The Republican governor of Wyoming was in Denver last week for a panel discussion on the future of mining and energy in Colorado and the West, and at one point he stopped the talk and asked the crowd how many of them cared about the environment.

Everyone raised their hand.

His point was that Democrats and environmental advocates don’t have exclusive rights to protecting the West’s unique environment. Many mining execs, oil execs and Republicans want to, too. “So I think we have a commonality of objective, which is to do things the right way,” Mark Gordon said at the Common Sense Institute forum.

Gordon is proof positive that the debate over energy policy is more complicated — and more interesting — than the caricature that sees Republicans as favoring fossil fuels and Democrats as wind and solar people.

Gordon has consistently advocated for an all-of-the-above energy strategy that supports Wyoming’s coal, oil and natural gas industries, but he also embraces wind energy and advocates for new technologies such as nuclear power, making the state a thriving hub for energy innovation. It’s an approach that holds some urgent lessons for Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis.

Huge wind farms already dot Wyoming’s landscape, with the biggest one in the country on the way. The new project will sprout 600 turbines in a geographic break in the Continental Divide that funnels most of the country’s winds blowing west to east, enough wind to power more than 1 million homes.

Wyoming’s portfolio will also soon include nuclear power from a next-generation reactor being built in Wyoming with a $500 million investment from Bill Gates.

At the same time, Gordon has made efforts to protect Wyoming’s coal industry and make it cleaner.

Gordon made a now-famous appearance on “60 Minutes,” which positioned him as a “leading voice promoting climate-friendly energy projects,” a designation that brought some real pushback in Wyoming.

“Essentially, Mark Gordon is trying to prove that it is possible to be both red and green,” the CBS reporter declared.

In his 2021 State of the State speech, Gordon made a pledge that Wyoming would become not just carbon-neutral when it comes to CO2 emissions, but eventually carbon-negative.

“I think some people probably resented it,” he told “60 Minutes.” “I think generally it’s been well-respected. It was, to some degree, a bold move, and one that was intended to make a difference in that discussion about energy in the future.”

Society has spoken: We’re heading more and more toward renewable energy, he says.

But many climate change activists see the need to completely replace fossil fuels with clean energy in the next decade. Gordon doesn’t see that as a realistic goal. More than 82% of current global energy consumption still depends on fossil fuels.

Colorado has a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, a goal it won’t meet, utilities chiefs around the state have begun telling Polis. That fact now requires a honest look at what the right, affordable mix of energy for Colorado really is in the years to come.

“So much of the conversation has been emotionally charged, and that’s why I keep coming back to saying if we have an honest discussion about what these options are, that’s the great first step,” Gordon told Gazette energy reporter Scott Weiser.

So what are the options, beyond full reliance on renewables, for meeting the ambitious goals already in place for reducing carbon?

Carbon capture, the process of storing the carbon released from coal rather than eliminating coal mining altogether, is a part of the solution, Gordon believes.

Gordon fully admits he’s trying to extend the life of Wyoming’s coal mines but says he’s also trying to do it in a way that will do more for climate solutions than simply setting up a whole bunch more wind and solar farms.

Wyoming has put a significant pilot plant infrastructure in place on the Dry Fork power plant that is running demonstrations for successful carbon capture.

Cost is a concern, says Gordon, “but the fact of the matter is, we can do this. Will it keep coal there? Yes. Everyone recognizes the importance of baseload power.” Baseload power is power that you can always rely on. Wind and solar cannot always be relied on, because sometimes the wind dies down and the sun sets, so utilities need something else to guarantee the baseload

Wyoming is also building the first advanced nuclear plant the U.S. has seen in a long time to meet clean energy goals.

Colorado just took a step forward toward embracing next-gen nuclear plants, declaring nuclear energy a clean energy, but we’re lightyears behind Wyoming.

Polis has also embraced geothermal energy as a path to the future, Gordon noted.

The key to much of what Gordon wants to do is putting new energy projects on a fast track, reducing the barriers permitting and regulation put in the way of innovation.

That’s where Wyoming really has an advantage over Colorado. “Wyoming is very driven to have things come online quickly,” Gordon said. Colorado, not so much.

Colorado is the sixth-most-regulated state in the country. Wyoming is the 41st.

“Instead of saying, ‘we’re going to regulate ourselves into oblivion,’ how do we provide an opportunity for innovation to be able to lead to the kinds of things we really want to see?” asked Gordon. “To me, it’s been, how do we unleash that?”

Gordon is willing to just go out and try new things, like that nuclear plant and that carbon capture plant. I think it’s the pragmatic tinkerer in him, the guy who was raised on a ranch, lived close to the elements, learned firsthand how the natural world works.

Innovation is his guiding light. And the biggest barrier to energy innovation? Regulation.

“We have regulatory structures that take too damn long,” he said in the panel discussion.

“If you’re going to go carbon-neutral by 2030, figure that the permitting is going to take you well past that five years. That’s gotta stop. That’s what is really paralyzing this country.”

That massive wind farm in southern Wyoming has taken 17 years and counting to get up and running, primarily due to the permitting process and the bureaucracy of the federal government.

And the nuclear plant Wyoming is working on?

“It has not one, not two, not three, or four or five or six. It’s got seven individual NEPA analyses that have to be done by different agencies,” Gordon said. NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act, is the law that requires federal agencies to determine if their proposed actions will have significant environmental effects. “This is stupid,” adds Gordon.

Gordon makes the point that freeing up our region to produce and export more energy could help rebalance the trade deficits so much in the news lately, as well as provide a financial boon to the area. The governor made the point that the U.S. has an advantage in exporting energy because its energy meets such high environmental standards. Our coal is far cleaner than Indonesia’s, for example, so exports could even help other countries meet environmental goals.

“And that’s where this region of the country is really well-poised. We do it better, with better, safer environmental protections, than anywhere in the world. We just need to celebrate that.”

“Honestly,” Gordon said in conclusion, “I think if people are going to embrace how we get to a carbon-neutral, carbon negative future, it has to be by saying, “We’re all going to be a little bit better by embracing innovation.”

“I think if people start to think about what is our end result, we can get there,” he adds.

“And I think it is bipartisan, the desire to make this work better.”

Are you listening, Colorado?