There are just four days left before the legislative year ends and Congress calls it good – or mediocre, as it may be – for 2013. This Congress passed the fewest number of laws since 1947, earning the unfortunate title of “least productive in history.” So it should come as no surprise that several major pieces […]
Tay Wiles
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Will stricter emissions limits mean stranded assets for investors?
Forty-five of the world’s top oil and gas producers received a letter, released at the end of October, that must have come as something of a wake-up call. Seventy investors that control a total of $3 trillion of those companies’ assets sent off the missive with one question in mind: What’s going to happen to […]
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A new history of redwoods, eucalypts, citrus and palms in California: Conversation with an author
Jared Farmer, Utah native and associate professor of history at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, released his third book this week: Trees in Paradise: A California History. The book traces the history of redwoods, eucalyptus, citrus and palms in the Golden State from 1848 to today. Farmer takes a unique approach […]
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Immigration reform bills still give feds rein to trample border ecology
The environmental onslaught caused by the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border fence may have started with a mouse. When the federal government first built a section of border fence south of San Diego in 1990, it left nearby grasses – habitat to an imperiled mouse – to grow long to comply with the Endangered Species […]
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Painkiller prescriptions skyrocket, endangering veterans
Ricky Green was 43 when he accidentally overdosed on pain medication for a lingering back injury from the first Gulf War. He died in his sleep in September 2011. Just a month earlier, he had asked his Veterans Affairs doctors to decrease the dose of three painkillers he was taking, but the physicians told him […]
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Dispatch from a Colorado coal confab, where new emissions regs were top of mind
As U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Chief Gina McCarthy finishes a three-state tour to plug her new power plant emissions standards, coal industry representatives met in Delta County in western Colorado for an annual trade conference. Thursday morning started with the usual reports on which Komatsu haul trucks, draglines and Hitachi excavators are en vogue. An […]
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Eagle permit extensions could be a boon for the wind industry
Since U.S. Fish and Wildlife researchers released a study this month announcing that at least 85 eagles have died in collisions with wind turbines since 1997 in 10 states, discussion has heated around a federal rule change that would extend eagle casualty permits to last up to 30 years. The new rule would mean wind […]
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Planning for drought while in one: Colorado is a model for the region
In the spring of 2002, Colorado temperatures were averaging four degrees above normal. Snowpack began disappearing at an alarming rate, and rain was scant. Then the fires started. The Hayman Fire, 215 square miles southwest of Denver, tore through nearly $200 million in firefighting costs alone. “(That summer) was hellacious,” remembers Reagan Waskom, co-chair of the […]
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Watch the who’s who of Montana’s dinosaur wars
The most recent issue of High Country News features a story about one-of-a-kind fossils that were unearthed in Montana and have stirred controversy in the scientific community. Reporter Montana Hodges tells the spellbinding narrative of the fossil hunters, commercial dealers, museum curators and professors of paleontology involved in the scuffle over the pair of skeletons […]
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New tech to trace fracking fluid could mean more accountability
As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency comes under fire for abandoning studies that linked contaminated water to hydraulic fracturing, and oil and gas companies consider how to fix their public image around the issue, states are trying to figure out how much transparency to demand from the industry. Meanwhile, researchers are racing to find the […]
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The future of the West’s largest coal-fired plant remains in jeopardy
The West’s largest coal-fired power plant, the Navajo Generating Station in northern Arizona, is in transition. It provides 520 jobs—85 percent of which are held by Navajos—supplies the juice that pumps Arizonans’ share of Colorado River water, and keeps the lights on for millions of people in three states. But the plant also churns out […]
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Buffalo Soldier history could get a boost in national parks
Two bills awaiting review in the Senate could mean that the National Park Service will recount the history of African-American soldiers in a more complete way. “The Buffalo Soldiers were true pioneers who braved the Western frontier as well as the scourge of racism as they fought for and served our country,” California Congresswoman Jackie […]
Posted inApril 30, 2012: A Mexican rancher struggles to shift from cattle to conservation
A literary organization tackles California gang violence
When Colleen Bailey became head of the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, Calif., a few years ago, she asked locals what they wanted from the organization. The response surprised her: “Solve our gang problem, please.” But it also made sense. The Center is highly visible and can muster significant resources. And Salinas, despite its proud […]