NEWS
Wyoming is not drifting into a clean-energy transition. It is being steered. Not by the voters and the taxpayers. Instead, the state is being reshaped by a global energy blueprint built years ago in international summits, federal agencies, and billionaire investment circles — long before anyone in Wyoming was told what it meant for our land, our water, our industries, or our culture.
This blueprint travels through a predictable pipeline:
International agreements → federal funding laws → billionaire investment syndicates → utilities → state energy authorities → county boards → local land decisions → school curriculum.
By the time it reaches Wyoming, it looks “local.” But it is anything but.
Paris, 2015 — The Blueprint Is Born
In November 2015, during the Paris climate conference (COP21), world leaders launched Mission Innovation, a global agreement where nations pledged to double public spending on clean-energy research and development. Mission Innovation’s purpose was simple. The Governments would fund the research and development. The billionaire investors would commercialize the technology. The rural western states would host the infrastructure.
At the same time, Bill Gates announced the Breakthrough Energy Coalition — a billionaire investment group built to deploy the very technologies Mission Innovation would develop. The Governments would finance the ideas. Billionaires would own the outcomes. States like Wyoming would bear the impacts.
Breakthrough Energy: The Billionaire Engine Behind the Transition
Breakthrough Energy’s early investor lists included:
- Bill Gates
- Jeff Bezos
- George Soros
- Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan
- Michael Bloomberg
- Richard Branson
- Jack Ma
- Mukesh Ambani
- Ratan TATA
- Vinod Khosla, John Doerr, Ray Dalio, and others
These investors control AI platforms, cloud-server and data-center infrastructure, global logistics, green-energy manufacturing, synthetic fuel companies, transmission partnerships and land, water, and conservation markets. Wyoming — rural, energy-rich, and infrastructure-flexible — became a prime landing zone.
Mission Innovation 2.0 — A Global Acceleration
In 2021, “Mission Innovation 2.0” was launched to strengthen and accelerate the Paris blueprint.
The updated initiative emphasized advanced nuclear power, industrial electrification, hydrogen hubs, AI-dependent grid systems, and large-scale renewable integration. And it again named Breakthrough Energy as a major commercialization partner. The blueprint didn’t fade; it expanded.
The Obama-Era Foundations — The Blueprint Took Shape Long Before Paris
Years before Mission Innovation, the Obama administration was quietly building a public-private partnership model for energy innovation. One architect was Howard W. Buffett, Warren Buffett’s grandson. He served at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and on the White House Domestic Policy Council. There he worked on federal-corporate partnerships, energy-innovation acceleration, cross-sector economic development, and climate and clean-tech commercialization strategies. In 2010, he helped organize a White House Energy Innovation Conference, bringing together private investors, federal agencies, universities, and clean-tech developers. This conference was a prototype of the Mission Innovation → Breakthrough Energy model.
Before Paris made it global, Washington made it possible. Howard Buffet also co-founded a company, Net Zero with new Prometheus Hyperscale President Trevor Nielson. That makes him local.
A Moment of Convergence: March 13, 2020
March 13, 2020 became a hinge point in modern energy policy. On that single day:
The United States declared a national Covid-19 emergency. Wyoming’s Governor signed HB0074 authorizing Small Modular Nuclear Reactors. This bill paved the way for TerraPower’s Natrium project as well as TATA and BWXT small nuclear reactor future. That is also the same day that Bill Gates stepped down from the boards of Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway. He announced that he would be focusing on global health, development, and climate innovation.
Proclamation of Covid Emergency
Small Nuclear Reactor Bill HB0074
Bill Gates Steps down Microsoft board
Bill Gates steps down Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway
These events were not officially connected. But their timing was consequential. A national crisis, a state-level nuclear gateway, and the world’s most influential clean-energy investor freeing himself from corporate governance — all on the same day — marked the beginning of the transformation now unfolding in Wyoming.
The Association Pipeline — How Global Policy Becomes Local “Consensus”
To move their blueprint into state and county governments, global and federal actors used national and state associations through trainings and sponsorships- The Gates Foundation is an affiliate partner with State Legislative Leaders Foundation (SLLF)- and the National Conference of State Legislatures. Our tax dollars pay for memberships for both. From there the initiatives and policies are driven through state associations and Economic-development networks. Their initiatives are woven into the education system through curriculum presented by the Wyoming Education Association and Agriculture in the classroom.
Wyoming Ag in the Classroom curriculum
Bill and Melinda Gates collaborates on funding STEM education
These organizations shaped local understanding of federal climate incentives, nuclear transition programs, workforce “re-skilling,” ESG principles, land and water policy shifts, and classroom messaging with programs like WYO Wonders and STEM. When these ideas reached Wyoming, they appeared to be grassroots. But their origin was global.
TATA + BWXT: Wyoming’s Second Nuclear Front
In December 2024, TATA Chemicals North America signed an LOI with BWXT Advanced Technologies to explore up to eight of BWXT’s nuclear microreactors at their Green River soda-ash plant, with deployment targeted for the early 2030s. TATA is connected through-a global conglomerate, a Breakthrough Energy founding investor (Ratan TATA), and Wyoming’s industrial-transition landscape. This is the second nuclear front in Wyoming after TerraPower.
Jon Conrad — The Local Bridge Between Global Industry and Wyoming Policy
During the critical years when TATA was exploring microreactors, Jon Conrad held overlapping positions. Conrad is the Environmental & Governmental Affairs Manager at TATA Chemicals, a previous State Representative, Board member of Wyoming Economic Development Association, Chair of the Wyoming Workforce Development Council, and a member of the Uinta County Economic Development Commission. Conrad is also a founding member of the Uinta trade school along with Senator Wendy Schuler.
Jon Conrad and BWXT President Joe Miller were panelist speakers at The Frontier Project in Park City Utah. You can see their presentations here-
Jon Conrad-
BWXT President Joe Miller-
This places Jon at the intersection of multinational nuclear planning, state economic strategy, workforce training, county-level development decisions, and Energy-transition messaging. No wrongdoing is alleged. But the structural influence is unmistakable.
This is how global blueprints enter local towns: through key individuals positioned at multiple strategic gateways.
TATA-BWXT explore Microreactors article
TATA-BWXT Letter of Intent 2024
Wyoming Economic Development Board
Opinion--Wyoming Must Reclaim the Right to Choose
When we step back, the pattern is clear: Mission Innovation built the global framework. Breakthrough Energy supplied the billionaire capital. Obama-era planning designed the partnership model. Biden-era laws funded deployment. Utilities and corporations mapped Wyoming’s new grid. TATA and BWXT expanded nuclear into Lincoln and Sweetwater County as well as across the state. Finally, the association trainings and seminars shaped local decision making. And the people of Wyoming were never asked.
Under the constitutional principle “fraud vitiates everything,” any policy built on concealment, omission, or undisclosed influence loses moral legitimacy — even if it remains legally intact. If the public was not given the truth, the public could not give consent. A blueprint Wyoming never agreed to is not a future Wyoming must accept.