Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Jimmy orr

Jimmy Orr

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Mostly sunny to sunny in Wyoming on Tuesday, windy, fire watches in some areas. Partly cloudy to mostly clear, breezy overnight. Highs from the mid 70s to the low 90s. Lows from the low 40s to the low 60s.

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Red flag fire warning from noon today until 9 p.m. tonight. Breezy, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 90 and wind gusts as high as 31 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 59 and wind gusts as high as 39 mph.

Sunny and breezy today with a high near 93 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph. Breezy, gradually becoming clear overnight with a low near 57 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph.

 Sunny and windy today with a high near 87 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 54 and wind gusts as high as 44 mph.

 Sunny today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 52 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 87 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 57 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph.

Sunny and windy today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 38 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 52 and wind gusts as high as 38 mph.

Mostly sunny and windy today with a high near 79 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 38 mph.

 Sunny and breezy today with a high near 86 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 47 and wind gusts as high as 31 mph.

  Breezy, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph.

 Sunny and windy today with a high near 77 and wind gusts as high as 47 mph. Mostly clear and very windy overnight with a low near 47 and wind gusts as high as 55 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 76 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 39 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph.

Sunny and breezy today with a high near 94 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 59 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph.

:  Sunny and windy today with a high near 89 and wind gusts as high as 38 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 56 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 91 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 55 and wind gusts as high as 38 mph.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Partly cloudy and windy overnight with a low near 56 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 86 and wind from 13-18 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 53 and wind from 18-23 mph.

:  Mostly sunny today with a high near 84 and wind from 17-22 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 52 and wind gusts as high as 38 mph.

Gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 86 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Gradually clearing late and breezy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight, a low near 54 and wind gusts as high as 31 mph.

  Gradually clearing today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain after midnight, a low near 58 and wind gusts as high as 31 mph.

:  Gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 87 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain after midnight, a low near 54 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

  Fire weather watch from noon today until 8 p.m. tomorrow night. Mostly sunny, hot and breezy today with a high near 93 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 62 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Fire weather watch from noon today until 8 p.m. tomorrow night. Mostly sunny, hot and breezy today with a high near 91 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 62 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.

  Red flag fire warning from noon today until 9 p.m. tonight. Breezy, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 90 and wind gusts as high as 31 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 55 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

  Fire weather watch from noon today until 8 p.m. tomorrow night. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 87 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 60 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph.

  Sunny and windy today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 54 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph.

  Fire weather watch from noon today until 8 p.m. tomorrow night. Mostly sunny, hot and breezy today with a high near 90 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 59 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.

  Sunny and windy today with a high near 83 and wind gusts as high as 50 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 56 and wind gusts as high as 50 mph.

  Sunny and windy today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 54 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 88 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 51 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.

Daycap small 6 16 26

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Tuesday, June 16, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, June 16th.  I’m Mac Watson

Wyoming’s coal sector is startled at Republican candidates who oppose data centers. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that industry leaders say the revival of coal is largely due to projected demand for energy from data centers. 

“It's an interesting issue in Republican politics, because you have a lot of Republicans in Wyoming that are saying, ‘Whoa, slow down or stop the data centers, particularly on agricultural land.’ So, we're an energy state and we're an ag state, so that's I think we find a little the divergence, because you have people, Republicans in ranch country in particular, who have concerns about water pollution, other things, and yeah, that's that's the divide is usually Republicans are pro energy, but if it's an issue for ranch owners, then all of a sudden you're going to see those fractures.”

President Donald Trump has touted the sector’s expansion as part of a 

, and part of beating China in a technology advancement race.

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A Wyoming man named Aron Snyder confirms he’s the person seen tossing, kicking and stabbing a coyote in a video. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Snyder admits the video is “a very bad optic,” and apologized  in a weekend social media post.

“He said, as he recalls, somewhere around 2019-2020 they were hunting coyotes on a Texas ranch, or somewhere thereabouts, and and that's when the when the events in that video transpired, and you know, in a video statement that he put up on social media, he said he understood that it was a bad optic, and he also said he found no fault or had no quarrel with the company that he'd worked for, which is a primitive outdoors, it's a clothing and gear company, but they, they announced that they had terminated him.”

Cowboy State Daily reached out to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, asking if the department is investigating the incident depicted in the coyote-killing video. TPWD law enforcement spokeswoman Maggie Berger promptly responded with an email saying the department would check into it.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"–  "}]

Despite calls to delay or deny a 3,500-acre annexation for Microsoft data centers, Cheyenne’s Public Services Committee narrowly recommended approval Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that a councilman urged them to postpone to give the city time to negotiate a $50 million agreement.

