As a rancher and attorney, I have spent my career defending something most Wyoming families understand instinctively: the right to use your own land as you see fit.
That principle is now at the center of Wyoming’s debate over data centers, and it deserves more attention.
Few values are more American than the freedom to make lawful decisions about your own property.
For many Wyoming agricultural producers, the ability to generate additional income from their land is not a luxury. It is often what keeps a ranch in the family.
Many ranchers work full-time jobs on top of running cattle because the operation alone cannot cover taxes, equipment, labor and upkeep.
On some smaller parcels, running cattle will not even pay the property tax bill.
When a landowner has the opportunity to lease a portion of their property for a lawful, responsible purpose, that is not a concession. That is exactly what property rights are for.
We should pay close attention when people try to use the government process to strip away those choices and significantly reduce the value and productive use of their land.
Concerns about noise, light and infrastructure are legitimate and worth examining carefully. But a legitimate concern is not the same as an automatic veto of a new use of the property.
Those issues can be reviewed, conditioned and managed. What should not be acceptable is arbitrarily turning a landowner’s economic opportunity into a public decision that can result in the confiscation of property rights.
Data centers are going to be built. The question is where.
Wyoming should want these facilities here, where they can be regulated, reviewed and held to high standards.
For those who oppose them, consider the alternative: if this infrastructure is not built here, more of it will be built in countries like China, where our communities have no say, no oversight and no economic benefit whatsoever.
Additionally, these companies are paying to upgrade aging infrastructure like power lines, water lines and other systems that communities rely on every day, while bringing new sources of long-term revenue.
Wyoming faces real fiscal pressure.
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, Wyoming collected about $172 million less in state severance taxes in 2025 than in 2015, a decline of roughly 19 percent.
Our traditional severance tax base is not what it once was, and communities need new long-term revenue to support schools, police, fire departments and infrastructure.
One reason our severance taxes started dipping is that policies in states like California, Oregon and Washington have curtailed Wyoming fossil fuels.
Those policies and environmentalists working to kill fossil fuels have set their sights on industries that use fossil fuels.
It’s no coincidence that backlash began about the time data centers switched to natural gas to power their projects.
These opposition groups won’t stop trying to put Wyoming out of business as an energy state.
I have faith in Wyoming’s elected officials to see through this and not get pulled into the rhetoric of anti-Wyoming groups.
There is a narrow window of opportunity that Wyoming cannot afford to ignore.
With a federal administration supportive of fossil fuels, now is the time to connect new technology and economic growth to Wyoming coal, oil and natural gas.
Instead of exporting our fuel, we can use it here, bolstering the case for the fossil fuels on which Wyoming built its economy. Federal policy can change quickly; we have seen it before.
This is our chance to put those resources to work and turn communities across Wyoming into perennial boomtowns.
Further, few growth industries can generate so much tax revenue and economic activity while using as little land and water as data centers do.
In fact, with a standard workforce of 50 to 60 permanent operational technicians, an average of $104,000 to $124,000 in local taxes is paid per full-time job.
Of course, no project should get a free pass.
Every data center proposal should be reviewed carefully for its impact on power, water, infrastructure, emergency response and neighboring properties.
However, those concerns must be balanced with the property rights of landowners. Buying a piece of land next to a cow pasture does not give you the right to require your neighbor to keep their property as a scenic easement.
Wyoming can protect its communities, respect private property rights and welcome responsible investment at the same time.
That is the balance we should be working toward, and it starts with remembering whose land this is in the first place.
Frank Falen is a rancher and attorney based in Wyoming.
