Fortunes hang on the new process. Not only that, but hundreds of new power plants planned across the nation, from New York to Otay Mesa, will need coal-bed fuel and other natural gases to run. But in Wyoming, many ranchers and conservationists say runoff water from methane mining stunts crops, kills trees and spikes rivers and wells with high levels of salt. It's reshaping ranch life, too. Much of Wyoming remains remote and raw, a land of wood-paneled roadhouses and cattle amid oceans of alfalfa.
Ranchers relish being off the beaten path.
Now it seems like every guy with a drilling rig and a dream is moving in, erecting power lines and pump sheds and stripping the place of peace. It's hard on a person. Even before the energy chaos in California, things were going great guns around Spotted Horse. Most everyone wanted a piece of the gas mining boom. Now look at it.