Construction of the coal-fired Dry Fork Station plant is about 75 percent complete. The Supreme Court ruling Friday lifts one of the few remaining bureaucratic obstacles before the Basin Electric plant can become fully operational next year.

“It will be one of the most environmentally sound plants in the country,” Daryl Hill, a spokesman for the Bismarck, N.D.-based utility, said Monday. The plant’s $1.3 billion cost includes $334 million in pollution-control equipment, Hill said. Even so, environmental groups have said the plant isn’t going to be fitted with the best available pollution control technology.

The Powder River Basin Resource Council and Sierra Club challenged an air quality permit the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality issued for the plant in 2007.

the rest of the story …

Some people are “over reading” the EPA’s budget request for fiscal 2011, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in remarks at the National Press Club in Washington.

Cap-and-trade legislation, which is stalled in Congress, would create a market for carbon dioxide permits that lets companies buy and sell the right to pollute. The agency’s Feb. 1 budget request, which is subject to congressional approval, calls for $7.5 million to examine greenhouse gas regulations that may include “market-oriented mechanisms.”

“I don’t think you should read into that that we have some plan that folks don’t know about to enforce a cap-and-trade regime,” Jackson said. “We don’t at all.”

Jackson said she believes Congress will pass cap-and-trade legislation “hopefully sooner rather than later.”

CHEYENNE - Friday’s announcement by the Interior Department that it won’t list the  bird as an endangered or threatened species has energy industries operating in the West breathing a little easier. The oil and gas, wind and solar industries will still face scrutiny in sage grouse habitat but much less so than if the bird had made the list.

The feds determined that listing the chicken-size bird as threatened or endangered is warranted but other threatened species are a higher priority right now. The sage grouse has been given an eight as a priority number by the Department of Interior out of a possible 1 through 12 designation, which places it two-thirds of the way down the scale as a priority for federal protection.

During the last 100 years, the sage grouse have experienced a 90 percent decline in their numbers and a 50 percent decline in their sagebrush habitat, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar explained at a news conference. However, he said the bird populations have been relatively stable over the last 10 years largely because of efforts by states such as Wyoming, Idaho and Montana to protect the species and its habitat, he said.

“Frankly, it is the states in the Western part of the United States that have developed the right kind of strategies to confront this challenge,” Salazar said in a statement. An estimated one half of North Ameerica’s sage grouse population is in Wyoming, where aarge areas of sage grouse habitat are also prime spots for natural gas development that has boomed in recent years.  The state has spent a considerable amount of time and money  mapping the bird’s habitat, studying it and taking other steps to better understand how to protect the species and avoid an endangered listing — efforts that Gov. Dave Freudenthal said have paid off.

“The candidate listing gives us a fighting chance, while an endangered or threatened listing would have taken the wind out of our sails,” he said in a release.

The $1-per-megawatt-hour tax on wind energy generated in the state goes into effect in 2012. The wind industry fought the tax bill unsuccessfully this session. Industry lobbyists had urged lawmakers to study the issue more and warned that higher taxes would discourage development.

The governor also signed a bill to extend the state’s permitting authority over wind farms and their related collector transmission lines. The third bill he signed sets a moratorium on the use of eminent domain powers to take private land for collector lines until June 30, 2011.

A fourth bill was still pending Friday that would set minimum county standards and restrictions for wind developments. In his farewell address to the House and Senate, Freudenthal thanked lawmakers for passing the wind industry bills. He had urged them before the session started to address the issue.

the rest of the story …

The Department of the Interior Secretary announced today that the sage-grouse needs protection as a candidate species under the Endangered Species Act. Today’s decision will place the once-abundant sage-grouse on the Endangered Species Act “Candidate” list until funding is available to provide full protections.

The Department of the Interior will expand efforts with state, local and tribal partners to map lands that are vital to the survival of the greater sage-grouse, a ground-dwelling bird that inhabits much of the West, while guiding and managing new conventional and renewable energy projects to reduce impacts on the species, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today.

News Release on Greater Sage-Grouse Finding

Minnesota-based wind developer Wind Energy America has submitted a formal request to connect up its 250-megawatt Weston I wind power project in Wyoming.

