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,”…