Director's Message

Dan Heilig

On January 6, Democrat Dave Freudenthal was sworn in as Wyoming's 31st governor, succeeding Republican Jim Geringer who served two four-year terms.

I have to admit that I was growing weary of Geringer's one-voice policy and open-for-business-at-any-cost mentality. And, like many other Wyomingites, I'm looking forward to a new administration that brings a fresh perspective and new ideas, and a governor who actively solicits varied viewpoints.

In this spirit, I offer a few suggestions for our new governor to consider:

Establish an office of tribal affairs.

Sometimes Geringer appeared to treat members of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes as second-class citizens. Freudenthal could demonstrate his respect for tribal sovereignty by establishing a tribal office to work cooperatively with the tribes on matters of common interest such as economic development, education and environmental protection.

Actively intervene in and seek out solutions to the ever-increasing conflict in the Powder River Basin over development of coalbed methane reserves.

One option is to establish, under section 102(e) of the federal Clean Water Act, a planning agency involving appropriate state, local and federal interests from Wyoming and downstream states Montana and South Dakota. The planning agency would be responsible for developing a comprehensive pollution-control plan for the affected river basins, which would include recommendations for specific pollution-control strategies to protect water quality and existing uses in those basins.

Lobby for a surface-owners' protection bill in this legislative session.

Oil and gas development on split-estate lands interferes with farm and ranch operations and reduces land values. There's absolutely no reason why industry should profit at the expense of the landowner. A surface-owners' protection bill modeled after North Dakota's would compensate landowners for any reduction of property values caused by oil and gas development and help level the playing field to ensure that property owners are treated more fairly.

Make polluters pay.

A resident elk tag costs $35; nonresidents pay $400. High-school students are charged $30 to apply for admission to the University of Wyoming. The City of Lander charges $44 per month for basic water and sewer service. Yet, incredibly, polluters pay nothing to dump their poisons into our rivers and streams. Not a penny. The state should charge a minimum of $500 for a pollution-discharge permit and implement financial incentives to reduce the amount of pollutants being dumped into our surface and ground waters.

Advocate for legislation allowing overnight camping on state lands.

Grazing, logging and mining are allowed; there is no legitimate reason to prohibit camping on Wyoming's 3.6 million acres of school trust lands.

Establish a blue-ribbon commission on open space.

Geringer deserves credit for recognizing the importance of open space to the citizens of Wyoming, but he failed to take action to protect it. We're losing our principal asset at an alarming rate to oil and gas development, ranchettes and subdivisions.

Dismiss the state's lawsuit against the Forest Service challenging the Roadless Rule.

The rule prohibits road construction in 58 million acres of wildlands nationwide and 3.5 million acres in Wyoming. The State has paid private attorneys tens of thousands of dollars to challenge a rule that has tremendous benefit to Wyoming. The Roadless Rule protects valuable wildlife habitat, maintains watershed integrity and provides recreational opportunities that generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually in economic benefits to Wyoming.

If Governor Freudenthal instituted these ideas, Wyoming's residents and environment would be better off.

Have a healthy, productive and, above all, safe new year.

Thanks for your support.