(September 15, 2025)
Governor Mark Gordon and the Wyoming Business Alliance (WBA) have announced that the Wyoming Innovation Partnership (WIP) will become a program of the Wyoming Business Alliance, a private non-profit entity which represents the business sector of the state. The new agreement allows the Governor’s signature workforce development initiative to strengthen and grow with new insights and direction from Wyoming’s leading industries… Click for more
Just three months after Terra Power pitched their Bill Gates Natrium Reactor to the WY Legislative Interim Minerals Committee, Governor Gordon launched the (WIP) Wyoming Innovation Partnership (Nov 23, 2021) with $27 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to, basically, “diversify the economy“. Woven in and out of the various WY economic targets, actions and awards since the creation of WIP there has been a rapidly growing institutional infrastructure being built around nuclear energy as a forced Wyoming legacy industry whether you want it or not. This includes:
- Nuclear Energy Resource Center at University of Wyoming, March 2022
- Frontier Initiative MOU signed between the State of Wyoming and Idaho National Laboratory, May 2022
- University of Wyoming established as an Economic Development University Center, Sep 2023
- The Intermountain-West Nuclear Energy Corridor, Nov 2023
- Advanced Nuclear First Mover Initiative, Feb 2025
- Regional Energy Tri-State Agreement, Utah-Wyoming-Idaho, April 2025
- First-year Nuclear Technology program at University of Wyoming and Western Wyoming Community College, Fall 2025
“To date, WIP has supported 52 programs across all eight community colleges, the University of Wyoming, the Wyoming Department of Education, the Wyoming Community College Commission, the Wyoming Business Council, and the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services.
The funding for Phase III was made possible by the Wyoming Legislature’s approval of the Governor’s request for continued support. The $15 million in sustainability funds will ensure that existing WIP-supported workforce programs are firmly established and can operate independently when funding sunsets. Over the past three years, the Legislature has invested $70 million in the Governor’s workforce initiative, aiming to enhance workforce resilience through WIP.” (https://wip.wyo.gov/about/phase-iii-awards)
If your counting, that’s at least $112 million that has gone into the Wyoming Innovation Partnership initiative – which is now being turned over to a private entity. WIP has provided three reports (below), yet none have an actual accounting of awards/ appropriations taken in, or how exactly these funds were spent.
The lack of transparency with WIP funds however is a small concern compared to the escalation of closed door business meetings that stakeholders of this ‘nuclear renaissance’ keep shutting Wyoming citizens out of. With the Governor’s enlistment of the Wyoming Business Alliance (entirely unaccountable to any taxpayer or voter), WY citizens are being spurned purposely and completely out of any discussion on the future of their State.
Links to WIP and their reports:
Wyoming Innovation Partnership (WIP) Website
WIP Phase I Report
WIP Phase II Report
WIP ROI Report
Since the Wyoming Innovation Partnership is now in a sudden state of flux, we have archived their About WIP page here.
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