Sweetwater County Rep. J.T. Larson was excited when he first heard the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to virtually eliminate pollution limits on fossil fuel power plants.
Larson, and many Wyoming politicians, were excited about the implications for coal.
“But – there's always the but,” Larson said to WPR a couple days after the news broke on June 11.
Larson said emission regulations could return if a Democrat becomes president again. And he said Wyoming needs to be ready.
“We want to continue to burn coal, but if we don't have any policies in place that, you know, say, ‘Feds back off, we have this handled,’ then they're just going to run right back over us and try to kill our legacy industries again,” Larson said frankly.
The EPA is proposing to reverse current power plant rules finalized during the Biden administration. The rules require new and existing natural gas and coal power plants to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the 2030s. The industry is the second largest source of U.S. climate warming pollution.
At the time, that left electricity companies choosing between shutting down coal plants or finding a way to make them burn coal cleaner, like using carbon capture technology to capture emissions. But some utilities shied away from the latter, because the technology is expensive and untested on a large commercial scale. In fact, in 2019 many of Wyoming's coal power plants were bracing to shutter over the next decade or so.
That’s when Wyoming lawmakers stepped in. They passed legislation in 2020, known as HB 200, that required public utility providers in the state to consider the viability of carbon capture retrofits for their coal plants.
“We wanted to keep coal alive,” said Larson, who wasn’t in office at the time but voted in favor of amendments that doubled-down on the bill in 2024. “That was the end goal.”
Over the last five years, closures of some of the coal power plant units in the state were pushed back, with some switching to natural gas. Most recently, one coal plant closure was lifted, as reported by WyoFile. However, demand for coal power has declined since 2011 and that’s expected to continue under Trump.
For carbon capture retrofits, PacifiCorp, the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power, has identified units at Wyodak, Dave Johnston and Jim Bridger. They’re currently studying the feasibility of retrofits, but whether it’ll move beyond a study is unknown. PacifiCorp said in a recent report that the technology “continues to be evaluated for its technical and economic feasibility.”
If the technology comes to fruition, it’s unclear who’d pay for the possibly billion dollar upgrades. Some argue it’d be Wyoming electricity ratepayers. Just to comply with HB 200 and follow through with the mandated studies, Wyoming ratepayers shelled out about $3 million in 2024.
Now, some state lawmakers are pushing back on the state law requiring this work. Some don’t think it’s needed, partly because of the Trump administration’s favorability to the coal industry. Two attempts to roll back the state law failed during the 2025 legislative session.
The issue was reignited during a recent interim Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee meeting.
“I have a concern that we’re continuing to implement something that does nothing but increases the rates of our ratepayers, number one, and drives up the price of coal fired power, which then does lead to alternatives such as nuclear or wind and solar,” said Rep. Chris Knapp (R-Gillette) at the May 28 meeting.
At the same time, federal favorability for carbon capture research is waning, too. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it’s stripping $3.7 billion for projects across the country, including one near Gillette.
Wyoming lawmakers had already planned to continue discussions for undoing the carbon capture state law over the summer. However, Larson said that plan was only further cemented by the EPA’s announcement to roll back the emission regulations.
He said he’ll likely vote in favor of reversing the law, but not without hesitation.
“It would be irresponsible to make a decision like this without having Plan B in place,” Larson said.
That’s because he said the political pendulum could swing. Federal emission regulations could return under a different president, and the state needs to have a long term view.
“We can't just throw away one piece of policy and close our eyes and hope everything works,” he said.
He said a Plan B to the carbon capture law could look like additional funding for legal defense to sue the federal government if needed.
Utility companies seem to be calculating the political pendulum swing, as well. PacifiCorp emailed a statement to WPR regarding how the EPA’s plans could impact its current coal plant closure dates and Wyoming carbon capture projects.
“As PacifiCorp works to meet the growing demands of our customers for energy, regulatory certainty and flexibility are needed to support long-term investment decisions that result in reliable and affordable energy for our customers,” the company said in a statement. “We will continue to monitor the recently announced actions and work to achieve balanced outcomes for all stakeholders.”
For now, NPR reports the EPA’s plans to roll back emissions regulations could be finalized as soon as the end of the year and likely challenged in court.
