August 28, 2026 - The head of the EPA out of Denver, Colorado, joined Wyoming's talk show host Glenn Woods to discuss the future of Wyoming's coal power plants. The EPA under the Trump administration has implemented major rollbacks of federal environmental rules to support Wyoming's coal industry and keep coal-fired power plants running.

This is a very different EPA than under the Biden Administration. The current EPA is coal- and coal power plant-friendly.

Cyrus Weston heads the EPA office out of Denver. He is a Wyoming native and still keeps a home in Sheridan.

"We have made huge strides," said Mr. Weston. "There is no question that the damage that was done through the previous administration to coal mines and coal power plants."

He then spoke about the Dave Johnson power plant near Glenrock, Wyoming. The Biden Administration was forcing the shutdown of Unit 3, which gets its coal from Campbell County, Wyoming. But under new rules proposed by the Trump EPA, that generator can stay open for its entire lifespan, which should be until about 2048.

In June 2026, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and President Trump wrote new rules that would roll back the Obama-era regional haze requirements that forced PacifiCorp to shut down Dave Johnston Unit 3 in Glenrock, Wyoming, by the end of 2027.

 
Glenn also asked about how involved the EPA is with proposed hyperscale data centers in Wyoming. Mr. Westen explained that any new data center would have to comply with all rules, including power generation. But at the same time, they would not be overwhelmed with Federal bureaucracy. Most decisions regarding data centers would come from local government.