CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon was elected Chair of the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) at their late-June annual meeting, where he announced carbon capture utilization and sequestration (CCUS) as his Chair’s Initiative.
The Department of Energy defines CCUS as the reuse or storage of captured carbon dioxide emissions from sources such as coal.
“Our world needs energy and a clean environment — neither is well-served if we are not honest about consequences and challenges,” Gordon said at the meeting. “Ignoring CCUS as a viable option to decarbonize the grid creates an energy gap. Shuttering coal-fired power plants before alternative resources are fully developed will exacerbate power shortages, brownouts and blackouts, higher fuel costs and higher-priced electricity.”
Gordon’s announcement comes after a recent report that Wyoming recorded 68.55 tons of CO2e emissions per capita in 2021.
The governor’s steps toward eco-friendliness, however, do not signal a wholesale endorsement of abandoning the state’s reliance on fossil fuels. Gordon wrote an op-ed for The Hill in June detailing his views on energy generation, and he didn’t shy away from criticizing the current laws around coal and natural gas usage, calling the Biden administration’s choices “baffling.”
“The litany of rules, regulations and tax subsidies coming out of Washington, D.C., give preferential treatment to renewables over more feasible technologies, such as CCUS combined with coal and natural gas,” Gordon wrote. “Finally, science is meant to be impartial and lead to reasonable conclusions — so much for that.”
