this across the finish line, but we wanted to keep you in the loop.”

Continuity of patient care is a priority for the new health-care organization, Hoskinson said in its post. 

“They are fully aware of our timeline, and are already mobilizing a team to help ensure a smooth transition,” the post said. “They are eager to speak with all of our current providers and staff, to see who they can retain moving forward.”

If realized, Hoskinson Health said the family would step back from the medical business and lease the building to the new organization, which will take full responsibility for day-to-day operations as well as employment of staff.

“We are incredibly enthusiastic about this direction,” the post continued. “We truly believe this is the absolute best outcome for our patients, our dedicated employees, and the community. Most importantly, it ensures that you will continue to have a strong, alternative choice for your health care needs.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Community Reacts With Hope"}]

Within minutes, the post had dozens of comments, mostly applauding the news or praying the deal would go through. 

“The building sitting there and all the loss of staff made me sick to think about,” Kathy Davis posted. “Oh I hope this works out.”

Commenter Tonja Slater said she is relieved.

“Can’t wait for it to be finalized and no more worries on finding a new health provider ever!!” she wrote. “Excited to see what the future brings to our community and onto our personal lives, journey, and health care!!!”

Heidi Jacobson noted the health-care provider is “very well known in the Dakotas” and said she hopes the deal “goes thru.” Tiffany Pickett Emery said it’s “Amazing news!! Continuing to remain hopeful.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Bold Experiment"}]

Gillette’s Hoskinson Health & Wellness Clinic was bankrolled by cryptocurrency tycoon Charles Hoskinson and run by his family members, including William, Mark and Patty Hoskinson. 

It began as a bold experiment to reimagine rural health care starting in northeast Wyoming. The family told Cowboy State Daily in previous interviews the goal was to create the 

The family filled the 73,500-square-foot facility with cutting-edge medical technology such as the Vectra, a revolutionary, 3D whole-body imaging system used in dermatology and plastic surgery. At the time the Hoskinsons purchased the Vectra, there were just two in the country — the first at the Mayo Clinic, the second in Gillette. 

It was one of dozens of examples where the family brought cutting-edge medicine to a town of about 33,500 people. There was a dual-energy CT scanner for gout, a high-definition nuclear imaging scanner, advanced cardiac and breast MRI scans, hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and more.

The clinic also included specialties rarely found in standard community medical practices, ranging from DNA sequencing and pharmacogenomics to advanced regenerative medicine, biologics infusion, and a dedicated longevity and lifestyle center.

While the clinic stopped building at 73,500 square feet, there were plans at one time to expand to 100,000. That would have included a surgery center.

But the economics, from the start, were brutal, as Charles Hoskinson detailed in a post-mortem video he released not long after the clinic announced its closure.

In the video, Charles said the clinic had been losing millions of dollars every month, even after aggressive attempts to optimize operations. 

Primary care, he argued, is fundamentally under-reimbursed, forcing providers to see 24 to 28 patients per day just to break even — a volume that was incompatible with the slower, more thorough care model he wanted the clinic to provide.

“The Hoskinsons have been in medicine for over 70 years since the 1950s,” Charles said in the video. “And they’ve watched the entire health-care industry transform and change from mostly rural and mostly solo practitioners, or small groups — excluding cities — working basically with a direct relationship with the patient, direct financial relationship with the patient, to a system that’s become kind of a bureaucratic hellscape.”

The Gillette clinic was all about changing that, Hoskinson said. 

Even though the clinic attracted more than 20,000 patients, it wasn’t close to breaking even. It could never sustain all its state-of-the-art technology, much less the above-market wages it was paying to attract specialists to a remote corner of Wyoming. 

“I had aspirations to do something in regenerative medicine,” Charles said. “I’m a big believer in network medicine. I believe the interactome and the electrome are going to be revolutionary for human health, and with AI enhancements and personalization, they’re really going to change things so we can cure stuff.”

Interactome is the entire set of molecular interactions inside a living cell, including a complete map of interactions between proteins and DNA. Electrome refers to the complex cascade of electrical networks and signals that pass between cells and tissues.

