CHEYENNE -- Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Wednesday vetoed three bills, including one that called for creating a task force to encourage nuclear energy production in the state.

Freudenthal also stripped $200,000 from a bill that calls for establishing a program to assess rangeland health.

Some sponsors of bills cut by the governor said Wednesday they disagreed with his actions.

In his written veto message of the nuclear energy production study bill, House Bill 97, Freudenthal stated it seemed to be focused more at holding meetings and media forums than on real analytical work.

While the bill called for studying nuclear storage issues, Freudenthal noted that the Legislature already had passed a law on the issue in the mid-1990s, giving itself complete authority over siting, construction and operation of storage facilities.

"While such a study may benefit a select few, I fail to see a compelling need to spend time and money on this issue at this time," Freudenthal wrote.

Sen. Eli Bebout, R-Riverton, was a sponsor of the nuclear task force bill and criticized Freudenthal's veto.

"First of all I think task forces do work, and I would disagree with him," Bebout said. He pointed to the state's wind energy task force, which has been meeting since May to recommend how the state should regulate the wind industry.

"If you go back to 1980, when they shut it (nuclear power) down in this country, they did a real disservice to everybody, in my opinion," Bebout said. "Now 30 years later, we're starting to talk about it again, and we've lost 30 years."

Freudenthal also vetoed Senate File 13, a bill sponsored by the Joint Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources Interim Committee. The bill would have required the state's Economic Analysis Division to collect and analyze economic data about state and federal land management proposals for county governments.

In his veto message, Freudenthal wrote that he believes that counties themselves should undertake their own economic analysis. He questioned what recourse a county would have if the state agency incorrectly gathered or analyzed the data.

Sen. Gerald Geis, R-Worland, is chairman of the Senate agriculture committee. He said he expects the Legislature will try again on the economic analysis bill next year, when Freudenthal will be out of office.

"It's important to the local governments, cities and counties, that we can gather statewide data so when industry comes in and says we're not going to do this, and we're going to do this, we can take a look and see what the effects are," Geis said.

Freudenthal vetoed Senate File 27, sponsored by Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander. The bill would have created a process to handle protests from citizens concerned that state or local government entities were unfairly competing with the private sector. Case was not available for comment Wednesday, his office said.

Freudenthal wrote that he's confident state residents already know how to let government know if they have legitimate concerns about government competition.

On the rangeland health bill, Senate File 7, Freudenthal wrote that the principle of performing assessments of rangeland health is important but that the state can fund the program once it develops rules of how that work will be done.