The company is seeking the interconnection from Black Hills Power, Inc., for the project in Weston County, which should be capable of generating 600 million kilowatt units of power each year, or emough equivalent electricty of roughly 60,000 homes.

Wind Energy America told reporters that it is expecting several “milestones” regarding the project over the coming months, including the evaluation of five years of meteorological data, along with negotiations for permitting, interconnection and power sales.

“With our request for interconnection to Black Hills Power, we are able to advise shareholders and other interested parties that our Weston Wind I project, which will be sited on a recently leased 10,000+ acre privately-owned ranch, is proceeding satisfactorily and as contemplated by the Company,” said Brian Hill of WEA.

Black Hills Power serves 63,500 customers in Western South Dakota, Northern Wyoming and Southeastern Montana.

By Brodie Farquhar,Contributing Editor, Wyoming Energy News

CASPER – There was good news and bad news for some 200 business leaders from central Wyoming assembled last week at the Ramkota Hotel in Casper, for the Central Wyoming Economic Forecast.

The good news came from Rob Godby, associate professor and chairman of the University of Wyoming Department of Economics and Finance.

“There are several dire predictions that didn’t come true,” said Godby. “First of all, it didn’t lead to the collapse of the international financial system. Secondly, it won’t last for a decade – we’re already in recovery. Third, the dollar didn’t collapse.”

Still, there was plenty of bad news from Godby and other speakers, including the news that any job recovery in Wyoming, or the rest of the country, will be agonizingly slow.

YEAR TO YEAR

A perspective on how much has changed in Wyoming came from Buck McVeigh, administrator of the Economic Analysis Division for the State of Wyoming, especially from 2008 to 2009.

In 2008, driven by the energy boom, Wyoming’s population hit a new high of 532,668 people – up 1.8 percent from the year before. 2008 was the year when job growth expanded by 3.4 percent, said McVeigh, the highest rate in the country. That heady growth was spurred by a 6.6 percent growth rate in the mining and construction sectors.

Personal income was up 4 percent while retail sales heated up by 10 percent, said McVeigh.

The energy boom, particularly explosive growth in natural gas development, saw state revenues surge higher than forecast, and with a half-a-billion carryover to boot, he said.

All that growth triggered statewide inflation, said McVeigh, at 7.9 percent – well above the national rate of 5 percent (2Q08).

The hot housing market cooled down a bit in 2008, he said, but prices still rose through 2008.

What a difference a year makes.

McVeigh noted that Wyoming population grew another 2.1 percent in 2009, spurred by immigrants fleeing hard-hit economies around the nation. But energy and other job growth quickly reversed in 2009, ending the year at -3.5 percent, McVeigh said.

That triggered a cascade of more bad news: a 3.0 percent decline in personal income growth, a 15 percent drop in retail sales and a 30 percent crash in auto sales.

Statewide, inflation sank to zero, he said, “The lowest price change since 1987.”

Housing prices fell 4.0 percent, he added, while construction permits fell 35 percent and real estate sales down 10 percent.

BEST NEWS

The best news in McVeigh’s presentation was that while overall demand for natural gas is down, at least Wyoming can now get national prices for its commodity. In the past, the natural gas pipeline capacity was so limited for Wyoming natural gas, that producers had to accept lower prices – just to move their product.

McVeigh showed a graph that noted this “differential” between Henry Hub prices and the lower prices that were once so common at the Opal Hub (which reflected Wyoming’s limited access to pipeline capacity).

That all changed, said McVeigh, in November 2009, when the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline was opened. The new, dramatically expanded pipeline capacity meant that Wyoming producers could get nationally competitive prices for their gas, virtually eliminating the “differential.” (REX is a 1,679-mile natural gas pipeline system from Rio Blanco County, Colorado, to Monroe County, Ohio.)

ENERGY VIEWS

Neil “Mick” McMurry , CEO of Nerd Gas Co., led the development of the giant Jonah Field in southern Wyoming, so when he talks, Wyoming audiences tend to listen.

McMurry said he’s been a Wyoming business owner for 40 years, and has been blessed with great employees and partners.

“No one intends to drill a dry hole, but when it happens, we accept it and learn from it,” he said.

