Byliner: Wyoming weighs a $13 million grant for WE Soda as 274 trona jobs go in January

The union at WE Soda's trona and soda ash operations in southwest Wyoming wants Gov. Mark Gordon to hold off on a $13 million grant the company requested from the state's new Energy Dominance Fund, Dustin Bleizeffer reports. WE Soda told state and local officials it will cut 350 jobs at its Westvaco operations over two years, shrinking its Wyoming workforce from about 850 to 500. The first 274 layoffs come in January, and 223 of those positions are unionized. The cuts follow the company's plan to switch the Westvaco mine from underground mining to drill-and-pump solution mining. The grant would pay for a high-pressure natural gas connection to fire its processing boilers, since its coal contract with the nearby Kemmerer mine ends this year.

The Wyoming Energy Authority recommended the grant last month, before the layoff notice, and public comment closes Monday. Gordon alone can deny it, approve it or approve it with conditions, and the union is asking that any money be tied to keeping jobs. Sweetwater County Commissioner Robb Slaughter described local officials as being in "a very difficult situation." WE Soda's request is one of the fund's first three recommended awards, $48 million in all, from a pot of up to $105 million the Legislature filled with severance tax revenue. Economic developers who recommend an award before a company announces cuts can expect the same question about conditions when it reaches the final signer.

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Read: WyoFile, via the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, "With 274 trona workers facing January layoffs, WE Soda union opposes company’s pending $13M state grant"

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita's office signed a contract in August, never announced publicly, for FTI Consulting to review a risk-based sample of 100 travel and entertainment expenses paid by the Indiana Economic Development Foundation from Jan. 1, 2022, through June 30, 2026. Tom Davies reported the contract, which runs up to $275,000 and lets the office widen the review to whether organizations that received IEDC money used it for its intended purposes. FTI is the same firm the state paid $800,000 for last year's IEDC audit, which went to the Inspector General with no public action against any person or entity since.

At a State Budget Committee hearing Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Chuck Goodrich said, "I know that we have corrected, I think, every item on the audit." That October 2025 audit found about $11 million of the foundation's $13 million in spending over five years went to travel, meals and entertainment. IEDC's chief financial officer, Clinton Bohm, said the formal findings are addressed while policies for the audit's broader observations are still being written. The foundation, which officials once said was headed for wind-down, still operates under a new business plan. For economic development organizations that pay for recruitment travel through an affiliated foundation, Indiana shows that scrutiny of those accounts can continue well after the first audit is closed.

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Read: Indiana Capital Chronicle, "Indiana Economic Development Corp. says 2025 audit’s issues ‘addressed’ while new one launched"

Boulder County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to prohibit data centers that use more than 50 kilowatts in unincorporated parts of the county, and to allow those under the cap only in industrial zones. Brooke Stephenson reports that county staff had proposed 75 kilowatts, drawn from an Energy Star definition, before Commissioner Marta Loachamin suggested the lower number. The commissioners acted despite a unanimous Planning Commission recommendation to wait for more research, and the rule follows the county's own six-month moratorium. Fifty kilowatts covers roughly a refrigerator-sized unit up to a small server room.

Some planning commissioners warned the projects would simply land in neighboring communities, and one, Gavin McMillan, said the code "basically bans them." The City of Boulder, the only local government to comment, asked the county to keep in mind its quantum computing industry of more than 30 companies. Colorado has no statewide data center rules after lawmakers rejected bills in May, and Xcel Energy expects new data centers to account for 62% of its projected energy growth. For site selection teams working the Front Range, the vote adds a county power threshold on top of the temporary moratoriums in Denver, Brighton, Lafayette, Littleton and Fort Collins.

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Read: Boulder Reporting Lab, "Boulder County passes strict data center restrictions, ‘basically bans them’"