Heat and drought combined are especially harmful to the power system.
Jonathan Thompson
Jonathan Thompson is a contributing editor at High Country News. He is the author of Sagebrush Empire: How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront of American Public Lands. Follow him @LandDesk
Posted inJuly 1, 2021: An Urban Greenspace Revolution
Crowds swarm the public lands
Land managers and gateway communities struggle to keep up.
Posted inArticles
Why I changed my mind about Bears Ears
The benefits of a national monument in San Juan County outweigh the costs.
Posted inJune 1, 2021: Once and Future Fires
Cannabis has a carbon problem
The burgeoning marijuana industry gobbles up electricity.
Posted inArticles
Solving the West’s housing crisis
We need to care for the priced-out average worker or something is bound to break.
Posted inMay 1, 2021: Beauty and Biodiversity in the Borderlands
Americans go on a gun-buying frenzy
Gun-related violence soars along with sales.
Posted inArticles
Mass shootings are a product of America’s violent culture
The bloodthirsty legacies of settler-colonialism and Western expansion endure today.
Posted inMarch 1, 2021: The Rough Road Ahead
Border barrier boondoggle
Trump’s promised inexpensive, impregnable wall was anything but.
Posted inApril 1, 2021: Holding Fast
This year’s deadly avalanche season
Low snowfall has led to catastrophic conditions around the West.
Posted inArticles
Put unemployed miners and drillers back to work in restoration
There’s economic development in reclaiming coal mines and plugging idled wells.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2021: End of the Line
Coal’s big breakdown
A half-century ago, the ‘Big Buildup’ transformed the West; now, it’s all coming to an end.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2021: No Place Like Home
How the Zoom boom is changing the West
Remote workers are flocking to Western towns.
Posted inDecember 1, 2020: A Community Divided
20 signs that the climate crisis has come home to roost
From Alaska to Wyoming, evidence shows the climate is off-kilter in the West.
Posted inArticles
Biden needs to go beyond a Trump reset
The president-elect has an opportunity to rebuild better than before.
Posted inOctober 1, 2020: Democracy's Frayed Western Front
When ‘usual residence’ is a prison
Census method of counting prisoners distorts demographics.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2020: The Next West
Where people are migrating in, and out of, the West
While the region continues to grow, migration patterns are in flux.
Posted inAugust 1, 2020: Infectious Ideologies
The job loss epidemic
COVID-19 impacts ripple through every sector of the economy.
Posted inJuly 1, 2020: 'I am here fighting for my life and future children'
Western police are geared up for war
But who’s the enemy?
Posted inJune 1, 2020: Dissent at a Distance
Who wins and who loses with these 4 regulatory rollbacks?
Under a pandemic, Trump backslides pollution and wildlife protection standards.
Posted inMay 1, 2020: Lives on Lockdown
The pandemic is battering oil-state economies
COVID-19 reverberates across the energy world.