Cowboy State finds it hard to move beyond carbon

At Wyoming Capitol, a denial of climate change — and continued support for carbon capture technology

WyoFile tells of a legislative hearing at the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne in which no dissenting testimony was permitted. The subject: climate change.

“If proponents of a different viewpoint wish to express that, they are free to have a hearing of their own,” announced Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, referring to opinions about planetary warming due to emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

The news organization explains that the legislative hearing was part of a tour of the CO2 Coalition. The group proclaims that loading more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will not tip the planet’s climate into unlivable conditions. A co-founder, William Happer, a physicist, said that people who believe in climate change have been brainwashed. “I don’t know how you deprogram people from a cult.”

Fewer than half of Wyoming residents believe climate change is human induced, WyoFile reported in the story, “Climate denial heats up at Wyoming Capitol.”

In the account, WyoFile tells about the places where Gov. Mark Gordon fits into this landscape. He proclaims that carbon capture and sequestration can help save the state’s carbon-based economy.

Gordon is chair of the Western Governors Association and was recently in Denver to sponsor a conference on that topic. (Gov. Jared Polis, the official host, was there to kick off the event and remained for a half-hour or so, while Gordon lingered for the first afternoon. Both legislative sessions were underway).

WyoFile interviewed one Laramie resident who attended the climate change denial event there. She said Gordon wouldn’t give the coalition speakers the time of day – and she wasn’t happy about it. She thinks carbon capture is a waste of money – and unneeded.

So far, Wyoming taxpayers are paying for $3 million to study the feasibility of adding carbon capture at five coal-burning units in Wyoming. The study concluded that retrofitting the five units would cost $500 million to $1 billion each. Some of the units are 40 to 50 years old.

In a Feb. 20 story, WyoFile’s Dustin Bleizeffer reported that a bill that would allow utilities to adopt the technology beyond 2030 is moving through the legislative process. The delay is intended to allow carbon capture technologies to advance and to garner more interest from private investors.

Randall Luthi, the energy policy advisor to Gordon, told a committee that if Wyoming can demonstrate success of a single carbon-capture retrofit, it might convince other states to continue burning Wyoming coal and buying Wyoming coal-based power generation. ”If we do that, there’s no reason that the technology cannot be exported – to those 26 other states that currently rely on Wyoming coal, and to other countries as well.”

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