On energy, Wyoming is in a difficult position. It needs the federal government’s help to transition successfully from carbon-intensive industries to low-carbon ones. But many in the state are wary of that support, particularly when it’s coming from the Biden administration.
Federal officials say they’re doing what they can to build trust in Wyoming. Often, the current administration’s goal is to provide the resources needed for home-grown initiatives and then stay out of communities’ way.
Kate Gordon, senior director to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, has become a recurrent figure during discussions on Wyoming’s energy transition, including online workshops aimed at the state leaders and industry members facing tough decisions in the coming years.
“There is a channel of communication that we’ve opened, and I feel like we’re going in the right direction,” Gordon told the Star-Tribune. “And that’s a really concerted effort.”
Gordon was the keynote speaker at last week’s Wyoming Energy Authority summit on next-generation energy technologies. She spoke about the Biden administration’s work on energy to a sold-out crowd of officials, academics, advocacy groups and industry at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne.
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The same emerging energy sources that most interest Wyoming — clean hydrogen, advanced nuclear and carbon capture, utilization and storage — are also sectors the Biden administration is working to advance, Gordon said.
During her presentation, and in response to a question from Ken Miller, a Wyoming Energy Authority board member, Gordon emphasized that she did not believe in a one-size-fits-all solution for the entire country’s climate troubles. Federal leaders, she said, understand that the most effective answers most often come from within communities.
Miller thanked Gordon for attending, adding that she was the third person from the Department of Energy he’d seen visit in the last several months
Gordon stayed — and talked to every person who approached her — for both days of the summit.
She hopes her presence and that of other officials will help the federal government form the relationships needed to serve as a “conduit” between Wyoming’s communities and industries.
“In a state of this size, these decisions are going to be made at the community level,” Gordon told the Star-Tribune. “Ultimately, this has got to be a conversation between industry, labor, communities. These projects will only happen, and they’ll only be done well, and they’ll only survive, if they are done in that kind of a cooperative and collaborative approach.”
Read More: Wyoming, Department of Energy find ways to work together | Energy Journal