“The most notable thing today was Councilman Larry Wolf's proposal to create a community benefit agreement. He called for the public service committee to postpone or even recommend denial of the annexation of Microsoft until the city has a chance to negotiate a $50 million community benefit agreement, his idea would be that money would be used for permanent improvements to Cheyenne, the city would consult with Microsoft, but would ultimately be the sole decider of what to do with that money.”

Despite Wolfe’s push, the PSC voted 2-1 to recommend annexation of the 3,500-acre property to the full council, along with zoning changes and future land-use map changes. Councilman Pete Laybourn cast the lone “no” vote on these measures, which will be before the Cheyenne City Council at its next meeting June 22.

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A group of young men is suing the Wyoming Boys’ School claiming they were attacked, confined in a chair, and made to wear a mask. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports one security guard is alleged to have said,  “The best part of the chair is watching the kids cry and scream.”

“What you have right now are two very different accounts of what's going on. You have the logs from the Wyoming Boys School, where staffers are saying these boys were attacking people, destroying property, being threatening, causing this problem. That's why he was restrained. That's why he was placed in detainment. That's why he was placed under a special status. And you have the boys coming back and saying here are areas where this restraint or detainment was completely excessive. Here's where the cameras don't support the video, doesn't support what the state is saying, and so where what you have is kind of a factual clash, and the federal judge needs to decide whether it's enough of a factual clash to send this case to trial.”

Three men — Blaise Chivers-King, Charles “Rees” Karn, and Dylan Tolar — 

sued the Wyoming Department of Family Services

, the Wyoming Boys’ School in Worland, and 10 former and current employees in 2024.

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I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

A Minnesota man says a stranger spent years building a life in Wyoming using his identity, earning more than $500,000, fathering a child and leaving Martin Almendarez owing child support. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that Almendarez says “I don't even know him nor have I ever been to Wyoming.” 

“For years Martin Almendarez has been struggling with someone using his identity to earn income that they don't pay taxes on, and last week he learned from the IRS that they were going to start garnishing his wages for income that he didn't receive. Also, he learned that he owes child support for a child that he never had. Almendarez was finally able to get a hold of police in Gillette, and they were able to make an arrest, which gave him great relief last week when 45-year-old Jose Reyes was taken into custody.”

According to Gillette PD, Reyes faces four counts of unauthorized use of someone's personal identity. He’s currently being held at the Campbell County Detention Center on a $500,000 cash-only bond. 

A pair of young bighorn sheep rams that wandered into Cheyenne were killed by Wyoming wildlife officials. However, one biologist and wildlife researcher says it's not necessary. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that Jack States says they should be quarantined instead.

“Game and Fish made the decision to go ahead and euthanize those rams, and they donated the meat. I think it went to the First Lady's kind of food pantry program, but the reason those sheep were killed was because of disease risk. Anytime sheep wander into a settled area like that, there's the chance they might interact with domestic sheep or goats, and they can pick up a lot of pathogens, the chief of which is pneumonia, which can be really hard on wild sheep herds.”

While bighorn sheep are hardy enough to survive Wyoming’s worst weather in its roughest terrain, they are highly susceptible to disease. Pneumonia outbreaks, sometimes transmitted from domestic sheep, can be bighorn conservationists’ worst nightmare. In some cases, entire herds are nearly wiped out.

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A first-of-its-kind renewable natural gas facility under construction in central Nebraska will convert cattle manure into pipeline-quality natural gas from the cow waste produced by a huge feedlot. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that leaders are saying this project could benefit Wyoming ranchers and farmers.

“There's a lot of excitement over this agricultural renewable energy project in Nebraska with Neogenics and the partner with this feed lot. It's a newer project for them. Jim Magagna with the Wyoming Stock Growers Association said a project like this will probably be more beneficial for the ranchers and farmers who use the land, who have the land for this, than the actual production of energy. We have lots of natural gas, but this could create an additional revenue source for ranchers and farmers who are struggling in a very tight cattle market.”

The project will capture methane produced by decomposing livestock manure and convert it into renewable natural gas, or RNG, that can be injected directly into existing natural gas pipelines.

So far, nobody’s claimed a renegade Russian tortoise found wandering around in Thermopolis's Riverside Cemetery. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the cemetery worker who found it says “I’m hoping someone didn’t abandon it, because that’s not cool.”

