Governor Mark Gordon’s latest royal edict is wrapped in appealing language like stewardship, transparency, Wyoming values, economic opportunity, and ratepayer protection. But behind the polished wording lies a serious problem.
Executive Order 2026-03, titled “Data Centers the Wyoming Way,” is Gov. Gordon’s 11th-hour decree from on high. It directs state agencies to coordinate the development of large-scale data centers and advanced computing facilities, framing these projects as drivers of economic growth, national security, job creation, energy development, and Wyoming’s place in America’s digital future.
That may sound harmless. It may even sound responsible.
Yet the real question Wyoming citizens should ask is not just whether data centers are inherently good or bad. The real question is whether a term-limited governor should unilaterally issue a sweeping statewide development mandate by executive decree while the Legislature is actively doing the people’s business through public hearings and interim committees.
This is where Governor Gordon’s order crosses from questionable to unacceptable.
The Legislature Is Already Doing This Work the Right Way
Wyoming lawmakers have not ignored data centers. Quite the opposite. Multiple committees are already examining the very issues the order claims to address: water consumption, electric rates, grid reliability, infrastructure costs, local control, property rights, taxation, and the long-term impacts on Wyoming communities.
That is how representative government is supposed to work. Lawmakers hold public meetings. Citizens testify. Industry representatives answer questions. Local officials raise concerns. Committees request research, form working groups, and draft legislation. The process is deliberately slow because major policy decisions must survive public scrutiny before becoming law.
Executive decrees are no substitute for this hard-fought legislative process. Yet Governor Gordon’s order directs agencies to move forward while elected representatives are still actively conducting that work.
The Select Water Committee has held detailed hearings on water use, arid-climate impacts, property rights, and cooling technology, with input from residents, local officials, and industry.
The Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee has focused on electricity demand, transmission constraints, utility policy, third-party generation, and ratepayer protection.
The Revenue Committee has scrutinized property taxes, rapid server depreciation, sales and use tax issues, and the true fiscal impact of these projects.
That is the Legislature doing its job.
And why this makes Governor Gordon’s executive order not just troubling but dangerously premature. Coming in the final months of his administration, the order has all the hallmarks of a lame-duck maneuver: purposely locking executive agencies onto his preferred path before elected officials can finish their review. Bypassing the people’s representatives and disrespecting the voters of Wyoming.
Wyoming citizens deserve policy shaped by public debate, not a framework handed down from the top.
The Edict Talks Like a Safeguard, But Functions Like a Blank Check
The order nods to citizen concerns about water sustainability, wildlife, public engagement, ratepayer protection, and community investment. This nod is little more than political cover. Governor Gordon is using these reassuring words to wrap his decree in the language of Wyoming values while directing agencies to fast-track the very development many citizens disagree with. Acknowledging problems is not the same as solving them.
The order creates no new water protections. It establishes no enforceable limits on water consumption, strengthens no permitting standards, and provides no hard protections for ratepayers. Nor does it guarantee meaningful local control or ensure that existing industries, ranchers, farmers, and residential utility customers will be shielded from the demands of large-scale corporate infrastructure.
So what does this executive order actually do?
It directs state agencies to build a massive statewide development framework and orders unelected bureaucrats to deliver formal recommendations within just sixty days. In the process, the governor is shoving the people’s elected representatives aside and trampling their work before they have had the opportunity to finish the people’s business.
Which raises the most damning question: Why is a term-limited governor issuing commands to the unelected machinery of state government to begin charting Wyoming’s future on data centers while the people’s elected representatives are still holding hearings and doing the public’s business?
Government is not the agencies, and it certainly is not the unelected bureaucracy that King Gordon is empowering. Government is the people. As Article 1, Section 1 of Wyoming’s Declaration of Rights states: “All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness; for the advancement of these ends they have at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper.”
In Wyoming, the people exercise their authority through the legislators they elect. State Agencies exist to carry out the law after policy decisions are made. They are not empowered to supersede the people’s representatives or to race ahead of the legislative process in shaping those decisions.
Yet that is exactly what this order does. While citizens are still testifying and lawmakers are still weighing the evidence, the bureaucracy has already been given its marching orders from on high.
This Is Not Gordon’s Lane
Executive orders have a narrow, limited role in directing agencies and handling routine operations within the part of government that carries out laws, not the part that makes them.They must respect constitutional boundaries and cannot override the authority of the people’s elected representatives.
Wyoming citizens do not elect legislators to be bypassed by royal decree on major decisions. They elect them to debate policy in public, answer to constituents, and write guardrails into law. The process matters, even for those who support data centers. The people’s representatives, not executive fiat from the throne, should set the terms.
That is the Wyoming way.
Not a 60-day executive-agency sprint ordered from top down.
Not a top-down framework built to deliver certainty to developers while leaving Wyoming citizens to hope the protections come later.
Not a parting gift to corporate interests wrapped in language about stewardship.
What Happens Now?
Wyoming citizens deserve their elected representatives to continue and complete the important work they have already begun with strong action to protect families, businesses, and communities. Lawmakers need to require any large-scale data center project to prove a clear net benefit to Wyoming. To demand proof of water sustainability. They must protect existing utility customers from bearing the cost of infrastructure built for massive new industrial loads. Governor Gordon may call this “Data Centers the Wyoming Way.”
But Wyoming citizens should know the difference between representative government and executive fiat from the throne – a top-down power play that bypasses the people’s elected representatives.