Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who is arguably the most vocal and high-profile opponent of wind-energy projects in the state, has voted at least three times to approve wind leases since 2023.
Now also a candidate for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat, Gray has projected animosity toward “woke wind” turbine projects and leases in Wyoming for months via statements and social media posts.
“The people of Wyoming have always been clear,” wrote Gray in a Jan. 8 Facebook post after a contentious State Board of Land Commissioners meeting regarding the Pronghorn and Sidewinder projects slated for Converse and Niobrara counties, respectively.
“We do NOT want these woke wind projects,” he posted.
Gray specifically pointed to “overwhelming” public opposition to the Sidewinder and Pronghorn proposals at the meeting that day.
“These woke wind leases must be ended,” Gray added.
On April 3 of last year, Gray voted against the Pronghorn and Sidewinder projects.
Gov. Mark Gordon, State Auditor Kristi Racines, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder and Treasurer Curt Meier voted in favor of both projects.
Degenfelder emphasized at the time the board’s constitutional duty to use its state land leases to fund schools.
The secretary claimed in a Facebook post at the time that “Gordon’s obsession with woke green fantasies is out of control.”
In Facebook posts over the following months, Gray derided “wind and solar boondoggles” and “woke, unreliable wind projects.”
He wrote that “Woke Wind is an absolute train wreck and absolutely wrong for Wyoming,” and called the Pronghorn proposal “outrageously wrong.”
The governor and secretary also clashed repeatedly over the following months.
Gordon implied Gray uses “hit-and-run” tactics on social media, and Gray called Gordon’s statements “lies.”
By the Jan. 8 meeting, tensions had escalated to Gordon asking if Gray wanted to “step outside.”
“Are you threatening me?” asked Gray in response. Gray repeated the question again during the back-and-forth, and curbed Degenfelder’s attempt to interject with “please stop interrupting.”
Back It Up …
The Board of Land Commissioners considers and acts upon lease proposals for state lands.
These can implicate neighboring property rights and involve both controversy and questions about green versus traditional energy.
The Wyoming Constitution requires the five statewide elected officials to control the fate of state lands granted to Wyoming “for the support and benefit of public schools.”
Gray voted to approve state wind leases on June 1, 2023; Aug. 3, 2023; and Aug. 1, 2024, the board’s minutes show.
All less controversial than the Pronghorn project, those three included a renewal application for Rocky Mountain Power’s 50-year, 640-acre project in Carbon County, and two new-lease applications in Converse and Natrona counties — both by companies under the umbrella of NextEra Energy Resources LLC.
NextEra’s 40-year lease proposal for state lands in Converse County requested about 2,400 acres, and its 40-year Natrona County proposal requested about 3,079 acres.
The proposal for state lands in Converse County had garnered consent from six of the eight leaseholders on those lands, NextEra’s application says.
The board’s administrative Office of State Lands and Investments (OSLI) had “reviewed (the) application and the comments protesting the project submitted by the remaining two existing leaseholders,” says the application summary.
“Given the compatibility of grazing and oil and gas development with wind energy projects, accompanied by NextEra’s mitigation efforts,” the summary adds, “OSLI cannot determine a cumulative negative impact to the existing lessees.”
All three votes were part of batch votes on consent lists. It is possible for a member of the board to pull an item from the consent list for debate, and to vote against it.\
Gray Responds
Some of Gray’s posts and statements of the past months decry “woke wind” development as a concept, creating a contrast between his words and 2023 and 2024 votes.
On the other hand, Gray in a Tuesday email pointed to some of his specific issues with the Pronghorn and Sidewinder projects, which distinguish them from his prior aye votes.
The companies driving the project are based in Spain and Germany, whereas Rocky Mountain Power and NextEra are headquartered in the U.S.
Gray in a December guest column also condemned the project goal of generating synthetic hydrogen jet fuel so that, in Gray’s words, “George Soros and his friends can continue to gaslight us on their ‘net-negative carbon agenda.’”
The hydrogen generation was also the sticking point for Peasley, who concluded in his ruling that the board’s rules allow only energy projects that will feed the grid.
Trump had ended federal financial support by the time residents opposed the Pronghorn and Sidewinder projects, Gray wrote in a Tuesday email response to Cowboy State Daily’s questions, claiming a failure to acknowledge that.
The outlet had reported on Trump’s maneuver and related Gray’s comments on it in an April 2025 story on the wind leases.
