Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our year-end fund drive starts next week, and we can't do it without you. Your support keeps UPR strong as we head into 2025. GIVE NOW

Wyoming Mineral Rights Owners Look To Governor To Help Bring More Gas to Market

Wyoming News Service

The Trump administration has announced plans to adjust requirements in the energy sector. Some mineral-rights owners are looking to state governments to help save royalty earnings from natural-gas reserves. 
Maggie McKenzie, a land and mineral-rights owner in southeastern Wyoming, says just because the feds say it's OK to waste millions of dollars in natural gas through leaks, venting and flaring, that doesn't mean Wyoming has to stand by and watch critical revenues vanish into thin air.

"We're struggling, with the decline in the energy business, to meet the needs of the state," McKenzie said. "It just doesn't make sense to let this revenue slip through our fingers. I think we need to not allow that to happen."

McKenzie points to research  showing more than $42 million worth of natural gas was wasted on federal and tribal lands in Wyoming in a single year, and notes lost royalties could be used to fund the state's schools, roads and other needs. 

Earlier this month the U.S. Interior Department began the process of reversing Obama-era rules limiting the waste of methane - the primary component of natural gas - on public lands, arguing the regulations were an overreach of authority and cost jobs.

McKenzie says while some developers voluntarily inspect and repair leaks, extending the protections Gov. Matt Mead put in place in the Pinedale region to the rest of the state would create a more even playing field for all operators. She adds since Jonah Energy started regularly checking for leaks, the company cut emissions by 75 percent and was able to bring an extra $5 million worth of gas to market.

"It's kind of hard for me to understand how this rule would result in a loss of jobs, if companies are actually realizing additional profits from implementing the system," she says. 

According to a recent survey conducted by Colorado College, 87 percent of Wyoming voters said they support continuing the federal Methane Waste Rule. The public comment period for the proposal to reverse protections ends on November sixth. Comments can be registered at regulations.gov.  

At 14-years-old, Kerry began working as a reporter for KVEL “The Hot One” in Vernal, Utah. Her radio news interests led her to Logan where she became news director for KBLQ while attending Utah State University. She graduated USU with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and spent the next few years working for Utah Public Radio. Leaving UPR in 1993 she spent the next 14 years as the full time mother of four boys before returning in 2007. Kerry and her husband Boyd reside in Nibley.