CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Senate voted 23-8 on Friday to adopt Amendment 40 to the state’s biennial budget bill, converting $16 million in proposed loans into matching grants aimed at jump-starting rare earth processing in the state.
The amendment to Senate File 1, sponsored by Sen. Taft Love, R-Cheyenne, and Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, directs $16 million from the legislative stabilization reserve account through the Wyoming Energy Authority for competitive matching grants for rare earth resource projects.
Under the program, every state dollar must be matched by at least one dollar from private or federal sources.
Love introduced the amendment on the Senate floor by framing it as a matter of national urgency.
“Currently, foreign interests control 90% of our global rare earth minerals. We’re in a race that we must win,” Love said. “Wyoming stands at the forefront of a critical American first opportunity, leading the charge to shatter China’s stranglehold on rare earth elements, essential to U.S. national defense, high-tech industries and warfighter superiority.”
Love said the project could create up to 360 mining jobs and 20 processing jobs, generate roughly $3.78 million per year in tax revenue and about $500,000 annually in Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality fees.
Driskill, whose northeast Wyoming district includes the Bear Lodge rare earth mining district, told senators that the U.S. currently has roughly three rare earth processing operations in various stages of development, including one working with ore from the Bear Lodge — a reference to Rare Element Resources Ltd.’s processing and separation demonstration plant in Upton.
As Cowboy State Daily previously reported, construction of that plant is complete and commissioning is underway. Rare Element Resources has developed proprietary, patented technology to process and separate rare earths from the area, which the company says contains one of the highest-grade rare earth deposits in North America.
The Wyoming Energy Authority previously awarded $4.4 million to the project, and the U.S. Department of Energy committed $24.2 million.
“There’s $50-some million into a plant totally capable of being geared up to run full time,” Driskill said. “The demo would actually spin into full-time, and then they go into a full-scale plant, which would make Wyoming probably one of the premier destinations.”
Driskill emphasized that processing is the critical bottleneck, not mining.
“It has very little to do with the mining of them. In truth, it’s processing,” he said.
Constitutional Concerns
The amendment drew opposition from Sen. Charlie Scott, R-Casper, who questioned whether awarding matching grants to private entities violated Article 16, Section 6 of the Wyoming Constitution, which prohibits the state from making donations to any individual, association or corporation.
“If this is a grant to a corporation, it is exactly the sort of thing that is prohibited by 16-6. And I think we need to think about that very hard,” Scott said.
Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper, voiced a broader philosophical objection.
“This one is very vivid, textbook redistribution of wealth to a corporate entity. It’s just not what we ought to be doing here. We’re turning into a venture capital company in here,” Ide said.
Driskill pushed back, arguing the matching grants would flow through the Wyoming Energy Authority as competitive awards — the same mechanism the state has used repeatedly in similar programs.
“These are competitive grants. And that’s how the Constitution works. We’ve done it in other places,” Driskill said. “Hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and potentially a game changer for the state of Wyoming and the United States of America.”
Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, pressed the sponsors for specifics, asking whether the amendment was effectively repurposing the energy matching fund program the Legislature had operated in prior budgets.
“It seems to me that this is reimplementing that identical program that we’ve already operated and flowed about $100 million, if not more, though. We’re doing it, as I understand it, the same way we did it before, and we’ve got a focus on rare earth through this,” Rothfuss said. “If it’s that, I’m going to be an aye vote.”
Driskill confirmed the structure was built on the existing energy matching fund framework, with the $16 million in matching grants requiring dollar-for-dollar funds from nonstate sources.
Closing Arguments
Love closed the debate by noting the project’s proponents had already raised $39 million in matching funds — nearly 2.5 times the state’s proposed $16 million matching grant commitment.
“This is a national directive that’s being driven in a big conversation about energy dominance and national security,” Love said. “This is a project, I think, that’s well worthwhile when it could put Wyoming in the forefront of something that’s probably going to lead us into this next era of AI, data technology, and warfare and infrastructure.”
Driskill made a final appeal for senators to seize a moment when the state can maximize the benefits of a plentiful Wyoming resource.
“Everything we do, someone else makes more money off it than we do, and it’s time for Wyoming to step up, be a big part of it,” he said.
The amendment specifically changes the language in Section 312 of SF 1 from a loan program to a matching grant program, adds “or operation” alongside construction and “or separation” alongside processing, and gives the governor authority to determine all terms and conditions for matching grants under the section, with recommendations from the Wyoming Energy Authority and the state treasurer.
The Roll Call Vote
Aye: Anderson, Barlow, Boner, Brennan, Cooper, Crago, Crum, Dockstader, Driskill, Gierau, Hicks, Jones, Kolb, Landen, Laursen, Love, Nethercott, Olsen, Pappas, Rothfuss, Salazar, Schuler, Biteman .
No: Case, French, Hutchings, Ide, McKeown, Pearson, Scott, Steinmetz.
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
