L&H excited for the future; governor talks data centers, nuclear energy

GILLETTE — The owners of L&H Industrial accepted the Small Business Person of the Year Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration Thursday, and Gov. Mark Gordon threw his support behind data centers and nuclear energy during the Campbell County Chamber of Commerce Governor’s Luncheon at Cam-plex.

Workers for the U.S. Small Business Administration District Director Amy Lea and former Colorado state representative Justin Everett presented the award to L&H owners, Mike Wandler, Jason Percifield, Gage Wandler and Dustin Roush, who was not able to attend.

Wandler said he’s excited that President Donald Trump’s administration is “bringing manufacturing back to the United States,” and he credited the SBA for helping to build his business.

Now is as good a time as any to enter the industry, Wandler told the attendees.

“Anybody that is in manufacturing and wants help growing, diversifying or working on being global, hiring and retaining employees,” Wandler said. “There are a lot of things that we’re into after 62 years that we’re happy to share — especially with our Wyoming friends. Here’s to U.S.A. manufacturing.”

The SBA committee selects the small businesses of the year based on a variety of factors, Lea said. L&H received help from the SBA in the form of small business loans in the 1990s, and now L&H is a national leader and an SBA success story.

“Now we’re in a situation where the government is calling on them for government contracting,” Lea said. “They’ve really done an amazing job.”

L&H’s recognition comes after helping with NASA’s recently completed Artemis II mission.

The company built and installed more than 1,300 components to the Crawler-Transporter 2, which carries the 322-foot-tall Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, to increase its payload capacity by 6 million pounds. It also rebuilt all 16 propel transmissions, with each gearbox being disassembled, inspected, repaired, and rebuilt to NASA’s standards.

Wandler said he never expected his company would beat out 30 other manufacturers for a NASA contract.

“We’re still working for (NASA),” he said with a grin. “They’re going to the moon, Mars and beyond and they’re spending a lot of money on it.”

Gordon talks nuclear energy and data centers

Gordon encouraged the attendees and future legislators to open Wyoming up to more energy production and most of all: AI data centers.

“We have all these data centers that want to locate somewhere,” he said. “You’re going to hear a lot of talk about what data centers are and what they are not.”

He understands the skepticism about data centers, especially when it comes to water use, but now, there are data centers that can operate without water, Gordon said.

He placed a lot of faith in data centers’ potential to bring in tax revenue, high-paying jobs and responsible growth that will not overwhelm local schools with young families.

AI demand isn’t going to go away, Gordon explained, and while Wyoming has the capabilities to address energy demand for the relatively new industry, he believes the Cowboy State should open itself to the market.

With Wyoming’s energy capabilities, the state is perfect to synergize the production and building of new data centers for the rest of the state. However, there are issues with how the facilities may come to be, he said.

That being said, Gordon explained, data centers are in demand, and Wyoming could be at the cutting edge of the new industry.

Electric providers have to guarantee no rate hikes for consumers with facilities that won’t use water on a mass scale. The only water the facilities should use is the water for the bathrooms, Gordon said.

“When you think about the demand for the electricity that’s going to be generated — it could be generated by coal, natural gas, from oil, from renewables, all the things that Wyoming has — it’s going to be a steady demand,” he said. “Not boom or bust.”

County Commissioner Jim Ford asked Gordon about his impression of the Wyoming Energy Authority Summit in Laramie on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Gordon said nuclear energy and the prevalence of misinformation were his two biggest takeaways.

“One of the biggest frustrations we have as a country at this point is that it is so easy to disrupt information,” he said. “One of the conversations I had was, ‘How do we guard against this information? How do we begin to understand what is true and what is really not true?’”

But he also heard a lot of business interest in the Cowboy State.

“Never before, in my mind, have we had so many companies willing to come to Wyoming,” he said. “Wyoming is beginning to catch a bit of a lift here.”

Gordon was ambiguous about his future plans when he mentioned voters asking what’s next after his term. He joked that he may run to be the Colorado governor.

Gillette College Board member and Real Estate Agent Josh McGrath asked Gordon his advice for the next Wyoming governor. Gordon quoted Winston Churchill.

“‘If I stopped to throw rocks at every dog that barked at me, I wouldn’t get anywhere,’” Gordon said. “Don’t stop and throw rocks. Keep going.”

This story was published on May 9, 2026.