Wyoming Is Not Alright

A Tough Love Letter to the Equality State from a Wyomingite in Exile

So I was making breakfast on Wednesday when I heard the story “Facing a Reckoning, Wyoming Wrestles with a Transition from Fossil Fuels” on NPR’s Morning Edition. As a Wyoming ex-pat, this story hit me in a lot of different places, and in the course of it’s six minute runtime, I was equal parts disappointed, flabbergasted, deeply saddened, and infuriated.

The ($11,000 Per Person) Pool

This was the killer opening. In Pinedale, WY, state oil and gas revenue bankrolled a $22 million aquatic and community fitness center. Pinedale is home to just 2,000 people. The reporter speaks with the center’s director, and frames the investment as something that has drawn young people back to this otherwise low-opportunity community. The clincher of this vignette: declines in the oil and gas industry, expedited by the pandemic, have led to lower revenues and have meant the center’s budget has been cut in half.

I liked to think the author started with this story to make it clear that Wyoming’s problems are not a case of long term neglect or financial hardship, but at least in part, a case of piss-poor decision-making. A brief skim of this story might allow a listener to come away thinking, “wow, what a sad loss for the community,” but even just a cursory thought will bring them towards the inevitable — “why the fuck did this community spend all their money on this fucking pool?”

As a long time fan of Parks & Rec, this situation screams “Ice Town.” Translation: it’s hard to see how a multi-million dollar rec center is not an ill-conceived boondoggle as an economic development strategy that *very obviously* is not going to work. It’s an investment in relative luxury for the sake of luxury. How many, of Pinedale’s 2,000 residents are even capable of making regular and effective use of the center’s three-story rock wall, yoga rooms, or pool? Is it attracting a lot of new economic potential to the area and helping residents secure well-paying, stable jobs? Is it significantly improving the lives of Pinedale’s people in the way that say, a well-developed Main Street or state investments in medical or transportation infrastructure might?