Category Archives: Local Wyoming Government

Citing drought, Wyoming governor seeks disaster declaration Cattle News – Editorial, Grain & Cattle Markets, Current Stories

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Citing drought, Wyoming governor seeks disaster declaration Cattle News – Editorial, Grain & Cattle Markets, Current Stories.

Wyoming’s governor, citing drought conditions, has asked for a federal disaster declaration after dwindling runoff from meager winter snowpack combined with an especially dry spring and early summer hit ranchers hard, his office said on Friday.

The request, if successful, could help farmers qualify for federal assistance based on poor grass and hay production that has driven many to sell off cattle in the face of persistent dry weather.

“Wyoming farmers and ranchers are struggling to work through serious impacts caused by drought,” Governor Matt Mead said in a statement announcing the request for all but a single county.

Though Wyoming’s nickname is the Cowboy State and it was largely settled by ranchers, agriculture now accounts for a small fraction – less than 5 percent – of Wyoming’s energy-driven economy, with coal and natural gas production dwarfing all other industries.

But in a state where nearly half the land is publicly owned, farmers and ranchers play a key role in preserving Wyoming’s open spaces and supporting its abundant wildlife, indirectly boosting the state’s second-ranking industry of tourism.

Statewide, ranchers have lost about half of their pasture grass and hay production on non-irrigated lands this year, and producers in affected areas were “really struggling,” said Doug Miyamoto, deputy director for the Wyoming Department of Agriculture.

“It’s scary, because you don’t have the production to even feed your animals,” said Krista Macy, whose family has been farming and raising cattle for 100 years north of Pine Bluffs, in southwestern Wyoming, near the Nebraska state line.

Miyamoto said the southern part of Wyoming was suffering the most from lack of spring rain.

“There has been a lot of liquidation of cattle this year in Wyoming based on how far behind we were on precipitation,” Miyamoto said.

Data compiled by the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, shows that more than two thirds of the topsoil in Wyoming was now rated as either too dry for normal plant growth or too dry for any growth or seed germination.

Though federal disaster assistance may help drought-stricken Wyoming ranchers in the short run, bouncing back after such a dry year can be tough over the long term, both financially and emotionally, Macy said.

Moving cows between pastures as grass dies and hauling water as springs dry up is about all some ranchers can do, she said.

“That’s the hardest part, to watch your animals suffer,” she said. “They’re your world.”

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Chesapeake well leaks in Wyoming, residents evacuate | Reuters

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Chesapeake well leaks in Wyoming, residents evacuate | Reuters.

Dozens of residents were evacuated from their homes after a Chesapeake Energy-operated well leaked natural gas and drilling mud in Wyoming, the company said on Wednesday.

Chesapeake lost control of a shale well late on Tuesday while installing a casing, triggering the leak, the company said in a statement. It wasn’t clear how much gas or fluid escaped the well.

A “cloud” of gas could be seen a mile away from the blown-out well, said Russ Dalgarn, coordinator for the Converse County Emergency Management agency in Wyoming.

No injuries, explosion or fires have been reported, and air quality readings near the well were “normal” on Wednesday, with the leaked gas “dissipating into the atmosphere,” Chesapeake coordinator Kelsey Campbell said in a statement.

The company has plans to “bring the well under control” as soon as safety conditions permit.

The cause of the incident was under investigation.

Sixty-seven residents within a 2.5 mile radius of the stricken well were asked to evacuate, Chesapeake said. The evacuation was voluntary, and several residents chose to remain in their homes.

“A blowout in a well builds uncertainty and distrust. We need more careful monitoring and regulation of drilling activities in the state,” said Bruce Pendery, program director at Wyoming Outdoor Council, an environmental group that has pressed for heightened scrutiny of drilling in the state.

The boom in on-shore production in shale oil and gas — often near homes and populated areas — has heightened concern about these accidents. The Rockies and Northern Plains region has stepped up drilling of promising oil and gas reserves in the Niobrara Shale, which straddles Colorado and Wyoming.

The regional office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is sending an inspector to the site of the accident. EPA received reports of an oil sheen on an irrigation channel and a pond near the well, said agency spokesman Martin McComb. Neither is a source of drinking water for nearby communities, he said.

Chesapeake may have encountered a pocket of high-pressure natural gas while drilling the well, McComb said.

Chesapeake said the oil-laden drilling mud that leaked from the well is mostly being contained on site.

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake is the No. 2 U.S. natural gas driller. Last year, it signed a joint-venture agreement with Chinese national oil firm CNOOC for a third of its Niobrara interests.

Around a year ago, Chesapeake had a blowout on a well in the natural gas-rich Marcellus shale of Pennsylvania. It took six days to bring under control and prompted a fierce backlash among area residents opposed to the drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, in which water, sand and chemicals are pumped deep underground to fracture hydrocarbons-bearing shale rock.

In Wyoming, Governor Matt Mead said the state will investigate this week’s incident, to get a “better sense of what can or should be done in the future.”

Chesapeake shares rose 2 percent to $18.13 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday

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Microsoft plans to build data center in Cheyenne – BusinessWeek

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Microsoft plans to build data center in Cheyenne – BusinessWeek.

Microsoft Corp. has agreed to invest up to $112 million to build a new data center in southeast Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead announced Monday.

Mead said work on the center near the state capital of Cheyenne should begin soon and should be operational next spring.

The state of Wyoming has pledged $10.7 million in grants and incentives for the project. Microsoft is making an initial $78-million investment and plans to go up to $112 million, Mead said.

Mead said the center ultimately may employ about 40 people in jobs that pay well over the local average. He said the data center promises to generate $25 million in tax revenues over five years.

Mead noted that Cheyenne has racked up other recent coups in the competitive world of attracting high-tech facilities. The National Center for Atmospheric Research recently choose Wyoming’s capital city as the site for construction of one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers and other private companies have located facilities there as well.

“We’re looking good. We’ve got some great momentum,” Mead said. “My hope is it won’t be too soon, that we don’t just mention ag, energy, tourism and small business, it will also add to that list, as a common practice, technology.”

Officials said the center will help expansion of Microsoft’s cloud computing efforts. Cloud computing allows workers to retrieve computer programs and key documents stored remotely using any device with an Internet connection.

Christian Belady, general manager of Data Center Services in Microsoft’s Global Foundation Services group, issued a statement through Mead’s office.

“Microsoft is excited to once again expand its cloud infrastructure and services capacities for our customers in Wyoming and the region,” Belady said. “We greatly appreciate the work that the governor, the economic development team and local officials in Cheyenne and Laramie County have done to make Wyoming a smart place for Microsoft to do business.”

Bob Jensen, head of the Wyoming Business Council, said the state is putting up $10.7 million in various incentives to lure Microsoft, including $5 million from data center recruitment funds provided by the Wyoming Legislature.

Randy Bruns, head of the Cheyenne-Laramie County Corporation for Economic Development (LEADS), said Microsoft has committed to provide certain salary levels. “The qualifying jobs have to be 150 percent of the county average or greater,” he said. “Those are our numbers. They’ve agreed to meet or exceed those numbers.”.

Bruns said the center will employ people from Wyoming as much as possible. He said the state for years has been educating people who could perform such jobs, but has been sending them out of state because of a lack of employment opportunities.

Although officials said they had agreed not to give the specific location of the data center, Bruns said it’s being built on property owned by Cheyenne-LEADS west of Cheyenne. The NCAR supercomputer is also in the area.