Tortoises are common pets in Wyoming, even though there are no tortoises native to Wyoming. So, in this instance, it seems a Russian tortoise was found in Riverside Cemetery in Thermopolis. Nobody knows how it got there, and more intriguingly, nobody's claimed it. There are a lot of people who want to claim it, who want to take care of it, and it has found a good foster home that could become its forever home.”

The last native Wyoming tortoise died millions of years ago, so the cemetery worker who found the tortoise knew he was dealing with a tortoise on the lam. He picked up the tiny tortoise, which was less than six inches long, and gave it a safe space to munch on some lettuce.

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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 6 16 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Tuesday, June 16, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Tuesday's headlines include:
* Renegade Tortoise Found In Cemetery 
* Coal Industry Frustrated By GOP Candidates
* Cheyenne Votes In Favor of Microsoft Annexation

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Kerry Drake

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

Cheyenne’s new vehicle noise ordinance was unanimously passed by the City Council to stop obnoxious motorists who drive their loud cars, trucks and motorcycles late at night, disrupting people’s sleep.

 soon after it went on the books in late September was auto mechanic Geno Stecks, who was driving a fairly unassuming 2006 Subaru with a modified muffler. 

It also wasn’t in the middle of the night or in a residential section of the capital city. Stecks said it was on a main thoroughfare at the intersection of East Lincolnway and Hugur Avenue at 2:45 in the afternoon.

“Communists. Control freaks!” is how Stecks responded when asked what he thought about the City Council members who approved the ordinance after many people opposed it during public testimony at three council meetings.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"He Wasn’t Speeding"}]

Stecks was on the job when he got busted, transporting auto parts for FM Automotive when he heard the police siren.

He told the officer that he didn’t think he’d been speeding, but was informed the stop was made because of excessive noise.

This how the encounter went, according to Stecks:

“I couldn’t hear my radio for your exhaust,” the officer told him.

“I said, ‘Turn your volume knob up,’” Stecks said he replied. "I couldn’t hear my exhaust because of my radio, because I’ve got a kick-ass stereo in it.”

In hindsight, Stecks said he’s since thought of some other creative responses.

“I wish I had told him, ‘What are you going to tell the Hells Angels if they come roaring through town? Are you going to pull them over and cite them for having too loud exhaust? You probably wouldn’t live through it,’” said the bearded Stecks, wearing a T-shirt that depicted a full mug with the word “Beer – It’s What’s for Dinner.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Too Few Tickets"}]

A spokesperson for the Cheyenne Police Department said that after Stecks broke the ice as the first to be ticketed for driving too loudly, 43 other motorists were given noise violation citations in 2025, and 33 more so far this year.

Even those are way too few, said a council member who supported the noise ordinance.

“They should be writing 300 or 400,” said City Council Vice President Pete Laybourn. “The problem is immense, and I’m very disappointed with how it’s being handled. The ordinance hasn’t been effective at all.”

Laybourn said residents are purposely modifying their mufflers and making noise in all parts of the city, at all hours day and night, and also deliberately speeding.

“They tried to disrupt Friday Night at the Plaza last week, driving up Capitol (Avenue) and backfiring,” he said. “It was really, really bad.”

City Council President Tom Segrave was one of several councilmen who brought up the issue last summer because ​he was getting so many complaints from Cheyenne residents about excessive noise from motorists.

“I live off Yellowstone Road, and I can tell you it’s quite a sight to see a pack of people riding these loud little motorcycles down Yellowstone at night, often up until 1 a.m., popping wheelies,” Segrave said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Too Early To Tell"}]

He said it’s too early to know if the ordinance is making a difference. 

Segrave said he hasn’t been receiving complaints, but figures that will change during the summer when more people have their windows open.

The main difference between the new ordinance and a previous one is that it allows a police officer to use his or her judgment about whether a vehicle is too loud. 

The former regulation required a meter to be used at least 25 feet away, which Segrave said made it unenforceable.

Stecks said he paid the $100 fine, which would be increased to $200 if he breaks the ordinance again within a year. 

Possible jail time is on the books for a third offense, plus a $500 fine, but City Attorney John Brodie told Cowboy State Daily when the ordinance was passed last year that it’s 

“If anything, jail is maybe an imposed part of the sentence that would then be suspended,” he said.

“People told me, ‘You could have fought this,’” Steck said. “I said I’d be in worse trouble because I would have ended up in jail after I told the judge and the court how crooked they are. 

"There would have been F-bombs involved. When you’re a mechanic, F-bombs are the terminology of the trade.”

The ordinance requires all vehicles driven within city limits to be equipped with a muffler. It prohibits vehicles that bypass or cut out their mufflers to be louder and those that create “excessive smoke.”

