Wyoming looks at energy differently than Colorado. A conference in Jackson Hole during May will dive into some of those perspectives.
by Allen Best
Wyoming would seem to be a state in residual denial of the energy transition. It has had several recent governors who have pushed for a gentle pivot, always getting pushback.
And, with some understandable reason. The state has made a modest or better living for many years off extraction and combustion of coal, oil, and gas.
Now, however, the imperative of change has become undeniable. A conference on May 14-15 called Jackson Hole Summit: Energy, Economics, and Environment seeks to push that conversation along.
Goal of the conference is to “bring together leaders, investors, policymakers, and communities to meet the reality of growing global energy demand through strategies that maximize local economic growth while preserving environmental integrity.”
Tellingly, the agenda of the two-day conference mentions natural gas once, coal twice and oil not at all.
The conference is being hosted by several Jackson Hole based NGOs including the Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs (JHCGA), Riverwind Foundation, Energy Conservation Works and others. We posed several questions to JHCGA’s president and conference co-organizer, Nathan Wendt:
The keynote speaker for your conference will be Jared Diamond. How did you settle on him? Does he drop by Jackson Hole from time to time?
Jared has become a friend over the years, and we have hosted him in Jackson a couple of times. He loves the Tetons and has a history in the valley going back to when he first came in the ‘60s. We chose him to open the summit because he is uniquely qualified to frame the larger questions at the heart of the summit. He steps back and looks at how societies grapple with fundamental needs and development and the trade-offs they must navigate to meet those needs while sustaining the surrounding environment.
At a time when the world’s energy demands are growing and the pressures on ecosystems are intensifying, Diamond brings a critical, long-view perspective on what it means for humanity to adapt, innovate, and balance survival with stewardship. His insights will help frame our conversation beyond day-to-day market decisions or technology trends.
The agenda for your first day is built around Wyoming, focusing on key legislative and investment “frameworks.” How would you summarize these frameworks?
Wyoming is one of the nation’s true energy-producing states — we generate around 15 times more energy than we consume, sending power across the country. Recognizing both the legacy and future of its energy economy, Wyoming has taken a proactive, innovative approach to positioning itself for an “all-of-the-above” energy future.
At the state level, Wyoming created the Energy Matching Fund, a unique initiative that offers grant support to help bring new energy projects — from carbon capture to advanced nuclear to hydrogen — to the state. It’s a tool designed to de-risk private investment and scale up next-generation energy technologies in Wyoming.
At the federal level, legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act introduced critical tax credits that especially benefit energy states like Wyoming, including the Energy Communities Bonus Credit and 45Q tax credits for carbon capture. Wyoming is uniquely positioned to lead on carbon capture and storage, and these federal incentives, combined with the state’s forward-looking investment strategies, have made Wyoming a key destination for energy innovation.
One of your sessions is devoted to renewable natural gas. What is that, and why might students and architects of the energy transition be interested?
The summit actually features two sessions that spotlight some of the exciting energy startups emerging in Wyoming. One of them includes a focus on renewable natural gas.
Cowboy Clean Fuels has developed a truly innovative approach — generating renewable natural gas through carbon storage tied to the production of sugar beets. It’s a unique technology that not only captures and stores carbon but also produces a clean energy product that can be integrated into existing natural gas infrastructure.
Technologies like those being piloted by Cowboy Clean Fuels show how new ideas, rooted in Wyoming’s agricultural and energy heritage, can play a major role in shaping the future energy economy.
You have a representative of Prometheus Hyperscale speaking. How do hyperscale data centers fit into the Wyoming conversation?
Hyperscale data centers — like the project being developed by Prometheus Hyperscale — are emerging as a major new opportunity for Wyoming’s energy economy and broader economic diversification strategy. The artificial intelligence boom is creating massive new demand for power, and hyperscale data centers — are looking for locations to build.
