Flight Interrupted

Flight Interrupted

Biologist works to protect eagles on collision course with wind power

By Jill Bergman

There are places in Wyoming where the sky is more imposing than the land. The force of wind and emptiness define this spare country.

oil derrick

Living in a Natural Resource Economy

What can Wyoming learn from studies of the “natural resource curse”?

By Emilene Ostlind

Wyoming has long produced the most coal of any US state and lands in the top ten states for natural gas and oil production. In a fossil fuel driven economy, all that mineral wealth should make Wyoming rich, and sometimes it truly does.

A New Lease on State Land

A New Lease on State Land

How conservation is hoping to buy a seat at the land management table

By Birch Malotky

In early November 2020, the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s (WOC) staff huddled around a laptop and logged into their freshly minted account on energynet.com, an online marketplace where 199 leases for oil and gas development on Wyoming state trust lands were up for auction.

Professor Pete Stahl, Ecosystem Science and Management and Director of the Wyoming Reclamation and Restoration Center.

After the Road

How to restore sagebrush habitat on decommissioned roads

By Tessa Wittman

In the natural gas fields of western Wyoming, innumerable dirt roads cut through the sagebrush steppe, connecting gas wells and carrying heavy equipment.

Net-Zero Energy Homes in Wyoming

Net-Zero Energy Homes in Wyoming

The next frontier?

On an unseasonably warm day last October, Richard Fox pulled up to the construction site of his future home near Pavillion, Wyoming, in an old Toyota pickup.

Doing More with Less

Doing More with Less

How energy efficiency and conservation can decrease UW’s utility bills

Keeping the lights and heat on at the University of Wyoming is a challenge.

Downsized

Downsized

Saving Energy by Living Small

Before Macy Miller moved into her 232-square-foot tiny home in Boise, Idaho

Community Solar

Community Solar

Community solar—sometimes referred to as a solar garden or virtual net metering—is when several households, businesses, or other entities invest together in a solar installation and share the electricity it produces.

Net Metering

Net Metering

Net metering lets customers tie small-scale renewable energy systems such as solar panels into the grid to offset their energy bills.

Turbines on the Horizon

Turbines on the Horizon

How the western grid could unleash Wyoming wind energy, for better or worse

California and Wyoming make strange bedfellows, but when it comes to sharing electricity, the two states have been flirting.

Wyoming’s Wind Tax

Wyoming’s Wind Tax

Wyoming’s strong, predictable, consistent winds are a world-class resource. Ranchers and farmers have harnessed the wind to pump water since Wyoming was first settled, and small-scale commercial wind projects started in the 1970s.

Energy Transition

Energy Transition

Our world needs more energy and less CO2

The world needs more energy. More than 1.4 billion people live without access to electricity.

Hydro-powered center-pivot on a ranch in Colorado.

Small-Scale Hydropower

Wyoming’s streams and irrigation ditches are an untapped clean energy source

“If we disconnected that 14-inch pipe and pointed it upward, the water would blast nearly 600 feet into the air,” says Les Hook

Photo of a huge bucket crane in a Wyoming coal mine. By Joe Riis/USFS

Carbon Capture

Wyoming could lead the world toward a cleaner energy future

By Emilene Ostlind

This December, five international research teams will converge at the outskirts of Gillette, Wyoming, to compete for a $7.5 million Carbon XPRIZE.

Energy in the West

Energy in the West

Over the last quarter century, the western states’ energy portfolio has shifted. Coal used to produce far and away the largest share of electricity, but recent advances in hydraulic fracturing and demand for low-carbon fuel have bumped natural gas to first place.