May 2025 BREAKS Upon starting at Powder River three months ago, I was excited to create conversation to provide a strategic roadmap for the organization. We are well on our way. Our mission is strong – protecting Wyoming’s land, water, air and people. The times demand that we lean into the people part. That we […]
Posts Categorized: Powder River Breaks Newsletter
Powder River’s New Executive Director Shares Thoughts on Building Community
by Sharon Buccino Executive Director As I stepped into the office at 934 N Main, I recalled the first time I had visited. It was the summer of 2007. Kevin Lind greeted me with abroad smile and open arms. I was an idealistic attorney working with Powder River to address the impacts of coalbed methane […]
Powder River Breaks Newsletter Oct – Dec 2024
WATER QUALITY EXPERTS URGE PROTECTION FROM E.COLI IN WYOMING WATERS Jill Morrison Powder River Member Over the past three years the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (WDEQ) has been engaged in a process to revise Wyoming’s water quality regulations and the rules governing the permitted discharges to Wyoming’s streams and rivers. Pow- der River has […]
Powder River Breaks Newsletter, Jul – Sep 2024
Jul-Sep 2024, Volume 52, Number 4 In a precedent-setting decision issued on August 30th, the Wyoming Supreme Court struck down High Plains Power’s policy to reducing the financial benefit of having solar panels. Not wanting the precedent of High Plains Power’s action to cut by approximately 80 percent the compensation paid to rooftop solar owners […]
Powder River Breaks Newsletter, May – June 2024
May – June 2024, Volume 52, Number 3 In May, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced it will end federal coal leasing in the Powder River Basin – the largest coal-producing region in the United States. The decision represents a historic shift in federal management of coal in the region, recognizing environmental and health […]
Powder River Breaks Newsletter, March – April 2024
March – April 2024, Volume 52, Number 2 On February 12, the Department of the Interior announced a finalized rule reforming the Bureau of Land Management’s onshore oil and gas leasing program. Readers may recall this rule was proposed last spring. Powder River members engaged diligently throughout the rulemaking process to ensure quick passage and […]
Powder River March-April 2024 BREAKS
On February 12, the Department of the Interior announced a finalized rule reforming the Bureau of Land Management’s onshore oil and gas leasing program. Readers may recall this rule was proposed last spring. Powder River members engaged diligently throughout the rulemaking process to ensure quick pas-sage and strong reforms. The rule makes long overdue changes […]
Powder River Breaks Newsletter, January – February 2024
January – February 2024, Volume 52, Number 1 Last year, High Plains Power became the third rural electric cooperative, and the largest, to significantly reduce the compensation it provides to customers who generate their own solar electricity. Called net metering, Wyoming law provides that a utility has to credit or compensate a solar owner for […]
Powder River Breaks Newsletter, November – December 2023
November – December 2023, Volume 51, Number 6 While daily life in the Equality State may feel fraught with policy and cultural disagreements, the Powder River members who gathered in Sheridan on Nov. 4 came together eager for the camaraderie that the annual meeting offers. Since last year’s annual meeting celebrated 50 years of Powder […]
Powder River Breaks Newsletter – September-October 2023
September – October 2023, Volume 51, Number 5 Powder River staff and members traveled to Denver, CO in late August to show support for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposed Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process rule. Readers may recall from our previous issue that the rule makes long overdue changes to the onshore […]
