The Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners voted Monday to pause its ongoing work to cancel two controversial wind farm leases in Converse and Niobrara counties while the Wyoming Supreme Court decides whether at least one of the two, similar leases was lawful in the first place.
State Auditor Kristi Racines said pausing to wait on the court isn’t about being “pro-project or anti-project.”
It’s about “how deep of a legal hole we are trying to dig ourselves in, to unwind, once the Supreme Court makes that decision,” said Racines.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray countered, saying the process had involved “dithering and delaying” that “was tactically done” to prevent the cancellation process from unfolding.
“I just think this has been really troubling the way this has been handled,” Gray said.
The board comprises Wyoming’s top five elected officials: Racines, Gray, Gov. Mark Gordon, Treasurer Curt Meier, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder.
Now the Pronghorn H2 and Sidewinder H2 wind farm projects hang in limbo while the Wyoming Supreme Court considers whether Converse County District Court Judge Scott Peasley was correct in concluding that the Pronghorn lease — the only one challenged in court — was not legal anyway.
Peasley had read the state board’s rules to mean that the lease couldn’t be legal since the power it seeks to generate wouldn’t necessarily tie into the electrical grid.
The Attorney General’s Office has read those rules differently, and both Pronghorn and the Wyoming Attorney General's Office have appealed the issue to the high court, which has not yet set the matter for oral argument.
Let’s Go
In April 2025, Gray was the lone nay vote in the board’s 4-1 decision to approve leases pertaining to the state-held lands within each project.
Sidewinder H2 LLC, a Delaware-based company that’s a subsidiary of Acciona and Nordex Green Hydrogen, which has teamed up with Focus Clean Energy on the project, had asked to build a wind farm 10 miles west of Lusk. The project is expected to span 120,110 acres, of which 19.4%, or 23,290 acres, is state land.
That project is expected to use 352 megawatts of energy sited on state trust land, subject to state approval, which would create 201 permanent jobs and $7 billion investment. It would be estimated to produce 1,000 megawatts of wind energy.
Pronghorn H2 LLC, another Delaware company owned by Acciona & Nordex, had asked to build 45 wind turbines on private and state lands 20 miles east of Casper over 46,000 total acres, of which 13,838 acres or 30%, is owned by the state.
This project would include a capacity of up to 110 megawatts of electricity and be about one-third of the size of the Sidewinder project.
Michael Stephens of Stephens Land and Livestock challenged the Pronghorn approval in court, days after the board approved it.
In December, Peasley declared the Pronghorn lease unlawful because it wouldn’t necessarily feed the grid.
While the case and now the appeal have continued, public angst toward the projects galvanized.
Landowners have repeatedly voiced concerns that industry growth will lead to a “Wyoming wind wall” of turbines across the Laramie Range and irreversibly turn agricultural lands into wind farms.
In February, Degenfelder, Racines, and Gray carried a majority vote to start the process to cancel both leases.
The board did not outright cancel both leases at that time.
Jeff Pope, the attorney for Pronghorn, said the company would sue if that happened.
Also, state laws restrict the terms under which Wyoming can cancel a lease, and the board’s own policies allowing due process for the developer before cancelling.
The Office of State Lands and Investments, which is the board’s administrative arm, asked the district court on May 12 to weigh in on both contested cancellation processes, since the cases “involved an important legal question” still pending, the AG’s conflict attorney Chris Brown recounted Monday to the board.
Meanwhile, on May 19, Peasley granted a different request by Pronghorn to pause his earlier order voiding the company’s lease, while the company and AG waited for answers from the Wyoming Supreme Court.
Meier asked the board on Monday to pause cancellation proceedings for both leases until Peasley’s stay is lifted. While only the Pronghorn is being challenged in court, the leases are similar.
As originally pitched, the projects would send power into a hydrogen plant rather than necessarily providing energy directly to the electrical grid. Construction on both was originally slated to start in 2028.
The board voted 3-2 in favor of Meier’s motion, with Gray and Degenfelder voting nay.
Woke Wind And Insiders
Gray made multiple motions to the board Monday, including requests to proceed with the cancellation process for both leases.
None of his motions on the wind farms succeeded.
Gray had taken to social media Sunday, one day before the meeting, to assert that “insiders” were trying to advance the wind farm.
“Just behind me is where Governor Gordon and other insiders are trying to plot down this woke wind lease on state land, which is totally inconsistent with our Wyoming values,” said Gray in his Facebook video.
“We fought so hard to stop and rescind and remove this woke wind lease over a 10-month period and now Governor Mark Gordon is trying to pull off an Empire-Strikes-Back maneuver and bring the woke wind lease back," he said.
But the board, Gray continued, should continue with its cancellations “for this proposed woke wind lease in Converse and Niobrara counties.”
‘It’s Not Outsiders Or Insiders’
Racines, who had helped to lead the February effort to start cancellation processes, described Meier’s motion as a commonsense move to simplify the legal process — not a grand statement about wind farms.
“We hung our hat on Judge Peasley’s decision. … That’s the reason that I wholeheartedly supported the moving forward with cancelling and rescinding these leases,” said Racines.
But, she added, “That judge himself has stayed his decision.
“It is not this board. It is not insiders or outsiders,” she said. “(He) said, great, your leases are illegal, but we’re going to wait and have the Supreme Court ultimately decide.”
If the high court upholds Peasley’s ruling, then the Pronghorn lease would be void and the board could continue trying to cancel the Sidewinder lease, she noted.
If the high court overturns Peasley’s decision, “that in no way means the projects are greenlighted,” said Racines, adding that at that juncture, the remaining issues in the Pronghorn case could continue at the district court level.
Acting before the high court makes that decision would “dig us into a worse legal mess to unwind” and complicate the case further, if it remains viable, Racines said.
‘Top Dog’
Gray said, “Again, I think this has been very irregular,” and that he has “major questions about the timing of the stay” and the timing of the board meeting.
“This is all going to be decided by the Supreme Court, not the board,” said Gray.
Degenfelder confirmed with Brown that the board couldn’t override Peasley’s stay on his own order.
Meier said, “Like it or not, the Supreme Court is the top dog in the situation, and it gets there one way or another.”
Gray confirmed that the Sidewinder project isn’t under the stay.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
