Tagged: Mead

A group of Pavillion residents says Wyoming officials betrayed them by delaying the release of information tentatively connecting hydraulic fracturing with groundwater pollution in the area.

An Associated Press investigation shows that Gov. Matt Mead convinced the Environmental Protection Agency to delay its draft report on the contamination by a full month. Mead and other state officials used the extra time to try and debunk the findings before they could harm the oil and gas industries.

On Friday, the Bureau of Land Management released new proposals to regulate hydraulic fracturing on public and tribal lands.

Proponents have seen the rules as base-line protection for residents in all states, opponents see them as redundant and bad for business.

Governor Mead says he’s troubled by the rules because Wyoming’s Fracking standards are already more stringent than what the federal government is proposing.

Wyoming Governor Matt Mead says he wants state agencies to look at program reductions but not job cuts when they come up with plans to reduce the state budget. 

Because of declining natural gas prices, the governor is asking all state agencies to be prepared to reduce their budgetseight percent by July first of 2013.  Mead said during a news conference that many of the reductions can be done without layoffs.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission has approved the state’s wolf management plan.  It allows wolves to be shot on site in most of the state, with hunting seasons scheduled for an area in northwest Wyoming.

Governor Matt Mead says they are awaiting another peer review by scientists, but they have made some adjustments to hunting regulations that he hopes will make the plan more palatable to critics. Mead remains hopeful that Wyoming’s congressional delegation will keep the management plan from being delayed by the courts.  But he believes the plan will stand up to any scrutiny.

The American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC has given Wyoming high marks for its economic policies.  The state was ranked number one for its economic performance over the last ten years,and ALEC ranks Wyoming as having the forth best economic outlook.  

The group’s Jonathon Williams says some of the reason for this is obviously due to Wyoming’s energy industry.  But he credits the state for having the initiative to utilize itsresourceseffectively.

In a February letter to the Department of Energy, Gov. Matt Mead expressed concern that the passive handling of uranium contamination on the Wind River Reservation might not be living up to the DOE’s remedial action plan.

The DOE asserted that the site would clean itself up after 100 years, and despite that uranium tailings were removed from the site decades ago, spikes in uranium were measured in DOE monitoring wells in 2010.

During his state of the state message Governor Matt Mead said that Wyoming is doing well.  He said Wyoming does not have the severe budget constraints that other statesface, but that a downturn in projected revenue means that the state has to curb its spending.

“I have not recommended deep across the board cuts to agencies,” Mead said. “Instead I used a targeted approach identifying those areas where we could slow or even reduce growth.  Some cuts have been made, but we should distinguish between cuts and reducing growth.  There is a real difference.”

Governor Matt Mead says he will try and stay upbeat when he gives his State of the State message Monday morning.    While the state has over a billion dollars in reserves, the governor is worried about falling gas prices and the potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars from the state revenue picture. Those potential losses, along with the fact that Wyoming will also have to make up for the loss of some federal stimulus money has led the governor and legislature to recommend some budget cuts.  The governor recommended against giving State, University and Community College’s pay rais

It’s time for another round of wildlife project proposals: For the tenth year in a row, the Wyoming Governor’s Big Game License Coalition is funding projects that benefit moose, elk, wild sheep and other animals.

The money comes from 20 big game hunting licensesthat the governor auctions offeach year, with proceeds going to conservation projects.

Coalition chair Kevin Hurley says wild sheep tags have sold for as much as $55,000 apiece, and he says hunters are willing to pay the price for two reasons.

Gov. Matt Mead says he will implement recommendations from a new report focused on improving safety for workers.

Wyoming has one of the nation’s highest rates of workplace fatalities, and the governor recently commissioned a study to figure out why.

An epidemiologist who spent a year studying the high rate of workplace deaths in Wyoming says his research points to lack of a "culture of safety" in Wyoming.

Dr. Timothy Ryan says in a report to Gov. Matt Mead that more than 85 percent of reports on deadly workplace accidents in Wyoming show safety procedures not being followed.

Wyoming consistently has one of the nation's highest rates of workplace fatalities, more than 12 per 100,000 workers in 2010. That's more than three-and-a-half times the national average.

Many deaths occur in the oil and gas industry.

A state run health care pilot project continues to struggle to get participants, and Governor Matt Mead recently wonders about its future. 

The Healthy Frontiers project helps low income people who don’t qualify for government assistance programs to get health careand gets people access to a doctor which is paid for by a health care savings account.  Governor Mead says a number of people have signed up for the program, only to drop out.

Gov. Matt Mead says he's continuing to push to try to change how Wyoming taxes wind energy projects despite a chilly reception to his proposals from some state legislators so far.

Wyoming's sales and use tax exemption on equipment used on wind energy projects expires in January 2012. The state will also begin imposing a $1 per megawatt hour tax on wind energy production starting then.

Governor Matt Mead presented his budget to the Joint Appropriations Committee and re-asserted his position that the state does not need to hurry to cut budgets.

Senate JAC Chairman Phil Nicholas has suggested cuts of five to eight percent are needed, so that the state can start setting aside money for future needs.  Governor Mead says they should decide what government services are critical and determine what money the state would need to fund those services.

Governor Matt Mead is telling state agencies to prepare for budget cuts.  The governor claims that Wyoming’s future revenues are expected to flatten out or even decrease in the next few years. Mead says the budget he’s preparing for next two years takes that prediction into account.

“The fact is over the last decade our spending on the standard budget has more than doubled," the governor said. "Over that period of time, the state of Wyoming has done some tremendous things, but we can’t continue to double it every ten years.”

Top Wyoming lawmakers are directing state agencies to brace for possible budget cuts.

Republican Sen. Phil Nicholas, of Laramie, and Republican Rep. Rosie Berger, of Big Horn, are co-chairmen of the Joint Appropriations Committee. They wrote a letter telling state budget officials that agencies should be prepared for cuts ranging up to 8 percent in the coming two-year budget cycle.

Over the years, Pavillion residents have complained about health problems, which they blame on oil and gas development in the area. Governor Matt Mead says he's keeping an eye on what happens at a public meeting over the situation tonight.

"I think everyone should be rightfully concerned about the Pavillion issue because we're not sure what's been going on out there," Mead said. "I know the EPA today is going to release some additional data that we're going to be eager to take a look at hopefully before any big conclusions are drawn one way or another."