Wyoming’s Energy Future: Data Centers, Coal, Electricity Prices | Isaac Orr on Stacy on the Right

Our Take

Wyoming has more coal than it knows what to do with, cheap gas, and a legislature eager to court hyperscalers. Isaac Orr's conversation with Stacy on the Right lays out the pitch: this could be one of the most important energy states in the country's AI buildout. Fine — but 'important' for whom is the real question. Every state that's rolled out the welcome mat for data centers has learned the same lesson: the generation capacity gets built, the transmission gets upgraded, and somehow the cost curve bends toward the residential ratepayer while the facility gets a special tariff and a tax abatement.

The carbon capture angle Orr raises is worth sitting with too. Mandates or incentives that make coal 'cleaner' aren't free — they get baked into electricity rates one way or another, and if hyperscale load is the justification for keeping those plants running longer, locals deserve to know exactly how that math works and who's really subsidizing whom. Wyoming's small population and big energy resources make it an easy target for developers looking for policy that bends to their timeline, not the grid's.

We don't take a side on coal versus gas versus anything else — we just want the deal terms in daylight: what rate class the data center pays, what happens to that rate if the load never materializes, who's on the hook for new transmission, and whether 'reliability' is being used as cover for cost-shifting. Check our facility map to see what's already been sited in the Mountain West, and if you want to push for public disclosure of these agreements, our take-action page has next steps. Credit to DeSimone Booking and Stacy on the Right for putting Orr's argument on the record — now let's see the contracts.