Energy

Image June 1, 2026 Priorities Powering America I defended Wyoming’s legacy industries as a constitutional, natural resources, and water attorney for over 30 years. Our state’s abundant mineral, hard rock, and energy reserves exemplify the natural gifts our great nation has been blessed with, all of which fuel the advancement and betterment of mankind. As your representative, I am leading the fight to protect Wyoming’s legacy industries from lawfare and regulatory overreach emanating from Washington, D.C. The environmental laws of the 1970s, combined with the ever-creeping expanse of the administrative state originating from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, have in combination been used to target our energy resources and the people who produce them, despite the fact that they fueled our nation’s rise to a global superpower. For the last several decades, certain elected officials and unelected bureaucrats have aggressively erected legal and regulatory barriers to block our energy industry and then pushed the false narrative that “market forces” are phasing out Wyoming’s coal, nuclear, oil, and gas industries. In reality, the “climate change” politicians and agency heads have pursued their own scheme of preventing our energy companies from producing the resources that we need to power a modern economy and a just and compassionate society. Wyoming is the nation’s largest coal producer and is therefore the target of the anti-coal agenda that has permeated several presidential administrations. President Obama’s policies pursued a moratorium on coal production on federal lands, like those in the Powder River Basin, by adopting the so-called Clean Power Plan, thereby seeking to shutter both coal mining and power production. Congress, under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi, passed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which weaponized federal ownership of our lands and minerals to raise the costs to mine coal. President Biden reinstated the national coal moratorium policies that expanded through the Buffalo resource management plan amendment (RMPA) issued to block all development. These efforts, combined with other regulations to choke off access to public lands while catering to states driven by climate change hysteria, such as California and New York, were used to dictate the direction of federal emissions standards. For too long, Wyoming’s legacy industries suffered under this campaign to use the institutions of power in our national governance to undermine energy affordability and access for the American people. I have worked relentlessly since coming to Congress to undo this self-inflicted harm, taking the following actions to protect our industries and our future: Passed into law H.J. Res. 130 to overturn the Biden administration’s Buffalo RMPA ban on new Powder River Basin coal leasing and prohibit a similar ban in the future. Passed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act which: reduced the so-called IRA’s cost increases on the production of coal, oil, and gas; mandated coal leasing on federal lands; mandated quarterly oil and gas lease sales in Wyoming; Passed through the House the Expedited Appeals Review Act, which streamlines appeals on regulatory decisions impacting the mining and energy sectors that sit before an unconstitutional and biased administrative law court Introduced legislation to reform the coal bonus bid process that serves as a barrier to new Powder River Basin leasing Introduced the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act to shield our energy producers from the newest lawfare campaigns waged by states like California, Colorado, and New York Cosponsored the SPEED Act to reform the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to streamline our federal permitting process I am proud that for the first time in decades, Wyoming coal is back in favor in Washington, D.C., and we are pursuing concrete reforms to address the anti-American energy campaign of previous years. Combined with the achievements of this Congress, President Trump is pushing forward the most pro coal executive agenda in our history. The President reinstated the National Coal Council and issued emergency orders blocking the forced retirement of coal plants, thereby saving at least 17 gigawatts of coal power for our overburdened grid. The Trump administration also repealed the unscientific endangerment finding which underpins the entire D.C. war on American energy and is in the trenches with us to resist the blue state lawfare crusade against our energy producers. While there is still more work to be done, I am incredibly proud to report that we have succeeded in making laws that will limit the reach of Washington, D.C., while empowering Wyoming’s energy sector. Without Wyoming energy, our nation goes dark, inflicting unnecessary suffering on tens of millions of individuals and businesses across this great country. As a cautionary tale, we must not forget that, even earlier this year, states impacted by Winter Storm Fern, including those states who sought to eliminate coal power, had their grids bailed out through a huge surge of dispatchable coal-fired electricity to stabilize and serve the grid. To prevent the devastation such an emergency would have caused, and to meet our nation’s ever expanding power needs, we need more Wyoming energy, not less. I am fighting for that reality as your representative in Washington.