Governor Mark Gordon was recently interviewed by “Fox & Friends” over the devastating impact President Biden’s executive orders will have on the state of Wyoming. President Biden signed an executive order on January 20, No. 13990, to pause federal leasing of minerals to oil and gas developers.
Wyoming collects millions of dollars each year from energy production on federal lands. Last year, the federal government dispersed over $457 million to Wyoming. The energy sector funds usually support their schools, communities, and small businesses. There will be a devastating impact on Wyoming’s budget and industry workers if the Biden Administration does not provide federal compensation or fiscal support soon. Talk about a direct attack on everyone from the middle class down.
Gov. Gordan told Fox News host Steve Doocy that the Biden ban has been “bipartisan in its devastation.” He talked about places like Gillette, Wyo. where the impacts of the changing energy sector benefitted their communities versus the kind of move that the Biden Administration pulled.
“When you look at a place like Gillette, which has benefited from years over years of energy development, it’s really established itself as a pretty remarkable town. And then you look at what happens with just sort of a big group of people coming to construct renewables and then leaving, it’s a little bit [of a] different impact on our communities,” Gov. Gordan said.
The ban has also created potential legal options for the state since nearly half of the state’s surface and subsurface are federally owned. Gov. Gordan issued an executive order on January 29, directing state agencies to examine the financial impacts of President Biden’s ban on new sales of federal oil and gas leases.
“These orders issued by the new administration are a direct attack on Wyoming and our way of life. I am directing members of my cabinet to examine the economic, financial, and workforce impacts of the President’s actions. I will continue to fight these misguided and destructive policies by all means necessary. The way to move America forward is not through crushing her Western states,” the order reads.
The order looks to examine the financial impacts of the drilling ban, the impacts on oil and gas employment in Wyoming, efforts to challenge the order, and ways to identify potential litigation that the state may want to pursue.
Gov. Gordan also talked about how training new workers with alternative jobs in the energy sector would not completely alleviate the financial impacts. Workers moving from the gas and oil industries to solar and wind would be making about half as much money. “There’s obviously this discussion about being able to train new workers with new jobs and new capacities, but it’s not a one for one kind of thing,” Gordan said.
President Biden has taken a horrible situation and made it worse. When people are losing jobs, now is not the time to kill more. Until there is a reliable and viable substitute for fueling jets, vehicles, and large buildings, there were many ways to do this without killing jobs. It made no economic sense to stop a pipeline that was moving oil cleanly and safely.
It’s going to be a whole lot more than the “dark winter” Biden promised us. Brilliant move, Dems.
