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WMA Legislative Update
CONTINUES WORK IN BUSY GENERAL SESSION
The Wyoming Legislature rose to the challenge to complete a general session under awkward and challenging pandemic restrictions. The Legislative Service Office should be praised for providing nearly seamless audio visual and virtual access for Wyoming citizens. In fact, we are all so impressed with the unprecedented broadcast and participation, we want it to continue into the future. Wyoming has a part time citizen legislature in a very large state, so opportunities to be involved without traveling to the Capital in the far southeast corner, was very welcome and appreciated. The Wyoming mining industry and most other sectors in the state were severely impacted by supply, demand and market challenges during the pandemic, with many sectors yet to completely recover. These circumstances impacted revenues from the mineral industry causing dramatically lower tax collections. Yet, no new taxes were passed by the legislature. Numerous tax measures were defeated such as mill levies, sales and use taxes, capital gains taxes, corporate income taxes and tier tax percentage increases. The Legislature delivered a very slim supplemental budget to Governor Gordon and he signed it with just a few minor line item vetoes. The budget included $430 million in cuts. The General Fund budget is several billion dollars smaller than it was just a few years ago. The reductions were necessary due to dramatically lower tax and royalty streams from mineral production, including oil, gas and coal. After years of trying to address the issue of the timing of county mineral production tax payments, a compromise was passed and signed by the Governor. Implementation will begin in 2022 with the transition of payments from up to an eighteen-month delay to a monthly schedule. An ill-advised attempt to provide county assessors access to all centrally assessed taxpayer valuations was successfully stopped with the assistance of a broad coalition of industry sectors. Legislation to clarify the ownership of fossils and artifacts was passed assisting surface owners and developers to clarify who owns items uncovered during operation activities. Multiple bills were passed to try and avert early closures of coal fired power plants. One bill sets a rebuttable presumption against early closure of power plants and requires the PSC to consider reliability. Another bill requires the PSC to consider reliability and cost externalities incurred by the state of Wyoming, including but not limited to economics and employment, upon application by a utility to construct or retire major generations facilities.
Legislation was passed to provide $1.2 million to be used by the Governor and the Attorney General regarding litigation with states that have passed renewable portfolio standards and displacing Wyoming coal fired electricity. The Legislature also allocated $10 million to the Governor’s office for carbon capture and storage projects. Legislation was passed to clarify that the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources budget is separate from the University of Wyoming block grant and is not under control of the board of trustees. Another bill passed authorizes the creation of Gillette College, separate from the Northern Wyoming Community College District. Approval will be necessary by a majority of the voters in a Campbell County election. The interim is already proving busy. At the request of the governor’s office and WMA, the Joint Minerals Committee will advance legislation to allow for the state to set up an “assigned trust” program through the state treasurer’s office that would give mining companies another option to meet their bonding obligations. Your WMA Legislative Affairs Committee will continue to monitor and participate in all interim committee deliberations that may have impacts, positive or negative, on our producers.
BY: WENDY LOWE Chairman of the WMA Legislative Affairs Committee Peabody Energy
ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES?
WE’VE GOT YOUR SOLUTIONS.
+ Preparation of NEPA Documents (EISs, EAs) + Environmental Permitting + Archaeological and Biological Inventories + Historic Property Assessments + Environmental Compliance and Planning + Air Quality and Noise Analysis + Stream and Riparian Habitat Restoration + Fish and Wildlife Habitat Mitigation
Planning and Implementation + Water Quality Monitoring and Bioassessment Services + Closure and Reclamation
Planning and Monitoring + Geochemical Characterization and Mine Waste Management
