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Wyoming bans conservation bidders from oil and gas lease sales - WyoFile

wyofile.com Wyoming bans conservation bidders from oil and gas lease sales - WyoFile

The prohibition is in response to a conservation group that bid on a lease parcel in Sublette County intending to spare it from being developed.

33 comments

"Let the market decide."

"No, not like that!"
Rep. Cyrus Western (R-Big Horn) brought the bill on behalf of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming.

Ffs
- That shouldn't be a law and fucking Petroleum Association should have 0 hand in writing laws.
"No! We hate free money that doesn't even extract resources!"

-Wyoming's stupid ass
- This example is for a 640 acre property leased at $12,160, which the oil company claims was an artificially inflated price because a conservation group was bidding.
  
  That seems like a ludicrously small dollar figure. My guess that that the state is leasing the land cheaply, then making up for that with severance taxes on the extracted fossil fuels and minerals. Conservation groups would not generate those severance taxes.
  
  My guess that that the state is leasing the land cheaply, then making up for that with severance taxes on the extracted fossil fuels and minerals.
  
  That's exactly how it works and it's why the State of Wyoming cannot afford to let leases go to organizations that won't use them.
- Can't tax it.
  
  Can tax or charge for other things like hunting licenses, equipment, ammo, guides, camping permits, etc.
Conservatism is a plague of death.
THIS SENTENCE, is corruption in plain sight to such an absurd degree that we are expected to be nonchalant in our acceptance of it. I'm sure a lot of people (present company excluded) drove right on by this sentence without stopping to marvel at how at ease big oil and gas are with expecting laws to favor them:

“So rather than wait for that to happen, we thought, ‘Well, let’s step in now and let’s put in place a bill that acts as a deterrent to doing that,” Petroleum Association of Wyoming President Pete Obermueller told WyoFile.
Murdering the climate was really their first priority all along, wasn't it?
- I genuinely believe that they're too proudly ignorant to get it. To them, climate change is something they're worried about in Ivory tower universities and on the political left. It's a proud ignorance that says "you smart people aren't going to tell US what to do."
  
  Reminder that one of their (former) politicians thought an out-of-season snowball disproved global warming and nobody along the way told him how stupid that was...which is my proof that these politicians don't even have anyone in their orbit that understands how stupid that was.
  
  Anyway, I still think making obscene amounts of money is their first priority and they either can't or won't understand the damage they do.
  
  I think they get it, they just don't think they'll ever experience consequences. They can always move somewhere comparatively insulated from harm or don't see a point in worrying about anything that happens outside of their own lifetimes or are techno optimists and assume we'll crack fusion or invent efficient carbon scrubbers
This doesn't stink of shitty lobbying or corruption...does Wyoming get a kick back for what's mined/drilled after the rights are transferred? Oh they don't‽ Then why the fuck do they care as long as the check clears.
- does Wyoming get a kick back for what’s mined/drilled after the rights are transferred?
  
  As a matter of fact production does get taxed. So 12k up front for the lease is a pittance compared to what the ongoing can bring.
- Wyoming has been taken over by billionaires. You can't just have people buying up land and not destroying it. There is value to extract.
Even though Colorado has extensive drilling that has ruined large swaths of the state, there's such a big difference in how our nature looks versus Wyoming's. They trash the whole state to such a disgusting degree that I need a large trashbag every time I go hiking there. This is par for the course.
- They trash the whole state to such a disgusting degree that I need a large trashbag every time I go hiking there.
  
  And yet you still come; why is that? Stay in Colorado.
  
  Happily. You and your sister-wife can keep all the trash to yourselves. It's your culture.
This is awful. They changed the game just so environmentalists [all of us really] can’t win
The change, made under emergency rulemaking in June...

really makes clear what the state's priorities are
- I pointed it out separately, but this sentence makes it even more clear.
  
  ‘Well, let’s step in now and let’s put in place a bill that acts as a deterrent to doing that,” Petroleum Association of Wyoming President Pete Obermueller told WyoFile.
  
  Hey Wyoming congressman/congresswoman, it's your oil and gas friends and we are going to need you to write some legislation for us here... Oh, Congress is out of session? You'll need to go ahead and reconvene then, sorry.
Corruption in plain slight.

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