What Hoskinson learned from starting a clinic in Gillette was disquieting, he said. 

“The reality is clinics don’t make money,” he said. “Cancer and surgery are the only two areas that really make any money, outside of the pharmaceutical side. And if you’re in primary care, the vast majority of people who are in primary care will tell you it’s a losing proposition. If you look at the economics of primary care — so internal medicine, family practice — these things on average have to see 24 to 28 patients per day to be able to break even with the infrastructure.”

That’s a patient every 15 minutes, plus a lot of paperwork on the other side, just to break even. That doesn’t include making any profit.

The situation is further complicated, Charles said, by insurance.

“When you’re doing an insurance model, you typically only collect less than half of what you bill,” he said. “It’s the only business I’ve ever been in where you have no price negotiation. It’s mandated to you what you’re roughly paid.”

Clinics, meanwhile, are not allowed to bill as much as hospitals, which means the field is anything but level.

“When you bill it, even though you’ve done the work, it’s not clear you’re actually going to get paid for it, unless you get pre-approvals,” Charles said. “And even so, there’s been cases where doctors, while operating on people, literally while in the OR, the insurance company changed their mind and said don’t want a pre-approval.”

After optimizations, Charles said the clinic cut its monthly losses from about $4 million to $1.7 million but still couldn’t get close to break-even.

“To give you a comparable, the hospital that’s in the same market, Campbell County Health, they lose more than $10 million a year, and this is after receiving a $20 million-a-year government subsidy,” Charles said, adding that he went to decision makers in the jurisdiction as well as other health-care providers to ask if any subsidies were available, but was told no.

“The American health-care system is broken,” Charles said. “We knew that going into Gillette, so we wanted to build a center of excellence and build a really cool clinic, and build it in a beautiful way for the people there in Gillette.”

For Gillette patients like Shawna Leigh Langdon, who had built life-saving care around the clinic, the negotiations stakes are high. 

Langdon, in previous interviews with Cowboy State Daily, said she relied on the clinic for weekly injections, diagnostics and specialist follow-ups for an aggressive case of rheumatoid arthritis.

Before that, she had to rely on a clinic in South Dakota — a drive so long that at times she had to cancel appointments because her body was physically unable to make the trip.

If the clinic disappeared without a comparable replacement, she feared she would be forced back into a patchwork of delayed MRIs and rescheduled surgeries that had defined her care.

Sarah Pierce, meanwhile, told Cowboy State Daily she had to travel even farther for her daughter’s specialty care — to Philadelphia. While the Hoskinson Clinic did not eliminate those trips, it reduced them — and gave the family peace of mind by having a knowledgeable provider in town.

“I don’t have any insight into the inner workings of Hoskinsons, or why they’re doing things,” she said. “But it’s definitely a disappointment, for I know myself and other people who have kids that have needs outside of the general scope of what can normally be done in a rural area. It was nice to have a provider who kind of knew more about what she has. There was some comfort in that.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Hopes For The Future"}]

Those kinds of experiences form the backdrop for the Hoskinson family’s negotiations with the unidentified hospital chain. It’s a high-stakes attempt to keep the facility from going dark by handing the reins to a larger system with more infrastructure and deeper pockets.

If the sale is realized along the lines described in Hoskinson Health’s Facebook post, Gillette could retain something exceedingly rare in rural America — a large, highly equipped medical facility with the potential for unusual specialty care and research programs, as well as room to grow.

For patients like Langdon and Pierce, everything depends on which services survive and still grow. Still, the prospect of a sale is real hope in a place where, not long ago, the road between them and critical care was hundreds of miles longer. 

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<title>Gillette's Hoskinson Clinic, Set To Close Next Month, Says It May Have Buyer | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Hoskinson Health & Wellness in Gillette, which envisioned itself as the "Mayo Clinic of the West" before announcing last month it would close, may have a buyer. The Hoskinson family announced Wednesday it's in talks to sell to a large hospital chain.

