Companies drilling for oil and natural gas will have to publicly disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations under new rules proposed by the Obama administration.

Governor Mead says he’s troubled by the new federal rules.

Mead says Wyoming’s rules for fracking are more stringent than the new federal rules.

The new federal “fracking” rules also set standards for proper construction of wells and wastewater disposal. They apply to drilling on public and Indian lands.

Wyoming Governor Matt Mead has proclaimed this week as Wyoming Travel and Tourism Week – coinciding with National Travel and Tourism Week. 

Here’s Tom Ninnemann with more.

Also, this past weekend, passengers boarded city of Cheyenne’s tour trolley for the first time this year.   The start of the trolley tours of course coincides with Wyoming Travel and Tourism Week.

The trolley tours last about 90 minutes.  Passengers are treated to a tour that features Cheyenne proud history.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids 12 and under.  The tours start and end at the depot plaza downtown.

A Casper woman accused of defrauding the Social Security Administration has been sentenced to five months in federal prison and must repay more than $17,000.

U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson sentenced Shari Jackson late last month. She pleaded guilty in February to one charge of supplemental security income benefits fraud.

Prosecutors say Jackson, in an effort to receive more benefits than she was due, knowingly failed to tell administration officials that she lost custody of her daughter.

SOURCE: Associated Press

The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees is scheduled to hear a presentation on possible budget cuts for next year.

Falling energy revenues prompted Governor Mead to order state agencies to prepare for 8-percent budget cuts in the fiscal year that starts July 2013. That cut is twice what the Wyoming Legislature had directed state agencies to prepare for earlier this year.

The report on the governor’s request is scheduled to be heard this afternoon during the UW trustees meeting in Laramie.

Trustees are also scheduled to hear about plans for renovating and expanding UW’s College of Engineering and Applied Science facility. The project could cost up to $100 million and would be the most expensive construction project ever undertaken at the state’s only four-year public university.

Wyoming’s snow-pack is now down to 45 percent of average, compared with 152 percent of average at this time last year.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service in Casper says all of the state’s basins are below average this week. The snow in the Cheyenne basin has melted away completely. The Madison basin has highest snowpack at 90 percent of average while Yellowstone is at 87 percent.

NRCS water supply specialist Lee Hackleman says that if things don’t improve in May, this year’s snow levels could reach an all-time low.

SOURCE: Associated Press