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Important Issues in Wyoming

Currently, Sierra Club is working to protect Wyoming's air, public lands and wildlife by working on the following issues.

No New Coal-Fired Power Plants in Wyoming

Currently, there are 5 new coal-fired power plants on the drawing board in Wyoming. Coal-fired power plants are one of our nation's largest – and dirtiest – sources of energy. These power plants will use 50-year-old technology to burn coal, spewing pollution like carbon dioxide, the chief contributor to global warming, nitrous oxide and mercury into Wyoming’s air and water.

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Better Planning for National Forests Needed

Home to four National Forests and one National Grassland, Wyoming’s public lands offer countless recreational and hunting opportunities in addition to vast habitat for wolves, bears, elk, moose, birds, bison and myriad other wildlife. Demands on Wyoming’s National Forests have increased dramatically in recent years. Logging, oil and gas drilling and road-building are threatening these wildlands.

Read more about efforts to protect the Bridger-Teton National Forest from oil and gas drilling.

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Protecting Wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

After being almost entirely exterminated from the lower 48, gray wolves were reintroduced to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in 1995. Today, there are approximately 320 wolves in Wyoming, with most living in Yellowstone National Park. Wyoming's management scheme allows wolves to be killed in nearly 90 percent of the state.

In March 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the gray wolf from the Endangered Species list. Management of wolves then became the charge of the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Sierra Club challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to remove the wolf from the Endangered Species list, arguing the decision was illegal and inappropriate. In July 2008, a federal judge returned management of wolves to the federal government in order to protect wolf populations while the lawsuit proceded. In September 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it would voluntarily retract the delisting rule issued in March and rewrite the rule. As a result, wolves will remain under protection of the Endangered Species Act until a new rule is issued. Fish and Wildlife released a new delisting proposal at the end of October.

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