Gillette's Hoskinson Clinic, Set To Close Next Month, Says It May Have Buyer

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Environment

Wildlife

A proposed 972-megawatt power project at Seminoe Reservoir in Carbon County has cleared a major hurdle, with a federal commission recommending approval despite widespread opposition in Wyoming.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released its final 

 (EIS) on the Salt Lake City-based rPlus Hydro company’s Seminoe Pumped Storage Project on Friday.

Some Wyoming conservationists told Cowboy State Daily they were trying to surmise what the 478-page document means for opposition going forward.

The EIS recommends that FERC license the project, and waive seasonal timing restrictions on construction based on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) policy.  

Project opponents say those restrictions protect the Ferris-Seminoe Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep herd. Because of its disease-free status, it’s Wyoming’s most-prized bighorn herd.

Wyoming conservationists, hunters, anglers and municipal and county officials 

 the Seminoe Pumped Storage Project during a recent meeting of the Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee.

In addition to concerns over bighorn sheep, opponents say they worry how the project could affect blue-ribbon trout fishing on the North Platte River’s Miracle Mile Section, and municipal water supplies.

An rPlus Hydro spokesman said during the legislative committee meeting the project could provide high-paying jobs and much-needed backup power for Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Energy Loser’"}]

But after the release of the EIS, detractors weren’t buying that argument.

“It’s an energy loser. It will use more energy to pump water uphill than it will generate by flowing it back downhill,” Wyoming Wildlife Federation executive director Craig Benjamin told Cowboy State Daily.  

WWF remains staunchly opposed to the project, according to a statement released by the group.

“WWF supports responsible energy development when it is sited well, built responsibly, and delivers real benefits to Wyoming. Based on what we have seen so far, this project raises serious questions on all three fronts. Now that the final EIS has been released, we are reviewing it closely with our partners, and will have more to say in the days ahead,” the organization said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"BLM’s Turn"}]

The fate of the Seminoe Pumped Storage Project could now rest with the BLM. The EIS recommendations hinge on the agency agreeing on the revised sections of its Rawlins Area Resource Management Plan.

That doesn’t seem fair to the BLM, Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation executive director Katie Cheesbrough told Cowboy State Daily.

“It seems like they’re pushing a lot of the burden of this onto the BLM now,” she said.

Cheesbrough noted that, in an ironic twist, public sentiment is running in the opposite direction than over the BLM’s controversial Rock Spring Area Resource Management plan, which many critics said was too restrictive.

"The issue with the Rock Springs RMP was that local people would like to see less environmental regulation and more industry. And here, local people seem to want more environmental regulation and less industry,” she said.

She called the EIS recommendation for the pumped storage project “disheartening” and said it sets a bad precedent.

That’s because it asks for sweeping changes in BLM wildlife and environmental safeguards. The company claims that otherwise, the construction process will drag out too long and they won’t be able to afford it, Cheesbrough said.

From her perspective, it's a poor siting choice on rPlus Hydro’s part. If the company can’t afford to build the project at Seminoe Reservoir while also protecting the bighorn sheep herd and fishery, then the project should be turned down, she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Five-Year Schedule"}]

The company argues that “to retain maximum flexibility needed to timely complete each segment of construction,” seasonal work restrictions related to bighorn sheep, sage-grouse and other species should be lifted, according to the EIS.

That would allow “for construction to occur up to 24-hours per day, seven days a week for the duration of the construction period,” the EIS states.

Construction is expected to last five years, but could take longer due to “weather-related events or logistical considerations,” according to the EIS.

There’s widespread perception that FERC and rPlus Hydro are ignoring what the public in Carbon County and the surrounding region are saying about the project, Patrick Harrington, Trout Unlimited's Wyoming government affairs director, told Cowboy State Daily.

The EIS calling for approval didn’t come as much of a surprise, he said. But the way the process keeps moving forward, despite vocal opposition, is disheartening, he added.

“This thing seems it‘s on railroad tracks, moving forward,” Harrington said.

Harrington said he questions “the fairness and the ability of people to engage and raise their concerns,” regarding the Seminoe Pumped Storage Project.

