Energy

Wyoming, Idaho Chase Billions In Funding To Make Region A Nuclear Hub

Wyoming and Idaho officials have been quietly meeting for months as part of a working group to target billions of dollars in federal funding for advanced nuclear projects to make the region a U.S. nuclear hub.

Pat MaioApril 12, 2024

Wyoming's extraction industries are crying foul over a new BLM rule that would give solar and wind developers an 80% cut to rents and fees.

Wind, Solar Projects Get Huge Federal Assistance From Biden Administration

The Biden administration on Thursday announced a new rule which would give solar and wind developers an 80% cut on rents and fees on public lands. Wyoming mining and petroleum groups say it creates an uneven playing field.

Pat MaioApril 11, 2024

Peabody Energy Corp.'s North Antelope Rochelle mine in Wyoming's Powder River Basin is the world's largest and most productive coal mine.

Peabody Sees Lowest First-Quarter Wyoming Coal Production In Over A Decade

St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp. reported Thursday that it won’t hit financial guidance targets for its first quarter, partially in response to dismal coal production out of Wyoming’s coal-rich Powder River Basin.

Pat MaioApril 11, 2024

A 2.71-mile stretch of US Highway 30 near the Kemmerer port of entry will be realigned to the north so that a coal mine operator can access more than 9 million tons of coal reserves. The road will be moved to the left of the truck that is heading toward the port of entry.

$30 Million Project Underway To Move 3 Miles Of U.S. Highway 30 To Access Coal

Work is underway on a $30 million project to move U.S. Highway 30 in Lincoln County to access more than 9 million tons of coal. The work will require more than 50,000 dump trucks moving 1.2 million cubic yards of dirt.

Pat MaioApril 09, 2024

Artist’s rendering of the Project Bison direct air capture facility to be located near Sweetwater, Wyoming. A truck is shown delivering a container-sized direct-air capture module.

Carbon Capture Project In Southwest Wyoming Vies For $1 Billion To Clean Up Air

CarbonCapture, a Los Angeles-based clean technology company, wants to build one of the world’s largest direct air capture of carbon dioxide and storage hubs and locate it in southwestern Wyoming. The company is hoping to receive funds from the Dept of Energy to proceed.

Pat MaioApril 07, 2024

Ecologist Shawn Smallwood standing over a dead eagle carcass in a wind farm in California’s Altamont Pass.

Meet The Expert On Turbine Eagle Deaths The Wind Energy Industry Turned On

Ecologist Shawn Smallwood has made secretive trips to Wyoming to collect data and provide to law enforcement information on eagles and other birds cut down by turbines. He said the wind industry turned on him because he’s “not a team player.”

Pat MaioApril 05, 2024

A still shot from a Fading West video showing a modular housing unit being placed on a pad.

Wyoming Boomtown: With 12,000 Workers Expected, Kemmerer Looks To Modular Housing

With more than 12,000 workers expected in the coming years to build billions of dollars worth of energy development projects, Kemmerer is looking to modular housing as one solution to an expected crunch. The Lego-like homes will start arriving next spring.

Pat MaioApril 05, 2024

The Kemmerer Decarbonization Works, a project proposed by Glenrock Energy in Casper and Kanata America in Cheyenne, want to build a $2.5 billion coal-to-ammonia factory that could tap up to 1.8 millions of coal annually.

New Project Would Make Kemmerer Home To $2.5 Billion Coal-To-Ammonia Plant

A new project would make Kemmerer the home to a $2.5 billion coal-to-ammonia plant. The Kemmerer Decarbonization Works project would be built adjacent to the Kemmerer Coal Mine, which last year produced nearly 2.5 million tons of coal.

Pat MaioApril 04, 2024

Innergex is on schedule to complete a 100-turbine wind farm in northern Albany County.

Canada-Based Company On Schedule To Complete $534M Wyoming Wind Project

The $534 million, 100-turbine Boswell Springs wind farm in northern Albany County, Wyoming, is on schedule to complete construction this year, and will tie into the electrical grid at a substation in Carbon County.

Pat MaioApril 03, 2024

A shovel fills a haul truck with coal at the Buckskin Mine near Gillette, Wyoming, in this 2006 file photo.

Coal's Not Dead: PacifiCorp Plans To Extend Coal-Fired Plants

PacifiCorp submitted a refreshed roadmap Monday that reveals how it plans to tap energy supplies over the next two decades. It includes extending some coal-fired generation.

Pat MaioApril 02, 2024

Florida Firm Proposes 600-MW Wyoming Wind Project Near Jim Bridger Plant

Two years after a U.S. Justice Department settlement over eagle fatalities, a Florida wind power company plans to boost its inventory of wind farms in Wyoming near the Jim Bridger plant near Rock Springs.

Pat MaioApril 01, 2024

Equipment is staged and ready to start building non-reactor infrastructure for the TerraPower Natrium nuclear power plant near Kemmerer, Wyoming.

It’s Official: TerraPower Files Permit to Build Wyoming Nuclear Plant

Bill Gates-backed TerraPower LLC filed a construction permit with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday to build a commercial nuclear reactor in Kemmerer. It will be the first commercial nuclear reactor to be built in the U.S. in more than a dozen years.

