WYOMING — Wyoming was recently ranked the least green state in the U.S., but many of the greener states are consuming the fossil fuel energy that Wyoming produces and keeping the demand high.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), data from May of this year shows Wyoming produces almost 12 times more energy than it consumes. The state is the second-biggest net energy supplier after Texas, and the EIA notes Wyoming’s coal is shipped to more than half the U.S. states.
According to the State of Wyoming, the majority of the shipped coal is used to generate electricity at other state power plants and is also delivered to industrial plants and commercial facilities.
At the same time, the EIA says wind power generation in Wyoming has more than doubled since 2019 and accounted for 22 percent of the state’s total electricity net generation in 2022. Wyoming ranks higher than the U.S. average for utility-scale net electricity generation from renewables.
It should be noted that Wyoming has the smallest population of any state and only Alaska has fewer residents per square mile, according to the EIA, and Wyoming has more oil and natural gas leases on federal lands than any other state.
Additionally, as of April 20, Wyoming is one of a number of states required to pay fines in Clean Air Act settlements after allegedly violating federal air pollution laws.
Teton County has been purchasing 100 percent renewable electricity from Lower Valley’s Swift Creek low impact hydroelectric project in Afton, Wyoming, since October 2013. It plans to divert 60 percent of Jackson’s waste from the landfill by 2030. However, the most recent Jackson Hole Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emission shows Teton County is experiencing an overall increase of greenhouse gas emissions.
Tourism has accounted for a majority of that, the report shows, along with transportation and total electricity consumption.
However, Lower Valley Energy’s purchase of power from Bonneville Power Administration, a company that delivers reliable, affordable and carbon-free hydropower, decreased Teton County’s carbon factor by 67 percent. The majority of the grid mix is now 87.4 percent hydroelectric power, and only three percent fossil fuel.
