Western State Legislators Meet at Jackson Lake Lodge
Starting today and running through Wednesday, over 500 state legislators from the Western States are meeting at Jackson Lake Lodge. The primary emphasis of the meeting is Energy and Climate Change. As I have discussed previously, the Wyoming Legislature has become one of the leading voices in regards to new energy policies, in paricular on the issue of carbon based fuels. Since the conference is occurring within my legislative district I have been busy on the Host Committee making sure that everything comes off without a hitch. Our own Senator Larson is the Chairman of the Host Committee and so far everything is running smoothly. It's a little difficult keeping 500 state legislators organized. Besides Energy discussions, the meeting will also be covering education, prison reform, and water issues. The Speaker of the Wyoming House of Represenatives, Roy Cohee, has been instrumental in getting Wyoming focused on carbon based fuels. Governor Freudenthal held a meeting this week with five other Governors that are from the 5 top coal producing states, to primarily discuss Speaker Cohee's and the Wyoming Legislature's ideas on the subject matter. The past few weeks have been quite exciting working on this issue of carbon sequestration, and hopefully the momentum will continue on through the February 2008 legislative session.