Governor Mark Gordon visits Worland to talk about Wyoming

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon held a casual meeting for the public to speak with him at Pioneer Square in Worland on Saturday, June 6 — despite the wind, the governor sat in a circle with local politicians and community members to address issues facing Wyoming in the final months of his term as Governor.

Gordon began by addressing those in attendance, saying, “I’m not running for anything right now, so I can be pretty straightforward, and I’ll tell you that my heart is right here in this great state … I want to make sure that we keep moving forward. So, when we looked at the budget at the session this year, you heard one group talking a lot about waste, fraud and abuse. They wanted to cut all kinds of things, but at the end of the session, 98% of my budget was passed. I’m not saying that to pat myself on the back, I’m saying that because that budget was focused on moving our state forward.”

“I’ve been worried because the last few years, there’s been a lot of what I call ‘Club No’. They talk about not doing this, not doing that … but the ‘Wyoming Way’ is about what we do, and that’s what I’m trying to get back to ... If an opportunity fits within our culture, what we think is important, then we should do it our way,” added Gordon.

The governor spoke about some issues in particular, beginning with an update on Wyoming coal factories benefitting from the Trump Administration’s recently announced $750 million fund to aid the nation’s coal industry.

He said, “President Trump announced $750 million that was going to go towards buttressing the coal industry. Five of Wyoming’s 13 active coal plants are going to benefit from that. Another thing that’s really important, and it’s something that I’ve worked on ever since being the State Treasurer, is we finally have an opportunity for a project that takes advantage of the Commerce Clause; we almost had it the first Trump term, but basically it’s saying to California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and whomever else, that you can’t block our access to markets, and it’s in Article I of the  Constitution. We’re going to work hard to make sure that we can make some hay while the sun is shining with this Administration.”