A bill to repeal Wyoming’s carbon capture laws passed out of a House committee, despite public comment on it ending with no vote last week.
Last Friday, the House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee heard testimony on HB 209, Reliable and dispatchable low-carbon standards-repeal. It would undue carbon capture laws that originated five years ago. Supporters say the laws are burdening Wyoming’s coal industry, but the others, including the governor’s office, say the opposite.
After about an hour of public testimony on Friday, Committee Chair and Rep. Scott Heiner (R-Green River) closed public testimony and tossed the bill to fellow lawmakers.
“Committee what is your pleasure?,” he asked, which was followed by about eight seconds of silence. “For lack of a motion that bill will lie on the table.”
Rep. Martha Lawley (R-Worland) followed up saying the issue was worthy of an interim topic.
It appeared the bill was dead. But, laid back bills can come back, per Wyoming legislature rules. This one did – five days later.
The House Committee gaveled in Wed. Feb. 5 and jumped back to the bill without context as to why. A motion was made and seconded to discuss it.
“It’s time that we take off the repeals and unleash those energy sources from having to be mandated for our power plants,” Rep. Chris Knapp (R-Gillette) urged lawmakers to vote in favor of his bill once again, much like he did the Friday before – which he coined as ‘repeal day.’
This time Knapp’s plea sufficed. The bill passed 7-0, with two excused.
In an email to WPM, Chair Rep. Heiner clarified that “there was some confusion among the committee members if a sponsor or cosponsor of a bill could make a motion on their own bill or not. I hesitated to make a motion as the chairman as I usually try to stay as neutral as possible. That was the confusion.”
The bill will head to the full House for a vote next. If passed into law, it will change Wyoming’s current energy strategy, which took shape with a law passed in 2020 – HB 200. It requires electricity companies to consider carbon capture technology on their coal plants. The idea being to make them more climate friendly and the electricity more marketable, especially to left-leaning states with lower greenhouse emission targets.
But, implementing it has been a tricky, in-depth process.
“We’re kind of in the middle of everything,” said Mary Throne, chair of the Wyoming Public Service Commission (WPSC). “There's a need to finish what's been started.”
Throne has been with the WPSC, which is the state entity that oversees electric utilities, since the inception of the carbon capture laws. Last Friday, she urged lawmakers on the House Committee to not pass the repeal bill.
“It's not the right time from our perspective,” Throne said.
The governor’s office sent policy director Randall Luthi, who echoed a similar sentiment on Friday.
“We actually find that many consumers just want lower CO2 fuel,” Luthi testified.
The idea is that once proven at scale, carbon capture can make that happen. Luthi said the carbon capture laws currently on the books are helping develop that industry and are keeping Wyoming coal plants alive.
He pointed out that Rocky Mountain Power, the largest public utility in Wyoming, has opted to not shut down its power plants as rapidly as initially planned about eight years ago.
“I would submit to you one of the reasons those closure dates have been moved is because of HB 200,” Luthi said, referencing the 2020 law.
The bill the committee eventually passed would directly repeal that.
Travis Deti, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, also testified that carbon capture is needed to keep Wyoming coal relevant.
But, supporters of the repeal bill, like Rep. Knapp, said that requiring utilities to explore carbon capture is a burden on the coal industry.
A similar bill heard this week went a step further. It would’ve repealed the carbon capture laws, codified statements that pushback on climate science. Additionally, it said Wyoming couldn’t pursue any efforts to reduce or eliminate carbon dioxide – a strategy that is widely accepted as the key way to reduce the worst effects of human caused climate change. No motion or vote was made on the bill, so for now, it will not move forward.
