Wyoming's energy views don't align with any other Western state, survey finds

found. In 2023, 47% of respondents in Wyoming felt it was more important to conserve public lands than maximize drilling and mining there, while 48% believed the opposite was true. That puts the difference well within the poll’s 4.9% margin of error. Wyoming residents also continue to feel less favorably toward renewable energy — and more favorably toward coal, oil and gas — than do any of their Western neighbors, according to this year’s poll, released Wednesday.

Researchers surveyed respondents in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, along with Wyoming. They found that majorities in every state but Wyoming support transitioning entirely to renewable energy by about 2035 and believe that expanding renewables is more important than extracting more coal, oil and gas.

Yet more Wyomingites — 74% — said they considered themselves conservationists than did respondents from any other state. (Montana was a close second, and within the margin of error, at 73%.) Lori Weigel, principal of research firm New Bridge Strategy, said in a message to the Star-Tribune that Wyoming’s unique circumstances can at least partly explain its enduring commitment to fossil fuels. “Energy is perceived as much more integral to the economy in Wyoming in our experience,” Weigel said. “I think that shapes it.”

Wyoming mines more coal than any other U.S. state. It’s also the No. 1 producer of natural gas and No. 2 producer of oil on federal lands, which encompass almost half of the state’s surface and closer to two-thirds of its mineral resources. In 2020, Wyoming was responsible for 6.1% of the country’s energy production, according to federal data — a number topped only by Texas and Pennsylvania. Fewer Wyoming residents are concerned about climate change or the environmental impacts of oil and gas drilling compared with the rest of the Western states, the 2023 poll found. Consciousness of the region’s dwindling water supply, however, is on par with others in the upper basin of the Colorado River. Just over a third of respondents in Wyoming think the shortage of water supplies in the West is “a serious crisis.” Another 42% said it was “a significant problem, but not a crisis.”

And Wyoming proved equally — and sometimes more — supportive of conservation measures like protecting sources of drinking water, safeguarding wildlife habitat and migration routes, building wildlife crossings and requiring oil and gas companies to use updated technologies that minimize methane leaks. Some ideas, like boosting access to the outdoors for communities of color, helping threatened wildlife and requiring oil and gas companies to pay all of their reclamation costs, were somewhat less popular, but still favored by a smaller majority, in the state.

Notably, 72% of Wyomingites said they strongly or somewhat supported “achieving a national goal of conserving thirty percent of land and inland waters in America, and thirty percent of its ocean areas by the year 2030” — President Joe Biden’s sweeping, and controversial, 30 by 30 plan. Wyoming’s Congressional delegation has been outspoken about their disdain for the initiative. Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, introduced a bill in 2021 intended to bar the Biden administration from infringing on private property rights and weaken related efforts in a number of ways. According to the poll results, the number of people in Wyoming who would like to see 30 by 30 succeed has climbed by 14% since 2021 — the largest increase in any state.

The vast majority of people in every Western state care deeply about their public lands, air, water and wildlife. But Wyoming stands alone in prioritizing energy production as highly as, if not above, conservation.

Over the last several years, the state has remained roughly split on the issue, Colorado College’s annual Conservation in the West poll found.

In 2023, 47% of respondents in Wyoming felt it was more important to conserve public lands than maximize drilling and mining there, while 48% believed the opposite was true. That puts the difference well within the poll’s 4.9% margin of error.

Wyoming residents also continue to feel less favorably toward renewable energy — and more favorably toward coal, oil and gas — than do any of their Western neighbors, according to this year’s poll, released Wednesday.

Researchers surveyed respondents in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, along with Wyoming. They found that majorities in every state but Wyoming support transitioning entirely to renewable energy by about 2035 and believe that expanding renewables is more important than extracting more coal, oil and gas.

Yet more Wyomingites — 74% — said they considered themselves conservationists than did respondents from any other state. (Montana was a close second, and within the margin of error, at 73%.)

Lori Weigel, principal of research firm New Bridge Strategy, said in a message to the Star-Tribune that Wyoming’s unique circumstances can at least partly explain its enduring commitment to fossil fuels.

“Energy is perceived as much more integral to the economy in Wyoming in our experience,” Weigel said. “I think that shapes it.”

Wyoming mines more coal than any other U.S. state. It’s also the No. 1 producer of natural gas and No. 2 producer of oil on federal lands, which encompass almost half of the state’s surface and closer to two-thirds of its mineral resources.

In 2020, Wyoming was responsible for 6.1% of the country’s energy production, according to federal data — a number topped only by Texas and Pennsylvania.

Fewer Wyoming residents are concerned about climate change or the environmental impacts of oil and gas drilling compared with the rest of the Western states, the 2023 poll found. Consciousness of the region’s dwindling water supply, however, is on par with others in the upper basin of the Colorado River.

Just over a third of respondents in Wyoming think the shortage of water supplies in the West is “a serious crisis.” Another 42% said it was “a significant problem, but not a crisis.”

And Wyoming proved equally — and sometimes more — supportive of conservation measures like protecting sources of drinking water, safeguarding wildlife habitat and migration routes, building wildlife crossings and requiring oil and gas companies to use updated technologies that minimize methane leaks.

Some ideas, like boosting access to the outdoors for communities of color, helping threatened wildlife and requiring oil and gas companies to pay all of their reclamation costs, were somewhat less popular, but still favored by a smaller majority, in the state.

Notably, 72% of Wyomingites said they strongly or somewhat supported “achieving a national goal of conserving thirty percent of land and inland waters in America, and thirty percent of its ocean areas by the year 2030” — President Joe Biden’s sweeping, and controversial, 30 by 30 plan.

Wyoming’s Congressional delegation has been outspoken about their disdain for the initiative. Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, introduced a bill in 2021 intended to bar the Biden administration from infringing on private property rights and weaken related efforts in a number of ways.

According to the poll results, the number of people in Wyoming who would like to see 30 by 30 succeed has climbed by 14% since 2021 — the largest increase in any state.