For a lot of reasons, Wyoming is a great spot – the weather is right, there is proximity to fiber optic networks, favorable tax policies, and a strong workforce skilled in energy and industrial trades. Data center development can help Wyoming through the generation of new tax revenue, new jobs, and, through approaches whereby they procure power through the grid or behind-the-meter, partnering with nuclear, wind, they can drive investment into Wyoming’s next-generation energy sector.
That project also looks to be one of the largest infrastructure investments in the history of the state.
What we in Colorado call just transition is part of your conference. What is the nature of your conversation in Wyoming. Might there be things Colorado could learn?
In Wyoming, the energy transformation is already well underway. Wyoming is leaning in with a range of efforts to position itself for energy leadership while creating tangible benefits for workers and communities.
Community colleges across the state are expanding programs to build workforce capacity for the next generation of energy projects — everything from nuclear to carbon capture to renewables. At the same time, there’s a major focus on strengthening community capacity to compete for and land federal funding, ensuring that economic benefits flow directly to local areas.
The state’s Energy Matching Fund is another innovative tool, helping to attract and de-risk private investment in new energy ventures. Add to that a growing venture capital ecosystem and a wave of exciting new projects — from advanced manufacturing to clean hydrogen and renewable natural gas — and you see a dynamic, forward-looking energy economy taking shape.
All of these pieces together give Wyoming an edge to remain a national energy leader, while also creating good jobs and supporting vibrant communities. There’s a lot happening here that other states — including Colorado — might find useful as they think about how to strengthen economic diversification and workforce development alongside their energy transitions.
Maybe the session I’d be most interested in hearing would be the remarks of the Campbell County commissioner. That’s Gillette, site of many of Wyoming’s coal mines. Do you have any idea what he will say?
Campbell County is the nation’s leading coal-producing county — by a wide margin — so I would imagine the commissioner will speak to the continued strength of the Powder River Basin’s coal customer base, particularly as global and domestic energy demands remain high.
But I also expect he’ll highlight how Campbell County isn’t standing still. The community is already building a leadership profile in emerging technologies like carbon capture, coal-to-products innovation, and advanced energy research.
Campbell County has always been about energy, and today it’s showing that it can supply traditional fuels but also help lead the way in developing new technologies that support a lower-carbon future. It’s a powerful story of how energy-producing communities can adapt, innovate, and continue to thrive.
Just down the road from you — at least by Wyoming standards of “just down the road” — is Kemmerer and the nuclear project in which Bill Gates has money invested.
Absolutely — the planning and community impacts associated with the Kemmerer nuclear project will be profiled at the summit. We’re fortunate to have the mayor of Kemmerer joining us to share firsthand insights.
Kemmerer has been incredibly proactive — not just in welcoming the TerraPower advanced nuclear project, but in preparing the town and county to maximize its benefits. They’ve done a lot of work alongside Western Wyoming Community College to plan to train workers for the coming opportunities, address housing needs, and think through the overall economic profile of the community.
It’s a great example of how an energy-producing town can lead, a leading national story along those lines.
Your conference will be held in downtown Jackson. Tell me, will there be the evening ritual of gunfights during the conference?
Those start around Memorial Day, but the town square is right near the venue, so anyone can go check out the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar or any number of other wild west classics while with us in town.
Go here to find out more about the Jackson Hole Summit. Photo by of the Tetons at dawn by Nathan Wendt.
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Wow, what a great job these folks in Wyoming do of “picking losers” and avoiding even “saying the names” of the power sources meeting worldwide demand growth. Worldwide last year the majority of power growth was met by wind and solar, with electricity storage multiplying the value of variable renewable electricity. In most places no subsidies were provided.
$400 Billion was invested in renewable generation. Nuclear was a blip. Geothermal and CCS basically nowhere. Yes, one big geothermal power plant is being built in western Utah, in the geologically unique basin and range province and needs 40 sq miles to provide 400ish MW.
Virtually all the nuclear in the world is being built on seacoasts where cooling water is abundant. And so on.