Like Meat Loaf used to sing, "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad."
Right now, three of the hottest sectors in America's economy are data centers, advanced nuclear energy, and robotics.
Wyoming is batting .667.
We are becoming a national leader in two of those three industries, data centers and advanced nuclear power. Not bad for a state that, just five years ago, seemed to be wondering whether its economic future was behind it instead of ahead of it.
What a difference five years can make.
Grim Times In 2021
Back in 2021, I wrote that Wyoming's economy reminded me of the famous business book Who Moved My Cheese?
After living for generations off severance taxes from coal, oil and natural gas, Wyoming suddenly found itself trying to maintain the same level of government services without the revenue that had always paid the bills.
In just a few words, we were trying to finance a champagne lifestyle on a beer budget.
Spencer Johnson's little book tells the story of mice who suddenly discover that their dependable supply of cheese has disappeared. Some immediately begin looking for new cheese. Others spend their time wondering who moved it and hoping it will somehow return.
That sounded a lot like Wyoming.
For more than a century, our "cheese" was fossil fuels.
Ever since pioneers skimmed oil from the Dallas Dome seep south of Lander in the 1800s, Wyoming has been an energy state. Coal, oil, natural gas, trona and uranium built our economy. They paid for our highways, schools, university buildings, community colleges, prisons, state parks and countless other public services.
The Good Times
During the boom years from roughly 2002 through 2012, it seemed the good times would never end.
New schools sprang up across Wyoming. The University of Wyoming added impressive new facilities. The Hathaway Scholarship opened doors for thousands of students. We built roads, invested in infrastructure, and, fortunately, squirreled away billions of dollars into permanent trust funds and rainy-day accounts.
That was one of the smartest things Wyoming ever did.
Today those permanent funds total well over $30 billion. The investment earnings help support state government every year.
So, let's be clear. Wyoming was never broke. We always had tremendous assets.
What we don't have is enough cash flow to continue paying today's bills the way we once did.
That is the same challenge faced by many Wyoming ranchers, farmers and small business owners. They may own land worth millions of dollars, but they still have to make next month's payroll.
The difference is that Wyoming's Constitution requires a balanced budget.
Unlike Washington, D.C., we cannot simply borrow another trillion dollars and send the bill to our grandchildren.
Our Legislature has only two choices. Increase revenue. Or reduce spending.
Most lawmakers appear committed to reducing spending.
Some have even signed pledges opposing any new taxes under any circumstances. I admire their discipline, although I sometimes wonder if governing requires a little more flexibility than signing a pledge.
As a result, education, state agencies and many long-standing programs are preparing for another difficult round of budget reductions.
Arithmetic usually wins these debates.
But while lawmakers wrestle with budgets, something remarkable has happened in the private sector.
Opportunity Has Arrived
Artificial intelligence has created an unprecedented demand for massive data centers. These facilities require enormous amounts of electricity, abundant land, dependable infrastructure and a cool climate to reduce cooling costs.
Sound familiar?
That describes Wyoming almost perfectly.
Suddenly, one of our greatest natural resources is not just coal or natural gas.
It is electricity.
America's technology giants are searching for places that can generate huge amounts of reliable power. Wyoming has been producing energy for the rest of the nation for generations. We know how to do it.
Then there is advanced nuclear energy.
Who would have imagined just a decade ago that Wyoming would become one of America's leading laboratories for next-generation nuclear power?
Yet here we are.
The TerraPower project near Kemmerer is attracting national attention and billions of dollars in investment. Instead of talking only about replacing lost coal jobs, Wyoming is helping pioneer an entirely new generation of clean, reliable electricity.
That is a remarkable turnaround.
Ironically, Wyoming never stopped being an energy state.
The type of energy is changing. Our expertise is not.
The future may include coal, natural gas, wind, solar, uranium and advanced nuclear power all working together to supply the electricity America increasingly needs.
And that brings us back to those data centers.
Artificial intelligence isn't just another passing technology fad. Experts believe AI will transform medicine, education, manufacturing, finance, agriculture and transportation. Every AI search, every image, every medical diagnosis and every business application depends upon enormous computing power housed in data centers.
Those buildings are essentially giant warehouses filled with computers that consume astonishing amounts of electricity.
Wyoming can provide that electricity.
That may become one of the biggest economic opportunities our state has seen in decades.
Looking Ahead
No, we are not yet a leader in robotics. Maybe that comes next.
But if Wyoming dominates two of the three fastest-growing sectors in America's economy, I will happily take that batting average.
Five years ago, then-Senate President Ogden Driskill gave me one of the best descriptions of Wyoming's budget situation I have ever heard.
"The fat is gone," he said. "Most of the muscle has been gnawed away. Now we're chewing on the bones."
He wasn't exaggerating. Today, however, I believe there is reason for cautious optimism.
Our old severance-tax cheese may never return in the quantities we once enjoyed. Coal will almost certainly never again provide the revenues it once did.
But perhaps Wyoming has finally found some new cheese. And unlike the mice in Spencer Johnson's little book, maybe we have discovered that the smartest response to change isn't mourning what we lost. It's recognizing what we've found.
For the first time in several years, Wyoming's future looks a little brighter than its past.
That is a welcome change. And, as Meat Loaf reminded us all those years ago, sometimes two out of three really isn't bad.
Bill can be reached at Bill@CowboyStateDaily.com