Stecks said he agrees with the idea that people who drive small motorcycles known as “crotch rockets” up and down the street after 10 p.m. need to be ticketed. 

But he emphasized, “Not drivers who are just doing their job in the middle of the day.”

He said it would have made more sense if he’d received a ticket for a machine that he knows is really noisy: a fast 1931 Model A rat rod named “Clyde” that he built several years ago. 

Several of Stecks’ co-workers smiled and nodded their heads as he said this, because they know exactly how loud Clyde can be cranked it up.

Stecks said his main problem with the ordinance is that it relies on a police officer to make a judgment call about how loud the noise is.

“They need to measure it,” he said. “That’s the only way they should ever do this.”

Geno breaks the sound barrier 6 15 26

<title>Meet The First Driver To Get A Ticket Under Cheyenne’s New Noise Ordinance | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Mechanic Geno Stecks got the first ticket under Cheyenne’s new noise ordinance while delivering a car part in the middle of the day. When the officer told him he couldn't hear his radio because of the exhaust, Stecks said, "Turn your volume knob up."

Meet The First Driver To Get A Ticket Under Cheyenne’s New Noise Ordinance

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming’s coal sector is startled at Republican political candidates who oppose the data center buildout.

Data centers are large warehouses full of servers that power parts of the internet and, increasingly, artificial intelligence (AI). Wyoming has between 20 and 30 operational data centers.

Many Wyoming Republicans oppose data center construction due to the various unknowns associated with them, or doubts about the veracity of the companies’ promises, regarding water usage, pollution, noise, and the irreversible alteration of agricultural lands and vistas.

“It’s kind of frustrating from the coal side of things,” Travis Deti, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday. “The coal comeback right now is being – you know it’s being driven largely by the data center buildout nationally and the projected demand for energy.”

Yet, Deti added, “when you have politicians running around Wyoming, it’s easy for them to say, ‘We support coal, we support coal,’ but out of the other side of their mouths they want to stop the data centers.”

Deti attributed the anti-data center fad to a “wave of populism” by which politicians follow passing movements rather than concrete principles.

Wyoming's public revenues have depended significantly on coal mining over the years, even as the sector has suffered under pendulum politics from Washington, D.C. 

Coal production in Wyoming peaked in 2008, when the Powder River Basin produced nearly 450 million tons, and has trended unsteadily downward since. 

Wyoming surface coal production has fallen by 59.1% over the past 16 years. Thermal coal, which Wyoming produces, has seen lower demand in recent years.

That’s from coal-fired power plants either retiring or lowering their demand nationally as the market has shifted to both natural gas and renewable energy.

Calendar year 2024 marked the first time Wyoming coal production had fallen below 200 million tons since 1992.

The industry saw it as a dark year, as President Joe Biden’s U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a 

Coal in 2025 yielded $134 million in severance taxes for Wyoming – the lowest since 2003.

That’s 19.5% of Wyoming’s severance tax haul, with oil generating 54.9% and natural gas yielding 21.9%.

The divide had surfaced in statewide Wyoming GOP primary election contests.

In the GOP race for the state’s lone U.S. House seat, candidate and Secretary of State Chuck Gray has opposed the data center buildout, while at least one of his opponents, Casper businessman Reid Rasner, has urged responsible, pro-business development in the sector.

“Thank you President Trump for your support of our big, beautiful coal industry! We must support our core coal, ranching and farming, oil and gas, and soda ash industries,” says a June 8 Facebook post by Gray. “And we must STOP (Gov.) Mark Gordon's nightmare of outrageously wrong woke wind and woke Big Tech surveillance state data centers.”

 calling for responsible, considerate and transparent data center development. In an inversion of the norm, Gordon is more in line with Trump’s agenda on this issue than Gray is.

Conversely, Gray and other anti-data center Republicans find themselves in a rare policy camp with Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, of New York, and Independent Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who have called for a moratorium.

[{"type":"text","text":"Gray countered Deti’s point in a Monday comment via text message."}]

“I’ve consistently been coal’s #1 defender in the Wyoming 

 Legislature and as secretary of state,” wrote Gray. “I’ve worked to get access to markets for our coal and also have worked to stop woke wind projects that are in direct competition with our big, beautiful coal industry.”

Gray criticized Gordon and Deti for not backing a bill Gray had sponsored in 2019 – which Gordon vetoed.

 set up a litigation fund and authorized the Legislature to sue over coal export access. In Gray’s telling, the bill aimed to get coal export access amid the damaged industry “when the timing was right.”

