Wyoming’s coal sector is startled at Republican political candidates who oppose the data center buildout.
Data centers are large warehouses full of servers that power parts of the internet and, increasingly, artificial intelligence (AI). Wyoming has between 20 and 30 operational data centers.
President Donald Trump has touted the sector’s expansion as part of a coal industry revival, and part of beating China in a technology advancement race.
Many Wyoming Republicans oppose data center construction due to the various unknowns associated with them, or doubts about the veracity of the companies’ promises, regarding water usage, pollution, noise, and the irreversible alteration of agricultural lands and vistas.
“It’s kind of frustrating from the coal side of things,” Travis Deti, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday. “The coal comeback right now is being – you know it’s being driven largely by the data center buildout nationally and the projected demand for energy.”
Yet, Deti added, “when you have politicians running around Wyoming, it’s easy for them to say, ‘We support coal, we support coal,’ but out of the other side of their mouths they want to stop the data centers.”
Deti attributed the anti-data center fad to a “wave of populism” by which politicians follow passing movements rather than concrete principles.
Wyoming's public revenues have depended significantly on coal mining over the years, even as the sector has suffered under pendulum politics from Washington, D.C.
Coal production in Wyoming peaked in 2008, when the Powder River Basin produced nearly 450 million tons, and has trended unsteadily downward since.
Wyoming surface coal production has fallen by 59.1% over the past 16 years. Thermal coal, which Wyoming produces, has seen lower demand in recent years.
That’s from coal-fired power plants either retiring or lowering their demand nationally as the market has shifted to both natural gas and renewable energy.
Calendar year 2024 marked the first time Wyoming coal production had fallen below 200 million tons since 1992.
The industry saw it as a dark year, as President Joe Biden’s U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a rule at that time aimed to end Wyoming coal by 2041.
Coal in 2025 yielded $134 million in severance taxes for Wyoming – the lowest since 2003.
That’s 19.5% of Wyoming’s severance tax haul, with oil generating 54.9% and natural gas yielding 21.9%.
The Divide #
The divide had surfaced in statewide Wyoming GOP primary election contests.
In the GOP race for the state’s lone U.S. House seat, candidate and Secretary of State Chuck Gray has opposed the data center buildout, while at least one of his opponents, Casper businessman Reid Rasner, has urged responsible, pro-business development in the sector.
“Thank you President Trump for your support of our big, beautiful coal industry! We must support our core coal, ranching and farming, oil and gas, and soda ash industries,” says a June 8 Facebook post by Gray. “And we must STOP (Gov.) Mark Gordon's nightmare of outrageously wrong woke wind and woke Big Tech surveillance state data centers.”
Gordon on June 3 published a state executive order calling for responsible, considerate and transparent data center development. In an inversion of the norm, Gordon is more in line with Trump’s agenda on this issue than Gray is.
Conversely, Gray and other anti-data center Republicans find themselves in a rare policy camp with Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, of New York, and Independent Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who have called for a moratorium.
Gray countered Deti’s point in a Monday comment via text message.
“I’ve consistently been coal’s #1 defender in the Wyoming State Legislature and as secretary of state,” wrote Gray. “I’ve worked to get access to markets for our coal and also have worked to stop woke wind projects that are in direct competition with our big, beautiful coal industry.”
Gray criticized Gordon and Deti for not backing a bill Gray had sponsored in 2019 – which Gordon vetoed.
The bill would have set up a litigation fund and authorized the Legislature to sue over coal export access. In Gray’s telling, the bill aimed to get coal export access amid the damaged industry “when the timing was right.”
In Gordon’s veto letter, conversely, the governor said he agreed with the need for Wyoming to export coal, but the state was already litigating for access to coal export terminals.
“Giving courts the impression that two branches of Wyoming’s government might be… potentially litigating over the top of one another – would be counterproductive to our best efforts to protect Wyoming’s interests,” Gordon wrote at the time.
Gray in his Monday text message added, “AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) and I have nothing in common. Any suggestion that we do is patently absurd. I’ve consistently defended coal, election integrity, and our Wyoming values.”
Gray and Rasner face eight more GOP candidates: state Senate President Bo Biteman, Teton County philanthropist Steve Friess, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, military veterans David Giralt and Kevin Christensen, Moran rancher Frank Chapman, former legislator Keith Goodenough, and Richard Dodson.
In her campaign for governor, Superintendent for Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder has voiced concerns over data centers’ potential impacts on water usage and power rates, and said responsible development, rather than an outright ban, is the answer.
One of her opponents, retired Marine Col. Brent Bien , told Cowboy State Daily data center development is moving too quickly to fit within “consent of the governed,” and he wouldn’t allow any to be built on agricultural ground.
And the third major opponent in that Republican race, Sen. Eric Barlow, has urged responsible development and good information, but not fear toward the centers.
The state’s primary election is Aug. 18. Because it’s a deep-red state, the primary election is considered more decisive than the general election for statewide races generally.
Head Scratching #
David Miller is a semi-retired uranium geology specialist and former state lawmaker who represented Riverton as a Republican.
He’s also scratching his head over the data center-driven divide in the GOP.
“I’m hearing rumors that it’s, like, China and maybe some of the other competitive countries funding the (informational) opposition to the data centers,” Miller said in a Monday phone interview.
“Frankly, I think the more electricity we have being produced in Wyoming the better,” he said. More data centers mean more coal-fired plants, he added.
But Miller said it’s time to end tax breaks for data centers.
Wyoming crafted a sales-tax exemption for large-scale data projects starting in 2010.
One Republican, then-Rep. Clark Stith of Rock Springs, tried to remove the sales-tax exemption in 2021. At that time, Gray was one of the state House Republicans who opposed Stith and helped to kill Stith’s taxing effort.
But at that time, Gray told Cowboy State Daily on Friday, “no one had any idea where the AI revolution was heading or the massive demands it would place on our power grid and water resources.”
The Stakes Are Enormous #
State Rep. Steve Johnson, R-Cheyenne, doesn’t want to ban data centers outright. But like Miller, he believes Wyoming is being short-changed in the land-for-business exchange, and he wants to remove tax breaks and scrutinize the way state law treats the sector, Johnson told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
Data center companies have delivered numerous promises, including that they’ll conserve water and mitigate impacts.
Unanswered questions about pollution levels and the AI revolution remain, Johnson noted. He said he’d like to see counties respect landowners’ property rights to lease land, but also to use responsible zoning to protect closely situated neighbors.
As for whether his caution puts him in Bernie Sanders’ camp or Trump’s camp, that’s not paramount, Johnson said. He said he’d approach the Wyoming controversy according to Wyoming’s needs, as “I think D.C. has lost their minds.”
Data centers feed artificial intelligence.
That concerns Johnson too, he said.
“I think that AI scares the hell out of me, and it might help us a little bit; but if it takes our younger generation’s jobs away… let’s think about the end product,” he said. “I do think we need some safeguards.”
Drought Too #
Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, gave a similar answer during an interview last week, on the strange political camps the data center issue is forging.
Steinmetz called earlier this month for a poll of legislators to gauge interest in having a special session to address the data center boom.
She represents agricultural communities, and many Wyoming regions face a drought, Steinmetz noted.
“It’s very concerning to me the pace at which we’re proceeding down this road without credible information,” she said, referencing a state-ordered groundwater study that is expected to take four years.
Trump has cast data centers as a piece of U.S. national security, for the tech advances they can fuel.
“But we have to recognize, our water, our food supply, our communities are a matter of national security too,” she said. “Agriculture is a huge national security issue.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.