Seminoe State Park Discover Carbon County 6 17 26

<title>After Feds OK Controversial Seminoe Power Projects, Critics Vow To Fight | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Opponents say the proposed 972-megawatt power project at Seminoe Reservoir in Carbon County threatens the state's most prized bighorn sheep herd and the "Miracle Mile" section of the North Platte River famed for its blue-ribbon trout fishing.

After Feds OK Controversial Seminoe Power Projects, Critics Vow To Fight

Energy

A federal judge in Montana has thrown out more than 1.5 million acres of Wyoming oil and gas leases sold under the Trump administration, a sweeping ruling that Wyoming attorneys said will force the state to return $50 million in payments and imperil $180 million in future revenue for schools and other public services. 

The ruling also affects an additional 185,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Montana and the Dakotas.

The decision, issued by Chief Judge Brian Morris out of the U.S. District Court of Montana on June 12, is sparking outrage in the oil and gas community. It’s the third time Morris, an Obama appointee, has ruled against the U.S. Department of the Interior over the protection of sage-grouse habitat.

“The environmental group found a sympathetic venue in Montana to file their case and ultimately hurt Wyoming,” oil and gas landman Steve Degenfelder told Cowboy State Daily. “I am hopeful the State of Wyoming will appeal this decision with everything they have. Other than a successful appeal, it’s my understanding we would need an act of Congress to overturn this injustice. I wonder how Montana would feel if a Wyoming judge hurt their state to this magnitude?”

Ryan McConnaughey, with the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said it’s just the latest example of how activists are misusing the judicial system to attack industries they dislike.

“Anti-oil and natural gas activists have a sympathetic ear in Montana, which is why they continuously file cases there,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “The hard truth is that until Congress steps in to restore the original intent of laws like NEPA and the Endangered Species Act, every land management decision will be decided out of public view by the courts. It’s further proof that permitting reform is absolutely necessary if the United States wants to be a country that harvests energy and builds things again.”

Wyoming’s Bureau of Land Management office referred Cowboy State Daily for comment about the case to Montana’s office, which did not respond. 

It was not known Tuesday afternoon whether BLM will appeal the case, or what its next step will be for the leases.

The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office was also consulted, but had not responded at the time this story was posted.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Sage-Grouse Protection At Issue"}]

At the heart of the case brought by the Montana Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation and Montana Audubon is how the BLM applied its 2015 sage-grouse conservation plans in Wyoming. 

The groups argued that leasing should have been steered first to areas outside of key habitat so the bird would stay off the federal endangered species list. 

The 2015 sage-grouse plan required the agency to “prioritize” oil and gas leasing and development outside of sensitive habitat, particularly in designated priority areas.

But, in 2018, the BLM issued a new instruction memorandum that effectively told staff to disregard those prioritization requirements when offering new “fluid mineral” leases in sage-grouse country.

Wyoming has a voluntary sage-grouse protection plan, one that guides development away from those areas without any prioritization on BLM’s part, Wyoming attorneys argued.

However, the judge ruled that the prioritization error “infected everything” that followed, making it infeasible for BLM to keep the current leases in place.

BLM offered about 1.25 million acres of oil and gas leases in Wyoming in 2019 alone, roughly 785,000 acres in its February 2019 sale and more than 493,000 acres combined in the September and December 2019 sales. 

Altogether the June 12 order affects about 1.5 million acres of Wyoming leases sold between December 2017 and December 2019. December 2020 sales were excluded because the judge found that no final agency action yet exists to vacate or remand those sales. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Wyoming Warns Of Deep Revenue Losses"}]

In court filings, Wyoming attorneys laid out what the revenue losses will mean to local and state governments providing public services. 

Federal defendants estimated that vacating Phase Three leases will require the return of more than $50 million in revenue that has already been allocated and spent. The state would also lose future severance, ad valorem, and conservation taxes on the leases, totaling at least $180 million over the life of the wells. 

A federal judge in Montana has thrown out more than 1.5 million acres of Wyoming oil and gas leases sold under the Trump administration, forcing the state to return $50 million in payments. “The environmental group found a sympathetic venue in Montana,” said a Wyoming landman.

You Still Here? Wednesday, March 12, 2025

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