By Sen. Ed Cooper
If Wyoming were its own country, we would rank among the world's top energy exporters. We produce far more power than we use.
Our coal, oil, gas, and uranium keep America's lights on and our military running. Energy isn't just an industry here; it's who we are.
That is why it is hard to watch some in our Legislature walk away from the next wave of innovation, willing to ship off the fuel, the jobs, and the future that should stay right here in Wyoming.
Global energy demand is breaking records, and we all know the next chapter of energy development won't look like the last. Wyoming has been through significant shifts before. We helped build America's energy backbone from the oil fields near Lander to the coal seams of the Powder River Basin. Our reputation for energy leadership was built on grit, courage, and hard work, not on fear.
But lately, something's changed. Instead of leading with that same courage, the Freedom Caucus and their allies have begun using fear as a reason to say "no".
Their latest target was a Casper project that could have put about 250 Wyomingites to work, paying each around $80,000 a year. A good wage that would add a little over $20 million annually to the local economy. And it wouldn't have stopped there. The welders, truckers, suppliers, and local shops would have felt that lift too.
It wasn't just another plant; it was a foothold in manufacturing tied to national defense. Now it is gone, and Wyoming didn’t just lose a project; we lost a chance to lead and show we can still build what’s next.
Many of the loudest "no" voices in that fight are newcomers to Wyoming. They don’t understand our history, the generations who mined, drilled, and laid the foundation of our energy economy. They fail to see what it took for Wyoming families to wrestle with tough conditions and still find a way forward.
The Freedom Caucus's campaign against nuclear innovation hasn't just chased off a company; it has damaged Wyoming's credibility as a serious energy state. We can't talk about energy independence on one hand and turn away the very technologies that could secure it on the other.
When we tell the world Wyoming leads on energy, but let our loudest voices shout “Not in my backyard,” investors hear that message loud and clear. We've slipped from setting the standard to sending opportunity packing.
Everyone knows the world needs more steady, base-load power. AI, data centers, and everything that keeps modern life running depend on energy you can count on, every hour of the day. If we are not building that here, someone else will, and when that happens, they will be the ones setting the rules, not us.
Nuclear power isn’t the scary headlines or barren wastelands. It is smaller, safer, and cleaner than it was a generation ago. It is the kind of practical innovation Wyoming has always backed.
And here is a plain fact: there's more radiation in the coal we burn and the basements we seal for radon than these new microreactors would ever emit. We have learned to mitigate both, but somehow we have forgotten how to manage fear.
Wyoming has never been afraid of hard work or new frontiers. We have faced every boom and bust with our sleeves rolled up and our eyes forward. We should do the same now.
Wyoming has a choice to make. We can let fear keep calling the shots, or we can lead. We can be the state that builds what’s next, or the one that lets politics pull the plug.
Ed Cooper represents Senate District 20 and lives in Thermopolis
