Mayor Orr’s Statement on HollyFrontier Refinery's June 1 Announcement

Published on June 01, 2020

CHEYENNE – City of Cheyenne Mayor Marian Orr has provided the following statement to our community:

This morning I received a call from HollyFrontier CEO Mike Jennings with the unfortunate, but not surprising, news of changes coming to our refinery. Before COVID-19, we saw hits to our coal and oil industries including increasingly and costly regulatory compliance burdens. It certainly feels as if the hits keep coming. This is the world we now live in, a world that is moving away from coal and oil and moving towards clean and reliable new energies such as renewable diesel. 

These job losses are real. And they hurt. This morning I alerted Wyoming Department of Workforce Services Director Robin Cooley of this news, so that their office may stand at the ready to help employees’ transition to new job opportunities. And there are opportunities out there. The good news is we have time. HollyFrontier isn’t leaving our community, and I know they will continue to be good community partners well into the future. 

I mentioned opportunity. With change and challenge comes opportunity, and I know that while it is a dark day in Cheyenne, we will still have a beautiful Wyoming sunrise in the morning and a hopeful future as we manage change together. 

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