While coal grabs the headlines and oil rides its dramatic cycles, natural gas has quietly become one of the pillars of Wyoming's energy economy. The state's expansive gas fields feed pipelines that carry fuel to markets across the western United States.

The industry took off with advances in drilling that unlocked vast reserves trapped in tight rock formations. Fields across the state's basins produce enormous quantities of gas, and for years the industry provided a steady stream of jobs and tax revenue that helped diversify an economy long dominated by coal and oil.

Natural gas has occupied an unusual position in the energy debate. Burning cleaner than coal, it has been embraced by some as a bridge fuel toward a lower-carbon future, and its abundance drove down electricity prices nationwide. That same cheap gas, ironically, hastened the decline of Wyoming's own coal industry.

The sector faces its own challenges, from volatile prices to concerns about the environmental effects of drilling and methane emissions. Boom-and-bust cycles hit gas towns much as they do oil communities. Yet natural gas remains a workhorse of the Wyoming economy, less celebrated than coal and less dramatic than oil, but a steady contributor to the state's coffers and a fixture of its energy landscape for the foreseeable future.