Wyoming Has Always Flourished When We Say Yes to Growth

Written by Brad Cundy

I’ve spent my whole life in Wyoming watching this state make hard decisions about growth. As a young contractor decades ago, I was part of the conversations that built our infrastructure. I watched as Wyoming’s small towns transformed into thriving hubs because people in the communities understood something pretty simple: growth is hard, but the alternative is harder.

Today, Natrona County faces a choice with the Prometheus’ Falls Ranch Data Center project. I’ll be direct: I don’t understand the negativity toward anything in this state that will make us stronger.

Concerns about water, noise, and traffic deserve answers. Then, there is the “not in my backyard” mentality. But those same arguments stop affordable housing. They stop infrastructure. They stop the kind of thoughtful development that has kept Wyoming communities going for decades. Sometimes growth is scary for people who don’t like change. But without it, we’re not growing. We’re dying.

Natrona County has managed balanced development for a long time. We know how to do this. But if we keep turning away projects because a small, vocal minority voices loud objections, we’ll lose out just like we have before.

Housing, healthcare, and keeping our young people here are our real problems. I have grandkids in college. I told them both it’s okay to get educated and leave for a look around, but you’ve got to promise you’ll come home because I’m going to need you. The scariest thing is knowing that if we don’t have growth creating good-paying jobs, we won’t have the workforce here to take care of us as we age.

A data center means construction jobs for years. It means permanent jobs in operations. It means incredible and necessary tax revenue that this county needs to keep moving forward. It also means workforce demand that helps Casper College grow its technical education programs. Those programs train the medical field workers, the electricians, the skilled trades that every other industry needs too. Casper College is the biggest tool all these industries need. 

Here’s something people don’t talk enough about: the workers who staff a Prometheus facility will have spouses. Those spouses work in healthcare, education, retail, and construction. One project doesn’t just create jobs inside that fence. Those workers and their families become part of the community. They buy homes. Their kids go to school. That’s how a community grows. 

We’ve got something new: data centers need massive amounts of power, and we have natural resources to provide it right here in Wyoming. We export the majority of our fossil fuels and we don’t have to. Oil and gas projects are ready to serve Wyoming through data centers like Prometheus.

I’m asking my neighbors in Natrona County to do what this region has always done: step up and support projects that mean growth. We’ve turned away good opportunities before because we let fear drive the conversation. I don’t want that to happen again.

The choice in front of us is pretty simple. We can keep saying no and watching opportunities — and more of our young people — go somewhere else. Or we can make the hard decision required to grow. Data centers need power. We have it. We have the land. We have people willing to work, and colleges that can help train the next generation. What we need is the will to say yes.