Gray’s Tuesday email response also claims Cowboy State Daily’s inquiry about his wind lease votes is an attack on him on behalf of a political opponent who advertises with the news outlet.
“Its (sic) deeply disturbing to see Cowboy State Daily's continued bias towards advertisers that are advertising through a corporate entity in potential violation of federal election law,” said Gray, a reference to Reid Rasner, who is running against Gray as a Republican for the U.S. House and has been the subject of election law complaints submitted to Gray’s office.
Cowboy State Daily has also reported on negative claims made against Rasner.
“Because of their bias towards their advertisers [Reid Rasner, etc] Cowboy State Daily has been unable to see that the people of Wyoming have been clear that enough is enough, and that is consistent with my actions opposing woke wind projects,” he wrote.
Gray claims there’s no inconsistency in his record and Cowboy State Daily is trying “to create one.”
“Wyomingites have been clear that enough is enough with massive, foreign-backed wind projects that don’t benefit our communities — something Cowboy State Daily consistently minimizes while protecting its advertisers,” he added.
Cowboy State Daily, however, has aired wind critics’ complaints at length.
Gray was asked, in part, if his 2023 and 2024 votes on leases and more recent conflicting statements addressing wind as a whole concept reflect a change of heart.
He responded that the question shows a “continued attempt to frame this as a ‘change of heart,’ while advancing the interests of its advertisers, including Reid Rasner.”
State Treasurer’s Interview
Degenfelder and Racines did not respond to voicemail requests for comment.
Gordon declined to comment.
Meier discussed the issue at length.
“You know, I guess (Gray) is going to have to justify those (votes) in light of his environmental activism that he’s doing now,” said Meier in a Tuesday phone interview.
Meier said the U.S. focus vacillates with presidential party changes between traditional-energy loyalty and green-energy loyalty, and it loses the energy and tech race to China by doing so.
“If you look at this whole thing, our energy policy in the United States is like putting every form of energy in the middle, and we’re standing in the circle and we’re shooting at it,” said Meier. “Both factions are shooting at either the wind energy and the solar — or the other faction is shooting at the natural gas and coal and nuclear.”
He said emphasizing innovation in an all-of-the-above approach would put the nation in better standing, and Wyoming in particular.
Meier, like Degenfelder last April, emphasized his duty to fund schools with state land projects.
He also said that, for him, approving land leases within footprints where the neighboring private-property owners have already approved their own versions of those leases is about respecting private property rights.
“I’m fine with somebody that would walk away from almost $50 million in 35 years not to have wind on their property,” said Meier. “But I don’t believe they should have the right to tell somebody else that they couldn't do something that is legal.”
The Outcry
Dozens of attendees to the Jan. 8 meeting disagreed with Meier’s stance, pointing to wind turbines’ impact on Wyoming’s vast rural vistas, ranch lands and wildlife habitat — and casting the project as rushed and evasive.
"Wyoming is undergoing one of the most dramatic land use changes in its history, from Cheyenne up to Douglas and Glenrock, and from Cheyenne to Rawlins, there's more than 200 miles of proposed wind turbines, tall roads, substations, transmission lines and associated infrastructure that are forming across ranch lands and wildlife habitat," Wendy Volk, a 30-year real estate professional connected to the six-generation Dereemer Ranch in Horse Creek, told the board at the time.
"Once agricultural land is converted to industrial use, it is effectively lost forever. I know this as a 30-year real estate professional. Once you change it, we're not getting it back," she said.
That Appeal
By the time that meeting unfolded, Converse County District Court Judge Scott Peasley had ruled that the board’s own rules foreclose the project.
Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz disagreed with Peasley’s reading of the rules, and said he’d appeal the project.
If Wyoming doesn’t act to defend the contract it’s already approved, Meier told Cowboy State Daily it could be facing a multibillion-dollar breach of contract lawsuit.
It also could harm its own reputation for market fair-dealing, Meier said.
“If your word’s no good, this whole thing will put a black eye on Wyoming, to where nobody will want to do business for any reason in this state,” said Meier.
The Sidewinder project is slated for 120,110 acres, of which 19.4%, or 23,290 acres is state land.
The Pronghorn project is slated for 46,000 total acres, of which 13,838 acres or 30%, is owned by the state.
Rasner in a post-publication response to Gray's claims said, "The number of wind projects I have supported or will support is zero. Who knows how many Chuck Gray will fund the next time he has the chance."
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
