While Gordon struck an optimistic tone in his comments in speaking about the opportunities presented to fossil fuel states like Wyoming in fighting the climate crisis, there remains a difficult balance to strike in preserving the role of fossil fuels in the world’s energy portfolio. As Wyoming fights for access to international markets, the domestic market share for coal continues to decline. However, larger nations like China and India are anticipated to pursue more inexpensive (and dirtier) options to power their economies.

Whether Gordon feels the Trump administration – which has championed coal but, to this point, has failed to stem its decline – can address climate change while supporting coal was an area he declined to get into when questioned by a reporter, saying it was Wyoming’s problem to solve – not the federal government’s.

“The School of Energy Resources (at the University of Wyoming) has been working on this for some time. We have the ITC (Integrated Test Center). We passed the first body of law to pass carbon sequestration. These are state issues, and I believe we can be the solution to that,” Gordon said. “I will say that the Department of Energy has been very helpful. We’ve gotten grants to study the feasibility of carbon capture and sequestration and even different ways of burning coal, and I will say our relationship with the Department of Energy has been very positive, and I do believe there is a way to solve this problem going forward.