February 10, 2023

Wyoming Public Radio’s energy reporter Caitlin Tan recently was at the Capitol in Cheyenne. She sat down with a couple people from energy advocacy groups that represent different schools of thought on Wyoming energy. This interview is with Pete Obermueller, who is the president of the Petroleum Association Wyoming. The group represents oil and gas companies in the state.

Wyoming Public Radio’s energy reporter Caitlin Tan recently was at the Capitol in Cheyenne. She sat down with a couple people from energy advocacy groups that represent different schools of thought on Wyoming energy. This interview is with Shannon Anderson, who is the staff attorney with the Powder River Basin Resource Council. The group advocates for the conservation of Wyoming’s landscape and minerals and often supports renewable energy projects.

A clean energy project that’s looking at eastern Wyoming has made plans to construct a green hydrogen facility beginning in 2026. Wyoming Public Radio’s Hugh Cook spoke with Paul Martin, the president of Focus Clean Energy about the company’s plans for the Pronghorn H2 Project, the impacts, and what it will take to make their plans a reality.

Wyoming leads the nation for suicide deaths per capita. A bill hopes to address that fact and is slowly moving through the legislature. It would permanently establish the 988 Suicide and Crisis Line in Wyoming, establish quality standards and potentially provide some kind of funding.

Last year, the Wyoming legislature passed a trigger ban that went into effect when Roe vs. Wade was overturned in June. That law is currently being challenged in court, so abortion is still legal in the state. One of the main arguments against the trigger ban is that it violates a certain section of the Wyoming constitution that's been on a lot of lawmakers' lips recently: Article 1, section 38: Right to health care access.

For the last few years, Wyoming Public Radio has been producing a podcast that tells long form narrative stories for and about Westerners. It’s called The Modern West and we’ll be rolling out the sixth season of the podcast in the coming weeks. Wyoming Public Radio’s Kamila Kudelska sat down with the host and producer of the show, Melodie Edwards, to hear what she’s up to this time around.

Policymakers in Colorado envision a future with close to a million electric cars on the road by 2030. But before all those electric cars can hit the roadways, we’ll need a way to charge them. That includes in rural areas, not typically electric vehicle hotbeds.

Today on the show, three of our reporters spent time in Cheyenne this week covering the legislature. We’ll hear about how lawmakers are tackling energy - they’re looking at both renewables and more traditional fossil fuels. Mental health advocates believe another bill going through the legislature will be vital to help the suicide rate in the state. And anti-abortion lawmakers worried a bill could help the other side, but an amendment changed that. Plus - we hear about the newest season of the modern west podcast. Those stories and more.