Like McVeigh, McMurry also noted the greater pipeline capacity in and around the state, which has led to better prices for Wyoming-bred  gas and better revenues for producers and government alike.

“We’re having a very cold winter in the U.S. and the world. Without it, we’d be looking at $2 gas,” he said. (Henry Hub spot was $4.71 today.)

Crude oil has rebounded to over $70 a barrel, while uranium prices are stable and high enough to encourage development work in Wyoming, McMurry said.

“It all comes down to jobs, jobs, jobs,” said McMurry, who voiced concern that with mining and construction taking major job losses (-17.4 percent and -14.8 percent from 3Q08 to 3Q09), the only sectors that grew were education/health services and government jobs.

“That can’t continue,” he said. “We’re going the wrong way.”

The Wyoming economy and tax revenues are very sensitive to energy price changes, said McMurry. That places Wyoming in a tough spot, because “environmentalists, the Obama Administration and the Interior Department have declared war on Wyoming energy,” he said.

Leasing auctions are being delayed, he said, while paid-for leases aren’t released for development.

McMurry also warned that Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency aim “to prohibit fracking,” the practice of forcing water, sand and chemicals into shale and sandstone formations, in order to widen fractures and allow natural gas to emerge. McMurry said natural gas development would be knocked down to 10 percent of today’s production without fracking.

McMurry also worried aloud that the sage-grouse would be listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act this week – something that could severely limit energy development, ranching and recreation in Wyoming.

“Sage-grouse don’t pay taxes or provide jobs,” he said.

He also expressed doubts that carbon sequestration or renewable energy would ever work out as planned. McMurry said the Rock Springs Uplift, touted as an ideal formation for holding CO2 from coal-burning power plants, would ultimately force out six billion barrels of salt water, which would need to be treated. He doubted that wind and solar would ever surpass fossil fuels.

McMurry recommended that the government  provide more incentives to small businesses, that the U.S. should streamline the construction of  nuclear plants and shift transportation away from fossil fuels to electrical power.

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CHEYENNE  - The state  Office of State Lands and Investments plans to solicit wind energy lease proposals at 16 locations covering about 160,000 acres of state trust lands. The RFP, which was authorized by the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners, will include state trust lands in Platte, Goshen, Niobrara, Laramie, Converse and Carbon counties.

According to a one commercial property manager, the state office identified the locations because of their substantial wind resources and minimal conflicts with environmental concerns or other land uses.

The Office of State Lands and Investments is is responsible for the management of approximately 3.6 million acres of state trust land for beneficiaries, including Wyoming public schools.

American Oil & Gas announced it has entered into a letter of intent with a large independent oil and natural gas production company to sell all of American’s ownership in non-producing wells, producing wells and undeveloped acreage located in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming for approximately $44 million.

The sale will include all of American’s ownership in the Fetter and Krejci projects. The letter of intent is subject to land due diligence by the purchaser and other conditions and is expected to close by March 31, 2010.

Pat O’Brien, CEO of American, commented, “Closing of this sale should allow us to focus our financial and human resources primarily on accelerating the development of the Bakken and Three Forks potential within our Goliath project area. While our Fetter project has recently demonstrated encouraging results from several re-completions into the Niobrara formation, we firmly believe it will take considerable time and considerable financial resources to move this project forward with a risk profile that is more appropriate for a larger organization.”

CHEYENNE - The pending U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision on whether to protect the greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act should be announced by the end of this week, according to government officials. An Idaho judge has ordered a decision by Friday in a case brought by an environmental group.

Once with more than 2 million birds populating states throughout the West, today an estimated 200,000-300,000 of the birds are left, priimarily in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and Idaho.

If the sage grouse is placed on the endangered list, many believe it will have a profound effect on Wyoming’s natural gas development, as well as its burgeoning wind farm industry.

In fact, a deputy chief of staff to Gov. Dave Freudenthal, Ryan Lance, said an endangered listing would be “absolutely devastating” to Wyoming’s economy.

Wildlife biologists say the bird’s habitat is the crucial factor in weighing whether it should be protected by the federal government. Sage grouse feed exclusively on sagebrush and optimal nesting patterns are found only on large, intact expanses of sagebrush and native grasses.