The Front Porch?

[OrediggerPoke]

Yes, the nuclear plants are cool, but how does this bring revenue to the state?

You can't have a data center industry without a lot of electricity. The taxes that data centers would pay is massive. In reality, the amount of electricity needed for the data center/AI industry almost requires nuclear technologies to play a role.

 

[doreno5]

You can't have a data center industry without a lot of electricity. The taxes that data centers would pay is massive. In reality, the amount of electricity needed for the data center/AI industry almost requires nuclear technologies to play a role.

Which is why Bill Gates has invested in the Kemmerer project. He is not interested in selling the power as much as he does not want to have to buy it from someone else. The technology that is being developed/tested if successful will be the model for additional smaller plants nationwide.
However this does not fix all the other structural and cultural issues which impede progress and population growth/retention for Wyoming but it is a step in the right direction.

 

[OrediggerPoke]

Which is why Bill Gates has invested in the Kemmerer project. He is not interested in selling the power as much as he does not want to have to buy it from someone else. The technology that is being developed/tested if successful will be the model for additional smaller plants nationwide.
However this does not fix all the other structural and cultural issues which impede progress and population growth/retention for Wyoming but it is a step in the right direction.

I'm actually pessimistic about the nuclear/AI industry future in Wyoming. The 'freedom caucus' is in an all out war attack on the industries and is getting the uneducated population to walk with them right off the cliff. I have a feeling Wyoming misses the boat on both Small Modular Reactors (i.e. the Kemmerer project) and microreactors (smaller battery like reactors with much broader applications).

I saw Wyovanian's comparison of Wyoming to the former 'coal is everything' folks in Appalachia and their unwillingness to welcome new industries. Those communities have certainly largely become very uninviting now. That seems to be a good observation based on what we are now seeing with these anti-business and anti-progress freedom caucus folks.

 

[Brew_Poke]

Responding to posts a page or so back...

Here is an online comparison of return on investment for college degrees based on the university you attended:

https://freopp.org/oppblog/we-calcu...ment-for-30-000-bachelors-degrees-find-yours/

Note that this is an average and other sites might offer different values. Pick a major and compare to peers. See what it says.

I also note that yes, many students leave Wyoming for college or go to UW, for example, and then leave the state. Many students pick majors specifically that allow them to do this. It would be great to keep them in state, but jobs, or even better, jobs they are interested in, do call them away. Yes, we want UW to focus on majors that provide jobs in Wyoming, but remember that many parents pay taxes in Wyoming for many years and we also owe them and their students an ability to get a college degree at a reasonable price even if they plan to leave the state. If we play the long game, they will get wealthy, retire early, move back to Wyoming and spend their retirement money in Wyoming.

In Wyoming, we (ok, the politicians at least) are always saying we need job growth. But we need to be careful of that. If we had job growth and those new jobs and new people resulted in tax growth (i.e., perhaps a personal income tax), then we do want more people. But if all of the employment growth is in the area of non-extractive industries, then the tax money doesn't come back. If people with new jobs don't pay some more in taxes, then in some ways they become an additional drain on the state. In most other states (with a few exceptions), the population growth results in income tax growth,

Not just a "reasonable price", but as near free as possible, if you believe that the state constitution is worth more than the paper it's written on.

 

[laxwyo]

I'm actually pessimistic about the nuclear/AI industry future in Wyoming. The 'freedom caucus' is in an all out war attack on the industries and is getting the uneducated population to walk with them right off the cliff. I have a feeling Wyoming misses the boat on both Small Modular Reactors (i.e. the Kemmerer project) and microreactors (smaller battery like reactors with much broader applications).

I saw Wyovanian's comparison of Wyoming to the former 'coal is everything' folks in Appalachia and their unwillingness to welcome new industries. Those communities have certainly largely become very uninviting now. That seems to be a good observation based on what we are now seeing with these anti-business and anti-progress freedom caucus folks.

Wasn’t the real culprit in WV demise and coal government itself? Obama really put the screws to coal industry. Much in the same way the Freedom Caucus is hindering things, government has always been picking winners and losers.

Wanted to get your opinion on the $6M the athletic department asked for the direct pay of athletes. I know you’re against NIL and I think we all agree on needing it to stay irrelevantly relevant.

 

[OrediggerPoke]

Wasn’t the real culprit in WV demise and coal government itself? Obama really put the screws to coal industry. Much in the same way the Freedom Caucus is hindering things, government has always been picking winners and losers.

Wanted to get your opinion on the $6M the athletic department asked for the direct pay of athletes. I know you’re against NIL and I think we all agree on needing it to stay irrelevantly relevant.

The demise of coal in Appalachia was the clean air act of 1970 which made their high sulfur coal a very expensive coal for electric generation (ie significant cost to meet clean air act standards). Coincidentally, that is the very thing that led to the coal boom in Wyoming when our surface mines in the PRB could produce limitless amounts of low sulfur coal.

The demise of the coal industry in general for electric generation was the abundance of cheap natural gas due to the reserves that were unlocked with fracking advances. Sure the left’s largely uneducated regulatory attack on fossil fuels has been very negative for coal but in reality its impact is much smaller than the reality of cheaper electric generation with natural gas.

