Rammell running for Governor

Rex Rammell is a Republican running for Governor in the 2022 election. He recently passed through Thermopolis and spoke with a staff member.

Rammell describes himself as a “Land Use Candidate” and Rammell added, “As far as natural resources go in Wyoming, so goes Wyoming. It’s my number one issue.” 

Rammell has been working on the issue of public land transfer for about 15 years. If he becomes the governor of Wyoming, he would find a way to move all of the federal land management over to state land management. He said, “It would be really a game-changer for Wyoming” if the federal government no longer had power over the state’s number one industry and Rammell added that other states are in a similar predicament and would join them. 

Rammell brought up the Biden administration’s executive order, the 30x30 Plan where Wyoming has about 12% of its land conserved or protected. The 30x30 Plan wants that to increase protected coverage to 30%. The additional 18% would be about 412 million acres. All that land would become federal and they would take it out of production. Rammell said, “That’s where most of the fossil fuels come from in Wyoming and most of our revenue. So that’s a really, really serious thing if they were able to pull it off.” Rammell added that if the state could wrestle away control from the federal government, “They couldn’t stop any leases on new production wells or anything like that. They couldn’t use endangered species against us. There are just so many things that would be positive for the state.”

Rammell said that one of the positive impacts of his plan is that the state would receive more in royalties from the natural resources. Currently, the feds take 52% of the royalties and a percent of the severance taxes that come from all production, which amounts to about $1 billion a year. That money would come back to the state of Wyoming. Rammell said that money would be used to manage the land and help fund state and local governments. Additionally, Rammell proposes to remove property taxes from the individuals and have local government issues such as schools to be paid for from production off the land. 

Rammell said, “I believe in climate change, but I think it’s all natural. I don’t think the excess CO2 from fossil fuels is destroying the planet. In fact, I believe that it may be helping the planet and that’s not based on my own theory. That’s based on Dr. Fred Singer’s book, Hot Talk, Cold Science.”

Rammell also emphasized the Fight30x30.AmericanStewards.us website where under the Opposition tab there is information about which governors have banded together to fight the Biden administration 30x30 Plan. There are 14 governors from conservative states that all have signed the petition to oppose the plan, but Rammell points out that Wyoming’s Governor has not signed it.

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