, conversely, the governor said he agreed with the need for Wyoming to export coal, but the state was already litigating for access to coal export terminals.

“Giving courts the impression that two branches of Wyoming’s government might be… potentially litigating over the top of one another – would be counterproductive to our best efforts to protect Wyoming’s interests,” Gordon wrote at the time.

Gray in his Monday text message added, “AOC (

 Ocasio-Cortez) and I have nothing in common. Any suggestion that we do is patently absurd. I’ve consistently defended coal, election integrity, and our Wyoming values.”

Gray and Rasner face eight more GOP candidates: state Senate President Bo Biteman, Teton County philanthropist Steve Friess, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, military veterans David Giralt and Kevin Christensen, Moran rancher Frank Chapman, former legislator Keith Goodenough, and Richard Dodson.

In her campaign for governor, Superintendent for Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder has 

 over data centers’ potential impacts on water usage and power rates, and said responsible development, rather than an outright ban, is the answer.

One of her opponents, retired Marine Col. Brent Bien

 data center development is moving too quickly to fit within “consent of the governed,” and he wouldn’t allow any to be built on agricultural ground.

And the third major opponent in that Republican race, Sen. Eric Barlow, has urged responsible development and good information, but not fear toward the centers.

The state’s primary election is Aug. 18. Because it’s a deep-red state, the primary election is considered more decisive than the general election for statewide races generally.

[{"type":"text","text":"Head Scratching"}]

David Miller is a semi-retired uranium geology specialist and former state lawmaker who represented Riverton as a Republican.

He’s also scratching his head over the data center-driven divide in the GOP.

“I’m hearing rumors that it’s, like, China and maybe some of the other competitive countries funding the (informational) opposition to the data centers,” Miller said in a Monday phone interview.

“Frankly, I think the more electricity we have being produced in Wyoming the better,” he said. More data centers mean more coal-fired plants, he added.

[{"type":"text","text":"But Miller said it’s time to end tax breaks for data centers."}]

Wyoming crafted a sales-tax exemption for large-scale data projects starting in 2010.

One Republican, then-Rep. Clark Stith of Rock Springs, tried to remove the sales-tax exemption in 2021. At that time, Gray was one of the state House Republicans who opposed Stith and 

But at that time, Gray told Cowboy State Daily on Friday, “no one had any idea where the AI revolution was heading or the massive demands it would place on our power grid and water resources.”

He noted Monday that Wyoming had fewer than two data centers at that time.  

[{"type":"text","text":"The Stakes Are Enormous"}]

State Rep. Steve Johnson, R-Cheyenne, doesn’t want to ban data centers outright. But like Miller, he believes Wyoming is being short-changed in the land-for-business exchange, and he wants to remove tax breaks and scrutinize the way state law treats the sector, Johnson told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.

Data center companies have delivered numerous promises, including that they’ll conserve water and mitigate impacts.

 levels and the AI revolution remain, Johnson noted.

He said he’d like to see counties respect landowners’ property rights to lease land, but also to use responsible zoning to protect closely situated neighbors.

As for whether his caution puts him in Bernie Sanders’ camp or Trump’s camp, that’s not paramount, Johnson said. He said he’d approach the Wyoming controversy according to Wyoming’s needs, as “I think D.C. has lost their minds.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Data centers feed artificial intelligence."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"That concerns Johnson too, he said."}]

“I think that AI scares the hell out of me, and it might help us a little bit; but if it takes our younger generation’s jobs away… let’s think about the end product,” he said. “I do think we need some safeguards.”

Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, gave a similar answer during an 

, on the strange political camps the data center issue is forging.

Steinmetz called earlier this month for a poll of legislators to gauge interest in having a special session to address the data center boom.

She represents agricultural communities, and many Wyoming regions face a drought, Steinmetz noted.

“It’s very concerning to me the pace at which we’re proceeding down this road without credible information,” she said, referencing a state-ordered groundwater study that is expected to take four years.

Trump has cast data centers as a piece of U.S. national security, for the tech advances they can fuel.

“But we have to recognize, our water, our food supply, our communities are a matter of national security too,” she said. “Agriculture is a huge national security issue.”

Black thunder coal mine trains 6 15 26

<title>Coal Industry Frustrated With GOP Candidates Who Want To Kill Data Centers | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming’s coal sector is startled at Republican candidates who oppose data centers. Industry leaders say the revival of coal is driven by demand for energy from data centers.  "It's frustrating," said Travis Deti, of the Wyoming Mining Association.

CSD Staff

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