It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Thursday, November 20th. I’m Mac Watson. This newscast is “Brought to you by the University of Wyoming Center on Aging. Did you know that 1 in 3 Wyoming adults have pre-diabetes, and most don’t realize it? Are you tough enough to know your numbers? Take the quiz at: Find Out WY dot org."
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The House narrowly passed a resolution led by U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman to restore coal leasing in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin and overturn a Biden-era ban. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the measure now heads to the Senate amid sharp debate over energy and climate policy.
“The Biden administration took a sledgehammer to the coal industry. It's Hageman's chance to swing back a Democratic Representative. Huffman from California said, ‘Look, coal’s done. The rest of the world's moving on.’ It was a pretty spirited back and forth. The resolution eventually passed by two votes. I spoke to two industry representatives. They were ecstatic that Hageman had gone to bat for the coal industry. One source said this isn't just good news for coal, it's good news for anyone who wants to develop resources on public lands.”
The resolution's narrow passage marks a victory for coal interests in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, which produces 40% of the nation's thermal coal. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the resolution this week.
Read the full story HERE.
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Speaking of energy provided by the Cowboy State, Japan wants Wyoming’s low-carbon natural gas. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that new export terminals in Mexico may provide a route for Asian delivery.
“Just south of the border, in a little place called Baja California, Mexico, there is an American company building a port to export natural gas to Asian countries and so a route out is being constructed. It's not the most advantageous for Wyoming. Washington would still be the most advantageous for us, but we are in a four state partnership that is promoting Rocky Mountain gas as a solution for Japan's carbon reduced natural gas.”
Policy leaders say demand is rising, and cleaner Rocky Mountain gas could boost U.S. energy exports.
Read the full story HERE.
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After a six-year hiatus, pig wrestling will return for the 2026 Teton County Fair, but with a compromise. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports the decision follows heated debate over tradition versus animal welfare concerns.
“A caveat that the commissioner settled on was that competitors could only be women and children under age 18. Commissioner Carlman said that removing the 18 and up men's division took out the stronger guys who might be able to squeeze a pig and throw it around. We're not causing harm or stress to them, but we're still creating a clean, fun, family event.”
The Teton County Commissioners voted 3-1 Tuesday to bring back pig wrestling for the 2026 Teton County Fair with one commissioner absent.
Read the full story HERE
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A National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report paints a chaotic picture on the night when a ruptured pipeline near Cheyenne in September caused a massive fireball. Cowboy State Daily’s Scott Schwebke reports the NTSB hasn’t stated what caused the explosion, but does describe how it could’ve been a lot worse.
“Union Pacific train was traveling along those same tracks, right by the pipeline, and the workers noticed a vapor cloud, or what they thought was dust, and pretty soon after that, a fire broke out behind the train. They were able to safely move the train forward, were able to get off the two people, the employees, were able to escape the train safely, and there was no one injured or any property damage in the train. Apparently, the train was carrying, also to complicate things, it had some hazardous materials on there. More than 50 cars were carrying an alcohol based kind of product.”
At the scene, NTSB investigators reviewed Kinder Morgan’s policies and procedures and the train crew’s employee records. A final report will take months to complete.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily, after this….
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Story resident Brad Jones had to duck behind his pickup after the rutting white-tailed deer he was watching took their fight to him Sunday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that late fall is rutting season for Wyoming's deer, which makes them more reckless and dangerous.
“It's rutting season for Wyoming's white tail and mule deer. And that just makes the Bucks turn into idiots. They're focused solely on each other and tussling over females and everything like that. And occasionally they do stupid things. It was just earlier this year in Colorado that a pair of running deer crashed through a basement window and ended up in someone's exercise room, and in this case, a story man was just driving along the highway, he spotted these two bucks going at it. So the bucks battle eventually carried them across the field through a barbed wire fence. Then he realized that he was in the trajectory of where they were heading, so he had to dive behind his pickup truck to avoid them, and the losing deer tore right past him. Would have gone straight through him if he hadn't moved.”
Jones tells Cowboy State Daily that he found the two battling bucks in a fenced field near Big Horn, south of Sheridan, on Sunday morning.
Read the full story HERE.
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The odds of getting hit by a bus or attacked by an angry grizzly bear are astronomically low, but they do happen. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that Wyoming health officials want to create what they call “BearCare,” a health plan for those and other “catastrophic” events.
“Under the Big, Beautiful Bill Act, there is a part called the rural health transformation program funded by this bill, and it says it wants the states to submit ideas for health insurance, ways to offset health insurance for rural residents all across all across the country. So Wyoming participated in this and came up with a sweeping application. One item in that application is what they call the bear care. And BearCare came about from the Wyoming Department of Health. The creators were tossing around names, what do we call this thing? And they initially wanted to call it Hit-By-A-Bus Care. But one, that's kind of funky. And two they thought, well, there aren't that many busses in Wyoming, but what are there a lot of? Oh, there's bears. So why don't we call it BearCare.”
If enacted, BearCare isn’t a replacement or another option for routine health insurance and would only kick in if something catastrophic happens.
Read the full story HERE.
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Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program may have hit a wall. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that now Washington state is refusing to send more wolves for the Centennial State’s program.
“Washington State earlier this week back, yeah, you know what? We don't want to send any we're our wolf population is declining as it is. We don't want to send you any more wolves so that they're kind of out of options, because Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, have all flatly said no. Oregon said yes once, but doesn't seem to be ready to say yes again.”
Last month, Brian Nesvik, the head of US Fish and Wildlife Service, said that Colorado could not import wolves from Canada, as that was outside of the parameters of the agreement.
Read the full story HERE.
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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 Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
