With the growing interest in wind and solar energy development in Wyoming, the state’s people are due compensation if energy sites disrupt wildlife habitat, block migration routes and the like, a lawmaker said.

“If we’re going to develop world-class energy resources, they (companies) need to compensate us for our world-class wildlife resources,” Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, told Cowboy State Daily.

Hicks sponsored a draft bill calling for energy companies to pay compensation to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for possible damages to wildlife.

The bill was discussed Thursday before the Legislature’s Joint Travel , Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee.

The committee declined to sponsor the bill. Hicks said he might try to individually sponsor it during the upc

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