Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., is ready to reopen the U.S. coast for offshore drilling (HCN, 7/25/05: Will the real Mr. Pombo please stand up?). New drilling has been prohibited off the coast, except in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, since the early 1980s, thanks to a congressional moratorium. But in October, Pombo introduced a […]
Matt Jenkins
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
The Latest Bounce
Assistant Secretary of the Interior Rebecca Watson, who oversaw the Bureau of Land Management and the Interior Department’s mining and oil and gas operations, resigned on Oct. 28. On Watson’s watch, the BLM dramatically increased the number of oil and gas drilling permits it issues. But Interior Secretary Gale Norton also commended Watson for her […]
Posted inOctober 31, 2005: The Public Lands' Big Cash Crop
The Latest Bounce
The Department of Labor has denied a whistleblower’s complaint that the BLM fired him in retaliation for exposing violations of federal law in a mine-cleanup project in Yerington, Nev. (HCN, 12/20/04: Conscientious Objectors). Earle Dixon supervised the cleanup of the abandoned copper mine for the BLM, and repeatedly complained publicly about inadequate efforts to deal […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
The Latest Bounce
The Bureau of Land Management recently approved a mining company’s plans to explore for gold near South Pass, Wyo., a major historic point on the Emigrant Trail (HCN, 5/16/05: Gold mining proposed in historic South Pass area). Fremont Gold will dig 200 10-by-20-foot test pits about five miles from the pass. If the company finds […]
Posted inOctober 3, 2005: Out of the Four Corners
The Latest Bounce
During President Bush’s 2000 election campaign, he promised that any decision about whether to store high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada would be based on “sound science.” Now, his administration seems to be junking science altogether. In August, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it will cut the U.S. Geological Survey’s budget […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2005: Squeezing Water from a Stone
‘Tributary issue’ could force a seven-state showdown
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Squeezing Water from a Stone.” Pat Mulroy has a problem: Las Vegas only has enough water to sustain its phenomenal rate of growth until 2013, and the Basin and Range groundwater project likely won’t come online until at least five years after that. To […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2005: Squeezing Water from a Stone
Squeezing Water from a Stone
Damned with a tiny share of the Colorado River, and running dry, Las Vegas sets its sights on the driest part of the driest state in the Union.
Posted inSeptember 5, 2005: Rangeland Revival
The Latest Bounce
The tide may be turning in California’s fight to keep drill rigs away from its shores (HCN, 6/23/03: Will offshore be off-limits?). On Aug. 11, the nine members of the California Coastal Commission unanimously rejected the federal government’s attempts to renew 36 oil and gas leases off the Southern California coast. Two days later, a […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Follow-up
The 2003 wilderness settlement between Interior Secretary Gale Norton and then-Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt may be on the ropes (HCN, 4/28/03: Wilderness takes a massive hit). The settlement eliminated protection for 2.6 million acres of potential wilderness in Utah and barred the BLM from proposing any new land for wilderness designation without congressional approval. But […]
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
A tasty history of the Southwest
If you think fusion food was something California chefs cooked up in the 1980s, you’re off by a couple of centuries. Gardens of New Spain opens in 1492, the year Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand kicked the Moors out of Spain. The Moors fled, but they had already left an indelible mark on Iberian cuisine: […]
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Writing a comment letter? Better make it good
Agencies say mass e-mails and form letters don’t mean much
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
How low will Vegas go for water?
Patricia Mulroy, the manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, has acquired a certain notoriety among Western water groupies for her hard-nosed approach to Colorado River water politics. But now, she may be winning new renown for setting records in a sort of how-low-can-you-go aquatic limbo. The Water Authority currently pumps water to 1.7 million […]
Posted inMay 30, 2005: Write-off on the Range
A view of the West from on high
What does a newpaperman-turned-professor who spends the better part of 168 pages reminiscing about life in the spliff-puffing ski town of Crested Butte have to say that’s relevant to anywhere else in the West? Well, it turns out, a lot. If you ever wonder whether the West will create that mythic society to match its […]
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
Beehive state may get new wilderness — and more
Wilderness advocates in Utah have long butted heads with rural county commissioners and the state’s conservative congressional delegation. Last May, in an attempt to resolve the impasse, then-Utah Gov. Olene Walker announced county-by-county discussions on land use, including potential new wilderness areas (HCN, 6/21/04: Lame-duck governor moves deadlocked wilderness debate). Now, the state may see […]
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
On the Colorado River, a tug-of-war on a tight rope
A wet winter could jeopardize Colorado’s drought-protection water stash
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Follow-up
The Montana Legislature approved a bill requiring the state’s utilities to buy 15 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2015. The green-power initiative was part of the campaign platform of Gov. Brian Schweitzer, D, who took office this January (HCN, 11/22/04: Election Day surprises in the schizophrenic West). Montana is the 19th state […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Oil and gas opponents will have to move faster
The Bureau of Land Management is shortening the amount of time that citizens and environmental groups in Wyoming and Utah will have to protest oil and gas lease sales, and is in the process of formulating a new nationwide policy for such protests. In Wyoming, the BLM posts notices of which parcels will be leased […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Dear friends
ANIMAL PLANET Here in Paonia, we’ve been having various critter adventures. JoAnn Kalenak, our production assistant, recently adopted a beagle named Darcy. In mid-March, though, the dog disappeared while chasing rabbits. Three weeks later, a neighbor called to say that Darcy had been vacationing at her farm a few miles away the entire time. Meanwhile, […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Colorado River kisses a toxic mess good-bye
A 12 million-ton relic of the Cold War willget hauled away from Moab
Posted inApril 18, 2005: What Happened to Winter?
Follow-up
The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general, Nikki L. Tinsley, plans to investigate allegations that bunk science led to her agency’s claim that hydraulic fracturing poses “little or no threat” to drinking water. “Frac’ing,” a technique pioneered by Halliburton, increases the production of a gas or oil well by injecting it with liquid, which can include […]