Coal, Code & Carbon: Energy Exec Says Wyoming’s Not Done With Coal Yet

The original story by Jess Oaks for Torrington Telegram.

At a Monday lunch meeting in Torrington, Glenrock Energy CEO Terrence Manning made a full-throated case that Wyoming coal can fuel the next energy era — not by burning it the old way, but by turning it into new products with modern gasification and tighter controls. Speaking to the Rotary Club at the Cottonwood Country Club on Oct. 13, 2025, after an intro from Rotarian Wally Wolski and opening remarks by President Lisa Johnson, Manning argued that coal plus tech — and a big dose of AI — can deliver reliable power and cleaner outcomes.

The Canadian-born engineer, who’s logged 46 years in the industry across 78 countries and moved to Wyoming in 2016 after buying the Muddy Glenrock oil fields, said gasification can convert the state’s “very energy-dense” coal into syngas and then into hydrogen, CO₂ and ammonia in a single facility while meeting environmental standards.

“We can gasify coal,” he said. “We can do it so efficiently that the synthetic gas… can then be used to develop hydrogen… CO₂… coal to ammonia products. It can all be done in one manufacturing facility.”

Why now? In Manning’s view, data centers and AI server farms are rewriting the load forecast and pushing the grid back toward “dispatchable, reliable” power. He claimed current projections lowball the surge, tossing out a “50 to 70 terawatts” figure to underscore the scale and calling a terawatt “a big number.” That demand, he said, is exactly why cutting-edge coal projects with built-in carbon handling belong in the mix alongside other sources.

Manning tried to bury the sooty image of coal with a quip about 1930s Pittsburgh ads, insisting modern US standards already exceed what many critics want to impose.

“In America we have regulations… for over 70 years,” he said, adding that much of what’s touted as new elsewhere has been “adhered to for decades” here.

On carbon, he framed capture as standard practice attached to gasification or hybrid carbon fuels, noting that CO₂ streams can be concentrated and reused. Wyoming, he reminded the room, has injected CO₂ for enhanced oil recovery for 47 years. Federal 45Q tax credits, first enacted during the Obama administration, helped flip CO₂ from waste to “value-added,” he said.

Manning also made the case for an “all of the above” energy policy and urged people to use AI to cut through spin.

“Fear has been used as a tool against the under-informed,” he said, bragging that he spun up a 12-page report on Wyoming’s energy transition in 24 minutes that morning.

He pivoted to education, arguing community colleges and universities should weave AI across programs so the next workforce can handle the tech whiplash heading for the energy sector.

The Rotary meeting wasn’t all megawatts and molecules. Announcements included a Nov. 6 Shelter Box Initiative virtual benefit, a Nov. 10 visit from Rising Star students, and a thank-you letter from Torrington Police Chief Matt Johnson for the club’s donation to the Goshen County DARE program. Next up on the speaker slate: Lauren Schofield with the Wyoming Innovation Partnership.

Manning’s bottom line was simple: coal isn’t dead — at least not in Wyoming — if it’s paired with gasification, carbon management and the data-hungry future he says is already knocking.