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Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead has expanded his energy advisory staff in partnership with the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources and its director, Rob Hurless, who will serve as a member of Mead’s policy team. Mead said the continuing partnership allows his administration to “tap into the energy expertise already in place at the university, and to keep the focus there on issues that are relevant to the companies that employ so many people in Wyoming.” Hurless will join Mead’s Policy Director Shawn Reese, who will continue to focus on energy, a spokesperson for the governor said. “Energy industries produce the bulk of our revenue, so I want state government to support the industry to the benefit of citizens,” said Mead.

Wyoming reported receiving a $10.4 million grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to help support Gov. Matt Mead’s sage grouse protection executive order issued earlier this year. The funding is in addition to $17 million the state has already received for conserving sage grouse from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Emphasizing that the program is voluntary, the state head of the implementation team said the USFWS funds will be used to deal with sage grouse habitat fragmentation.

In response to the state’s action earlier in June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has sent Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead a letter of commendation for the state’s efforts to conserve sage grouse throughout the state under a protection plan ordered by the governor (see Daily GPI, June 6).

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead sees the potential for turning his state’s fossil fuels into gasoline as something that could add economic value to the state’s rich natural resources, according to Mead’s chief spokesperson. NGI asked for the governor’s response to the recent report that a legislative committee wants the state to help underwrite a study of the potential for turning natural gas and coal into gasoline (see Daily GPI, June 24).

An updated version of Wyoming’s Sage Grouse Core Area Protection Executive Order, which has been signed by Gov. Matt Mead, provides more flexibility for management of the area and adds language requiring continual reevaluation of the science and data for sage grouse management, Mead said Friday.

An updated version of Wyoming’s Sage Grouse Core Area Protection Executive Order, which has been signed by Gov. Matt Mead, provides more flexibility for management of the area and adds language requiring continual reevaluation of the science and data for sage grouse management, Mead said Friday.

After a sixth smog alert this year for the Pinedale Anticline natural gas production area in western Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead, major producers and the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) met earlier this month to address a six-year-old air quality attainment issue that had seemed to be in remission over the past two years.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead on Monday expressed concerns on Plains Exploration and Production Co.’s (PXP) master development plan for Eagle Prospect and Noble Basin, which calls for drilling 136 wells from 17 pads in the Bridger Teton National Forest. Mead sent a letter outlining his concerns to the supervisor for Bridger-Teton in the U.S. Forest Service (USFS).

After a sixth smog alert this year for the Pinedale natural gas production area in western Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead, major producers and the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) met earlier this month to address a six-year-old air quality attainment issue that had seemed to be in remission over the past two years.