WY - Highest Per Capita CO2 Of All States; Gov; Coal Industry Must Be Profitable First, Then Cleaner

[hatrack]

CHEYENNE, Wyoming — Turns out the worst state for carbon dioxide emissions per person isn't smoggy California or bustling New York, but a place famous for its big, clear skies: Wyoming. But regulating greenhouse gases is a touchy subject in the least-populated state, which just recently received U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval to do so.

Wyoming also is the top coal-mining state by far, producing almost 40 percent of the nation's coal. Burning coal to generate electricity produces large amounts of CO2 — in Wyoming, across the U.S., and in the Far Eastern countries where state officials have sought to open up new coal markets. Gov. Matt Mead made such a trip to Taiwan and South Korea last year. Meanwhile, he's called EPA efforts to curtail greenhouse emissions a "war on coal" and said at a recent forum he's skeptical about man-made climate change.

"What he also says is we do have a responsibility to always do things better," Mead spokesman Renny MacKay said Thursday. "The coal industry has to be profitable if it's going to invest in the research and development of new technologies."

MacKay highlighted the state's efforts to make its coal cleaner: $50 million allocated toward new coal-burning technology at the University of Wyoming and plans by the state to support a proposed $10 million X Prize to develop economically feasible carbon-capture technology at an operational coal-fired power plant.

EDIT

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/bafe3435e18c49dcaf8b96f59d2de097/US--Climate-Change-States

[newfie11]

1. Unfortunately it doesn't stay there

Wyoming's wind is horrendous and blows it over into South Dakota and Nebraska.

[earthside]

2. As a native born, former resident of Wyoming ...

... 80 percent of Wyoming citizens will be proud about being first in carbon emissions.

Global warming denial is probably about 80 percent in Wyoming, since I still have family there and plenty of friends, I hear about this all the time.

Maybe Idaho, but otherwise there is no other state is so totally inside the Fox 'News' bubble. With no large urban area, there aren't even pockets of political diversity in Wyoming.

So, the governor may feel compelled to make some 'reasonable' statements for the national press, but almost everybody in Wyoming will feel no need or desire whatsoever to "regulate greenhouse gases" -- indeed, quite the opposite.