Cowboy State Daily by David Madison 6/2/2025
Converse County rancher Mike Stephens has filed a lawsuit against the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners. He says they failed to follow proper procedures in approving the controversial Pronghorn wind project.On Monday afternoon, Mike Stephens was out moving cattle on his family's ranch with the sweeping views of the Laramie Mountains stretching across the horizon.
That view and concerns Stephens has with the way the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners approved a lease for the Pronghorn H2 wind project, led Stephens to take legal action against the board.
“It’s right in my backyard. I border it,” said Stephens, describing an area outside Glenrock that his family first homesteaded in 1912. “It’s beautiful. It's like our Tetons and our Bighorn Mountains.”
Nobody wants windmills blocking those views, so why should Converse County residents sacrifice their scenic and bucolic vistas?
That’s a question that keeps coming up, said Stephens, who believes the Board of Land Commissioners didn’t follow proper procedures when it approved by a vote of 4-1 a lease covering approximately 13,838 acres of state land in Converse County.
The lease was granted for the Pronghorn Clean Hydrogen Center, a 302.5-megawatt wind project that would span roughly 46,000 acres total when including private lands. The project is being developed by Pronghorn H2, LLC, a subsidiary of Acciona & Nordex Green Hydrogen. It plans to use wind and solar power to produce “green” hydrogen jet fuel.
Stephens worries the technology is unproven and the lease is 45 years, leaving open the possibility that the project could fold, leaving the state of Wyoming in a tough spot.
“That’s what I worry about. The state would be stuck with it all,” Stephens told Cowboy State Daily while on a break from moving cattle. “Wind farms sell out. And this is a hydrogen thing, and nobody even knows anything about that.”
More:
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/06/02/ranch-family-files-lawsuit-to-block-wyoming-wind-lease-citing-generational-legacy/
