Campbell County Commissioners have approved an agreement with the city of Gillette that hopes to bring economic diversification to northeast Wyoming.

The commissioners approved the Carbon Valley Ecosystem Development Blueprint Agreement. It provides funding for a study that will identify how the region can become a successful hub for advanced carbon research.

The idea is to create a sustainable environment to attract researchers and entrepreneurs for their work on carbon technologies, like carbon capture, storage and utilization.

The county and Gillette will split the $45,000 bill for the study. Chairman of the Campbell County Commission Rusty Bell said the report will identify key areas of development.

"Everybody has ideas on what a Carbon Valley initiative or what our area should look like. But to actually have an outside person come and do the research, do the study, say these should be some of your focus, I think is important," he said.

Bell added it will be helpful to have researchers from outside the area fill in the gaps.

"I don't think we're going to leave anything that we say no to, but maybe there's things that we should put more focus on or less focus on," he said.

The group working on the project is Lone Tree Academics. They completed study for the county in 2017 that analyzed education and employer needs in the area. Bell said researchers should begin in the coming months.