Pat MaioMarch 29, 2024

The Dave Johnston power plant's four units were built between 1959 and 1972. It's owned by PacifiCorp.

Rocky Mountain Power Looking At Carbon Capture At Gillette, Glenrock Coal Plants

Rocky Mountain Power, which raised electricity rates 8.3% in January, on Friday announced it is studying whether to place a carbon capture project at either of its Wyoming-based coal-fired power plants — Wyodak near Gillette, or Dave Johnston near Glenrock.

Pat MaioMarch 29, 2024

Company To Build $155 Million Solar Farm In Wyoming's 'Hail Alley'

Cowboy Energy and Portugal's Greenvolt Power have teamed up to build a $155 million solar farm near the farming community of Yoder, Wyoming. They say the 326,000 solar panels will be hail-resistant and will cover 1,200 acres.

Pat MaioMarch 28, 2024

Dry Fork Station coal-fired power plant north of Gillette.

Gillette’s Dry Fork Station Could Become World’s Largest Carbon Capture Plant

An energy research association and a California filtration business have received millions from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue developing a project in Gillette that could make Dry Fork the largest carbon capture power plant in the world.

Pat MaioMarch 28, 2024

Ramaco and its iCam facility are exploring other uses for coal than burning it to produce electricity, including gleaning rare earths from the clays around coal seams and making other products. The company also operates coal mines, like this one, in the Eastern U.S.

Ramaco Says $37 Billion Wyoming Rare Earth Estimate May Have Been Too Low

Ramaco is pulling back from a valuation estimate of $37 billion for critical rare earth minerals discovered underground in northeastern Wyoming. The estimate could be billions of dollars higher as some of the minerals have been banned by China for export to the U.S.

Pat MaioMarch 27, 2024

EnCore Energy Corp. owns uranium assets in Texas and other states, and is expanding its footprint with potentially huge uranium deposits in Wyoming.

Texas-Based Company Pushes Development Of Huge Uranium Deposits in Wyoming

EnCore, a Texas-based uranium producer, is developing huge uranium deposits throughout Wyoming. Its top priority is to pull out of the ground 8 million pounds of uranium at its Gas Hills project, located 45 miles east of Riverton.

Pat MaioMarch 27, 2024

Ramaco's coal mine in northern Wyoming is revealing potential to be a huge rare earths deposit. The company has assets all over the country, like this mine in the Eastern U.S.

Ramaco's Rare Earths Deposit In Northeast Wyoming Estimated Worth At $37 Billion

Ramaco Resources in northeast Wyoming plans to update its rare earths deposit find Wednesday, pushing the estimate on tonnage underground to over 1.5 million tons, and the value to more than $37 billion.

Pat MaioMarch 26, 2024

Former Rare Element Resources Brent Berg, right, left his post as CEO to become a senior vice president for Uranium Energy.

Top Executive For $44 Million Rare Earths Project Leaves For Wyoming Uranium Job

Brent Berg, the top executive behind development of a $44 million rare earth minerals project near Upton, Wyoming, backed by the U.S. Department of Energy, has left the company for an in-state uranium job.

Pat MaioMarch 25, 2024

Dr. Victor Ryan in the small control room of the tiny nuclear reactor he brought to the University of Wyoming and was kept in the basement of the old engineering building.

Lost In Time: There Was A Working Nuclear Reactor At UW 60 Years Ago

Although many have thought it was an urban myth, it's actually true. There was a working nuclear reactor in the basement of the University of Wyoming Engineering Building in the 1960s. Dr. Victor Albert Ryan, a nuclear chemist, brought it with him to establish UW's nuclear research program.

Pat MaioMarch 23, 2024

Some of the nation's top nuclear research is done at the Idaho National Laboratory.

Wyoming Firms Win Access To Top Nuclear Labs To Research Advanced Tech

Two Cheyenne, Wyoming, companies have advanced in a competitive program with the federal energy agency that gives them access to the nation's top research laboratories to work on new advanced nuclear technologies.

Pat MaioMarch 22, 2024

Strata Energy proposes to sell a significant amount of Wyoming uranium to a Belgium company.

Australian Company Inks $117M Deal To Supply Wyoming Uranium to Belgium Buyer

Peninsula Energy of Australia says it plans to sell between $88 million and $117 million worth of Wyoming uranium from a mine near Gillette to a European nuclear fuel buyer from Belgium.

Pat MaioMarch 20, 2024

A Natrium nuclear power plant by TerraPower will replace the Naughton power plant near Kemmerer when it's decommissioned.

TerraPower Expects To Start Building Wyoming Nuclear Site In June

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that it expects TerraPower to file a construction permit within days. The company plans to start building its small nuclear power plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in June.

Pat MaioMarch 19, 2024

An illustration of what an "orchard" of silos to pull carbon dioxide out of the air and sequester it underground in central Wyoming could look like.

$11M Raised For Massive Field Of Carbon-Sucking Silos In Central Wyoming

A plan to locate a massive field of silos that suck carbon dioxide out of the air is planned somewhere in central Wyoming, and $11 million has been raised so far.