Part of the Issue Snapshot Series
This Issue Snapshot focuses on the interest in the production of naturally occurring hydrogen. This interest has grown significantly in recent years and is largely due to the regulatory incentives provided in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) through 45V hydrogen production tax credits, and a 2023 United States Geological Survey (USGS) report.
This report quantifies the economic opportunities and outcomes of forming a spent nuclear fuel (SNF) management industry in Wyoming. The unique opportunities and challenges of expanding the industry are identified. Additionally, empirical analysis is conducted to estimate the various benefits and costs associated with developing a consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in the State.
This paper explores the purposes and components of certified natural gas, describes major certification programs and voluntary frameworks, addresses recent trends and how they are playing out in the energy markets, including the slow growth of certified natural gas to date. The paper also provides recommendations for ways that certified natural gas can help Wyoming remain competitive in markets with greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction policies and goals.
This report quantifies the economic outcomes of potential non-electricity uses of nuclear power in Wyoming. The unique opportunities and challenges of expanding the industry are identified. Additionally, an event study is performed that estimates economic outcomes under a range of technological adoption scenarios.
Though executive orders have long played a critical role in executive policymaking—and their usage has actually declined since the mid-twentieth century—their influence is not always well understood. In a political climate already prone to drastic swings of the “policy pendulum,” a term which refers to the dramatic swings in public policy that occur during partisan-driven shifts in the executive branch and other bodies of governance, the power of executive orders can be striking.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has been a cornerstone of environmental decision-making in the United States since its enactment in 1970. Over the past few years, the NEPA regulations and statute have undergone a series of substantial changes. These rapid changes have left many struggling to keep up and understand the current state of NEPA law and practice.
This report quantifies the economic outcomes of the uranium recovery industry in Wyoming. The unique opportunities and challenges of expanding the industry are identified. Additionally, an event study is performed that estimates economic outcomes under a range of potential future uranium price points.
For more than twenty-five years, conservation advocacy groups have filed petitions with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to list the Greater Sage-Grouse (GRSG) as endangered or threatened pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). As the state with the highest number of GRSG and the most sage-grouse habitat across its 11-state range, Wyoming would be significantly impacted by such a listing. The State’s early recognition of this led to an unprecedented collaborative effort to protect the bird and its habitat.
This report quantifies the economic outcomes of fostering a nuclear component manufacturing industry in Wyoming. The unique challenges and opportunities of attracting the industry to Wyoming are identified. Additionally, an event study is performed that estimates economic outcomes under a range of future nuclear power development paths.
This article examines the challenges of implementing a one-size-fits-all framework of environmental justice. Particularly for rural energy states like Wyoming, that innately rely on energy for tax revenue and jobs, how do stakeholders in priority energy communities make an environmental justice in favor of their communities hosting a large-scale industrial project?
The overview assists energy communities with identifying the disconnect between current screening tools and will help to better inform conversations with federal entities seeking to enforce environmental justice requirements, so a clear and equitable framework can be established for all communities involved with past and future large-scale energy development projects.
This paper provides an overview of natural gas production in Wyoming, explains the challenges facing exports of the State’s natural gas posed by other states’ energy policies, and describes how Wyoming is uniquely positioned to thrive given the low-carbon attributes of its natural gas resource.
This toolbox provides a summary of key resources and strategies for Wyoming stakeholders to use as guidance for developing community benefit plans (CBPs) in relation to applications for federal funding from the Department of Energy. CBPs are an increasingly common requirement in federal grant proposals and impose requirements related to community engagement, workforce development, diversity and inclusion, and “environmental justice” around emerging energy projects.
This white paper summarizes how the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (“WDEQ”) regulates Class VI of the Safe Drinking Water Act’s (SDWA) Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program, including analysis of the most recent legislation addressing long-term stewardship of injected carbon dioxide (CO2).
This study estimates the investment and production losses from policies to restrict oil and gas development on federal lands. The first policy is a moratorium on all new federal leases. The second involves an outright drilling ban on all onshore federal lands. The scope of this inquiry includes a study region that includes eight states: Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, California, and Alaska. These lost opportunities are estimated by first projecting how drilling and production activity is likely to evolve from 2021 through 2040 and then identifying what portion would be affected by the two policies.
In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new emissions standards so restrictive on tailpipe emissions that compliance will require around two-thirds of cars and nearly half of medium-duty trucks sold in the year 2032 to be Electric Vehicles (EVs). The EPA claims this EV rule would yield $1.6 trillion in “net benefits” for Americans through 2055 by estimating costs over a series of categories including pre-tax fuel savings, vehicle technology costs, maintenance savings, climate benefits, charging stations and grid upgrades, repair savings, energy security benefits, air pollutant benefits, and increased refueling time. This study provides an analysis grounded in economic fundamentals of each category, and compares those results to the EPA’s, and was published in the Winter 2023-2024 issue of Regulations by the Cato Institute.
Starting at the uranium mine and ending at material storage, the nuclear supply chain encompasses multiple sectors with unique economic challenges and opportunities for the State. This report provides a preliminary analysis of the various economic factors that could stimulate or inhibit potential investments in the Wyoming fuel enrichment sector. This report quantifies the opportunities and the economic outcomes of fostering a uranium enrichment industry in Wyoming. The unique challenges and advantages of attracting the industry to Wyoming are identified. Additionally, economic analyses were performed that estimate potential outcomes of building a uranium enrichment facility.
