Barring potential vetoes from the governor’s desk and last-minute surprises in the final days of the Legislature’s budget session, lawmakers appear favorable toward a pair of fossil fuel subsidies while shying away from the complexities of more closely coordinating with local officials regardin g wind energy and other industrial uses on state lands. Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s Dry Fork Station coal plant on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, in Gillette. (Ryan Dorgan/WyoFile) As of Tuesday, lawmakers were on track to create a $105 million “Energy Dominance” fund, extend a tax break to enhanced oil recovery producers, remove triple taxation on electric vehicle drivers and plead with Congress to hand control of federal mineral leasing to the state. On the cutting room floor — or possibly headed for interim study — lies an effort to repeal Wyoming’s coal carbon capture mandate, a bill to codify plug-in solar to save on monthly electric bills and at least four measures intended to limit or better coordinate industrial projects on state-owned lands. Industrial development on state lands A highly contentious issue from the past couple of years spawned the introduction of four bills this session — and they all flopped early in the process, failing to earn the two-thirds introductory vote. Senate File 91, “Wyoming energy project accountability act,” would have required legislative approval for certain energy projects as well as for extending energy developers state grants and loans. Senate File 40, “State lands-designation of community-valued land,” would have empowered the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council to designate state lands, on a case-by-case nomination basis, as “lands with significant community value.”  Senate File 42, “County zoning authority-amendments,” would specify that counties have the authority to “implement zoning regulations for specified purposes.” House Bill 148, “Land, Water and Fiscal Integrity Act,” aimed to compel the State Board of Land Commissioners to hold public hearings in the county where it considers “utility-scale” industrial projects. Why all the focus on state-owned lands? Many large industrial projects — think wind energy, for example — have a footprint large enough to include one or more state- and school-trust sections, which are scattered in loose checkerboard fashion across the Cowboy State map. That places the State Board of Land Commissioners in a vital permitting role. Some contend that energy developers seek out state parcels as preferable over federal or privately owned lands. Rural landowners and local officials — particularly in Wyoming’s central and eastern high-wind corridor — have said they’re overrun with new and proposed industrial projects, including what one person has described as a potential “wall” of wind turbines stretching from Cheyenne to Douglas. And the state board, they say, has failed to adequately notify and engage with neighbors and county officials about whether the project leases they approve are a good fit. Dozens of people hike a trail on state lands in the Coates Road area west of Casper, where Prism Logistics hopes to mine gravel. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile) “I think [it’s a big deal] that there was an appetite to introduce these bills at all during a budget session year,” said Carolyn Griffith of the Casper Mountain Preservation Alliance.  The Alliance was formed in 2024 after rural homeowners west of Casper were surprised to learn the state had leased adjacent state lands for a gravel mining operation, potentially threatening residential water wells and industrializing the neighborhood. Residents and local officials throughout the region have similarly railed against the Board of Land Commissioners for greenlighting energy projects that many allege threaten recreational and agricultural uses and devalue adjacent private property.  “State land use decisions that directly impact citizens and communities have been drawn into the crosshairs over the past couple of years,” Griffith told WyoFile. “I see the recent bill introductions as our legislators working to protect Wyoming’s values and citizens from situations that may be deleterious to them.” Laramie County resident Wendy Volk, who has asked the Board of Land Commissioners for more local input and careful consideration, said she’s not surprised the bills didn’t pass. None were committee bills with a full vetting in the months leading up to the budget session, she noted. What’s needed, Volk added, is a more comprehensive analysis when considering individual industrial projects. “I just don’t think we have an entity, or a process, for evaluating these on a cumulative basis, like on a 150-mile corridor,” Volk said. “I can see where the pluses are [for individual energy projects], but, boy, we sure as heck need to be able to have every elected official, and each citizen, be able to look one another in the eye and say, ‘We evaluated this closely.'” Nuclear waste storage One massively consequential energy bill met its demise early in the session.  House Joint Resolution 3, “Storage of spent nuclear fuel and waste-vote required,” failed to receive the minimum two-thirds introductory vote necessary for non-budget bills during a budget session. The resolution was in response to highly contentious debates this past year over growing interest from nuclear energy developers to set up shop in the state. The measure would have put the authority of whether to approve spent nuclear fuel waste storage — on a case-by-case basis — directly into the hands of voters. Rep. Bill Allemand, R-Midwest, during the 2026 Wyoming Legislature budget session in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile) For now, Wyoming’s ban on spent nuclear fuel waste storage remains, with one exception.  Years ago, lawmakers exempted high-level nuclear fuel waste storage for nuclear power plants that operate in the state. This year’s resolution to place the authority with the Wyoming electorate was in response to repeated efforts to further loosen the ban to accommodate companies that want to manufacture and fuel nuclear microreactors, according to House Joint Resolution 3 sponsor Midwest Republican Rep. Bill Allemand. Before lawmakers wrap up the budget session, they will haggle over which topics to take up during the interim, the Legislature’s off-season. For more legislative coverage, click here. 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