As far as Burman’s request for $6 million from the legislature to pay athletes, I believe that was idiocy at its finest considering the freedom caucus made it no secret that they were looking to cut university funding. All it did was give them another lever to seek significant cuts to the block grant when they now could rally around ‘see the university wants to use public dollars for improper uses.’

 

[Brew_Poke]

The demise of coal in Appalachia was the clean air act of 1970 which made their high sulfur coal a very expensive coal for electric generation (ie significant cost to meet clean air act standards). Coincidentally, that is the very thing that led to the coal boom in Wyoming when our surface mines in the PRB could produce limitless amounts of low sulfur coal.

The demise of the coal industry in general for electric generation was the abundance of cheap natural gas due to the reserves that were unlocked with fracking advances. Sure the left’s largely uneducated regulatory attack on fossil fuels has been very negative for coal but in reality its impact is much smaller than the reality of cheaper electric generation with natural gas.

As far as Burman’s request for $6 million from the legislature to pay athletes, I believe that was idiocy at its finest considering the freedom caucus made it no secret that they were looking to cut university funding. All it did was give them another lever to seek significant cuts to the block grant when they now could rally around ‘see the university wants to use public dollars for improper uses.’

Yeah, coal lost in the marketplace, which everyone is supposed to be cool with, right?

 

[Vapoke]

The demise of coal in Appalachia was the clean air act of 1970 which made their high sulfur coal a very expensive coal for electric generation (ie significant cost to meet clean air act standards). Coincidentally, that is the very thing that led to the coal boom in Wyoming when our surface mines in the PRB could produce limitless amounts of low sulfur coal.

The demise of the coal industry in general for electric generation was the abundance of cheap natural gas due to the reserves that were unlocked with fracking advances. Sure the left’s largely uneducated regulatory attack on fossil fuels has been very negative for coal but in reality its impact is much smaller than the reality of cheaper electric generation with natural gas.

As far as Burman’s request for $6 million from the legislature to pay athletes, I believe that was idiocy at its finest considering the freedom caucus made it no secret that they were looking to cut university funding. All it did was give them another lever to seek significant cuts to the block grant when they now could rally around ‘see the university wants to use public dollars for improper uses.’

I asked around regarding the $6M ask. It was the standard $3M ask they have asked for in the past over two years. It was bad journalism from CSD.

You have zero leadership at UW right now with a lame duck President and Wyoming is entering an election year for Governor. It is clear the Freedom Caucus does not like Gordon so I assume the person he backed (Clay?) is in for an uphill battle. You have a BoT (Megan?) having entered the race and backed by Trump. She is a local of Laramie and may or may not support those proposed cuts. I think they smelled blood in the water and are taking advantage of the situation and flexing their muscle

 

[OrediggerPoke]

Yeah, coal lost in the marketplace, which everyone is supposed to be cool with, right?

Marketplace is the antithesis of what we are seeing from both the left and right flanks. They both want to pick winners and losers.

For me - private property rights and the marketplace should prevail. If someone wants to lease their land for a wind turbine or lease their land for mineral development, and if a company wants to spend its capital to develop a wind farm or to develop a new mine, they should be able to do that. What we have now is lunacy in regulatory meetings of whatever someone's individual belief is either talking about how coal or wind will be the end of humanity.

Wyoming is idiotic to say no to wind if consumers in other states want to pay a premium for it. Other states are idiotic if they want to put artificial barriers to fossil fuel energy when fossil fuel energy allows for local energy generation and may be the best price per kWh in a given location.

 

[Vapoke]

Did a little more research. Don't vote for Eric Barlow for governor he is leading this train from Gillette and is a CSU grad

 

[Bear Claw]

With reduced funding and NIL expectations, I think the majority of us are willing to concede it is going to be nearly impossible (no matter who is making executive decisions) for Wyoming to stay relevant in this new era of college athletics.

The only way I can see this changing is by holding fast until imminent realignment happens or make the decision to go to the FCS level. Yes, I can almost hear some of you sighing, now. There is no other way that I can think of that will help Wyoming become more competitive in college athletics.

Funding is getting tighter and the athletes’ demands are getting harder to meet. UW enrollment is stagnant. If one of you is willing to enlighten me on a more positive way out of this situation, please present your case. To me, staying in this current model is futile.

 

[OrediggerPoke]

Did a little more research. Don't vote for Eric Barlow for governor he is leading this train from Gillette and is a CSU grad

Don't vote for a Wyoming native because they went to the closest school with a veterinarian program when Wyoming doesn't have one? Ok, yea, that's not how I vote.

Both Megan and Eric are fine people and it will be interesting to hear their positions during the election cycle.

 

[Vapoke]

Don't vote for a Wyoming native because they went to the closest school with a veterinarian program when Wyoming doesn't have one? Ok, yea, that's not how I vote.

Both Megan and Eric are fine people and it will be interesting to hear their positions during the election cycle.

It was a play on words making fun of him for being a CSU grad. I am not attacking Eric's character but his political views as the freedom caucus make it sounds like he wants Wyoming to play Oregon Trail on the old Apple computers using a 3.5" Floppy disk.

Last time I actually voted for Brent Bien but will be interesting to see who plays out now. Megan may be the early leader in the race.