Both the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognize CCS as an essential climate change mitigation strategy for meeting global greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.1 Yet, according to the IEA, additional eff orts are still needed to bring CCS to a broad scale.2 Wyoming, with its extensive deep subsurface saline storage reservoirs and an existing network of CO2 pipelines, is suited to embrace this opportunity. However, despite Wyoming’s eff orts to proactively establish a favorable regulatory and statutory framework for the development of its pore space, the challenge of widespread CCS deployment is ultimately a regional one, requiring coordination with Wyoming’s neighboring states and numerous federal land agencies to mobilize the high volume of shared pore space resources that transcend state boundaries.
This paper begins in Part I by providing an overview of existing and developing applications for hydrogen in a net-zero economy, a description of existing hydrogen production methods (aka the “Hydrogen Rainbow”), and the increasing demands and incentives for clean hydrogen deployment. Specifically, the paper analyzes funding provisions in the IIJA and IRA that aim to accelerate development of the clean hydrogen industry. In Part II, the paper turns to an analysis of the geographic, economic, legal, and regulatory features that render Wyoming a particularly well-suited location for a blue hydrogen economy. As discussed in Part III, numerous projects to advance blue hydrogen development are already underway in Wyoming, including, but not limited to, Tallgrass MLP’s Blue Bison Project located near Douglas and Williams’ Southwest Wyoming Hydrogen Hub located near Opal and Wamsutter. These projects intend to capitalize on synergies between Wyoming’s natural gas supply and associated infrastructure and the state’s potential for widespread CCS deployment. Part IV concludes with a brief summary of policy opportunities for the State of Wyoming to fulfill its potential as a global “hydrogen headwaters” through blue hydrogen deployment.
This study explores the perspectives, values, needs, and concerns of Wyoming residents in relation to energy in Wyoming. It is a replication of a 2020 study published as “Social License for Wyoming’s Energy Future: What Do Residents Want?”. Both studies were motivated by a desire to understand what Wyoming residents want in relation to energy and why. This replication provides an update and comparison to the 2020 study and allows us to track how Wyoming residents’ perspectives about energy have evolved over time.
An updated survey from the University of Wyoming’s School of Energy Resources (SER) explores Wyoming residents’ perspectives of energy development, including “social license” — the level in which Cowboy State residents support or oppose different forms and amounts of energy development. The survey covers energy development topics, including legacy fossil fuel industries; utility-scale renewable projects; hydrogen generation; carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS); and novel industries in Wyoming, such as rare earth element and critical mineral mining.
This prefeasibility study examines the potential use of carbon dioxide (CO2) in concrete for public works projects in Wyoming, focusing on coal-fired electric generating units (EGU) as the CO2 source(s). The use of CO2 in concrete is technically and commercially complicated. Historically, CO2 is not a constituent additive to concrete, and as such, there are limited options for requiring its direct incorporation. The cement/concrete industry in Wyoming is relatively small in comparison to the quantity of CO2 produced in the state, and public works projects are a fraction of the industry’s size. Thus, the volume of CO2 that could be used directly in concrete is relatively small (a conservative estimate is 0.15 million metric tons per year) compared to that produced by coal-fired EGUs in Wyoming (approximately 36 million metric tons per year). A large portion of this study assumes that CO2 from one or more coal-fired EGUs in the state is available to be utilized commercially. At the time this study was written, no coal-EGU was commercially equipped with such a technology in Wyoming, but work in this field continues to advance in the state.
Rare earth elements (REE) have increasingly become a topic of discussion among US policy makers and in the media due to their importance and increasing application in electronic manufactured products. China’s near monopoly over the global REE value chain and US’ reliance upon it for both finished goods containing REE and for REE used in US based industry is being recognized as a national security concern resulting in government funding being allocated towards US based REE supply chain projects.
In addition to addressing possibilities related to the proven Bear Lodge Deposit located in Crook County and owned by Rare Element Resources, Ltd., this paper also explores the economics of extracting REE and CM from other potential conventional deposits, as well as unconventional sources such as coal and coal byproducts, phosporia formations, and uranium roll-fronts.
This study was conducted at the behest of the Department of Energy (DOE), to explore the needs among Wyoming’s residents to transition to a net zero carbon energy economy. The information the DOE specifically asked for was 1) stakeholder expectations on overall carbon-neutrality goals within Wyoming; 2) stakeholder needs related to transitioning to carbon-neutrality within Wyoming; 3) stakeholder concerns related to transitioning to carbon-neutrality within Wyoming; 4) stakeholder expectations related to transitioning to carbon-neutrality within Wyoming; 5) which technologies/opportunities stakeholders feel will be more effective in meeting carbon-neutrality within Wyoming.
This paper is the first in a two-part series focusing on the rare earth element (REE) industry (when referred to in the papers, the term “REE” represents the plural or the singular, as implied by sentence context). Due to the unique characteristics of REE and complexities that characterize the REE market, this paper aims to provide a base understanding of REE, the REE production and extraction process, and an overview of the global REE market. Given that the US imports all the REE it consumes from foreign countries, government interest in locally sourced REE has grown. This paper provides a summary of US government interest, policies, and funding being directed to the study and development of a REE supply chain in the US.
This report summarizes results from a two-phase study by the University of Wyoming's School of Energy Resources and Ruckelshaus Institute that explores Wyoming residents' values, beliefs, and perceptions regarding the future of Wyoming's energy economy. The purpose of the study was to examine Wyoming citizens' acceptance and approval of different energy future scenarios to provide a better understanding of what Wyoming residents envision for the future of the state's energy economy.
