On Monday, just outside of Kemmerer, I watched as they turned the first shovelfuls of dirt for the TerraPower Natrium Reactor 1 Demonstration Project.

My mind was on my great-grandparents, not necessarily on nuclear power.

I was thinking about them, once involved in energy production in their younger years.

At the same time, I was reflecting on the rapidly changing energy picture across this nation.

Hold on, it’s changing fast.

Companies are re-thinking how they produce power; coal, oil, gas, nuclear and much, much more! All in varying versions and the list is growing rapidly.

I was reminded of this after making a quick run out to the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks last Friday.

It was an own time/own dime run but I wanted to see what ND was doing and compare it with Wyoming. With Legislative duties related to energy, I  can see the need to work  with states that have the same energy values. Why? Jobs for people and financial stability for a state.

Over the next few years, there will be many changes in energy production. I want to ensure we, Wyoming, are a part of it in many ways — so we have those jobs and stability!

As for the transitions, we need to stay involved in all aspects. Early in the winter I made a quick road trip to Portland to meet with Rocky Mtn. Power/Pac. Corp. I asked Kent Connelly and Chief of Staff Stephen Allen to join me.

The request of that massive company was simple — keep your Kemmerer Operations up and running as all of the construction and permitting continues for the nuclear plant in the coming years. I advised, don’t give up one for the other.

Remember, jobs and stability.

Now, where do my great grandparents fit into all this? Their energy work came in the Kemmerer area coal mines as a young couple with children.

They first worked in the small coal town of Sublet  just outside of Kemmerer and then Diamondville where my grandmother was born. Both mines have been reclaimed.

My great grandfather was a coal miner. My great grandmother managed a boarding house for coal miners.

It had to have been an incredibly hard, hard life!

I thought about them and their work in the coal operations of Lincoln County as I stood a few miles from where they lived and watched a groundbreaking for a Natrium Nuclear Plant!