“You guys caused the problem.”
— John Mudre of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
blaming a biologist and the media for drawing too many people to a
public hearing in Eureka, Calif., to consider Klamath dam
relicensing. Two hundred people packed a hallway after the room
reached its capacity of 350. FERC booked the same room — with
similar results — in 2004.
Lynx in
Colorado will need every one of their nine lives. During
early November, two of the threatened cats were shot dead in
southwestern Colorado; last fall, two lynx tracking collars that
had been cut off were found in the same area. Now, two recent
announcements have conservationists convinced that the federal
government is ignoring lynx habitat needs. The Fish and Wildlife
Service designated 1,841 square miles of critical habitat near the
Canadian border, but skipped Colorado since, among other things,
its population is not self-sustaining, one of the criteria for
habitat designation. Then the Forest Service released draft
policies making lynx management more consistent across national
forests in Colorado and southern Wyoming. Critics claim the
revisions allow overly broad exemptions for thinning projects in
lynx habitat. The state’s lynx population, wiped out in 1973,
now numbers around 200 after reintroduction efforts begun in 1999.
Rebuke for an oil and gas bounty
hunter. One of the West’s fiercest energy-industry
watchdogs has been “opportunistic” and “the instrument of his own
undoing,” according to U.S. District Judge William Downes in
Wyoming. The judge aimed his criticism at Jack Grynberg, the CEO of
a Denver-based oil company, who’s known for pressing lawsuits
that claim oil and gas companies deliberately underpay taxes and
royalties. Grynberg bases his cases on the federal False Claims
Act, and he has won dozens of them over the years — and
garnered millions of dollars for himself under the act’s
bounty-hunter terms. But Grynberg’s biggest case —
built on allegations that 73 energy companies had underpaid taxes
and royalties by some $30 billion — amounted to “rank
speculation,” Judge Downes ruled on Oct. 27. Downes dismissed the
lawsuits, but Grynberg says that he’s got plenty of proof and
that he’ll appeal the ruling.
Hot waste,
now in the large economy size. The U.S. Department of
Energy just finished testing new larger containers for transporting
nuclear waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southern New
Mexico. The new containers will save money, says DOE, and also
reduce worker exposure to radiation. But anti-nuke activists and
the Western Governors’ Association fear the new containers
may not be as safe as the old ones. Because the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission changed its requirements last year, the tests
did not include the 30-minute, 1,475-degree Fahrenheit burn test
used on previous container designs. “I’m glad they’re
doing the testing they’re doing — it’s just not
all they should be doing,” says Don Hancock of the nonprofit
Southwest Research and Information Center.
Save
money and Idaho’s salmon, at the same time.
That’s the rallying cry of “Revenue Stream,” a new study by
Save Our Wild Salmon and other groups. The Northwest’s
federal salmon programs cost at least $780 million per year, the
groups say, yet fail to help the fish — only three sockeye
returned to spawn in Idaho’s Redfish Lake last summer, for
instance. If the main barriers to Idaho salmon — four Lower
Snake River dams — were removed, however, the government
could compensate farmers and others for losses and still reduce
annual outlay by about $165 million. Federal agencies and
Idaho’s congressmen respond that “Revenue Stream”
doesn’t account for all the benefits from the dams.
Meanwhile, fisheries biologist Don Chapman, who’s worked for
industry and environmental groups, called on Congress to authorize
an independent analysis. Chapman says, dollars aside, “We need to
give salmon a bigger break than we’ve been giving them.”
The Measure 37 cold war escalates.
Oregon’s controversial Measure 37 allows landowners to demand
compensation from local governments that pass regulations limiting
development. Rather than pay claims, governments typically waive
the regulations on a case-by-case basis. Unfortunately for
developers, however, Measure 37 waivers can’t be transferred
to subsequent buyers. On Nov. 21, Klamath County commissioners
creatively bypassed that restriction, when — in response to a
Measure 37 claim — they permanently eased zoning on a 36-acre
parcel. Klamath County is now considering 13 additional such
claims; Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and
Development plans to challenge the decision. —F.J., R.R.,
L.P, M.J.
Sled Season Data
289: Calories burned by a 185-pound
person who snowmobiles for 60 minutes
955: Calories burned by the same person
cross- country skiing for 60 minutes
91,670: Number of new snowmobiles sold
in the U.S. in 2006
$8,269: Average suggested retail price of a new snowmobile in North America
1.69: Number, in millions, of
registered snowmobiles in the United States
37: Percentage drop in worldwide
snowmobile sales from 1997 to 2006
39: Number of automobiles it takes to
produce as much pollution as one snowmobile on a per-passenger-mile
basis
720: Number of
snowmobiles currently allowed in Yellowstone per day, a number the
park Service has proposed keeping
250: Average number of snowmobiles that
the park has received daily in the last two winters
1,400: Number of snowmobiles on peak
days in Yellowstone before the Clinton administration’s 2001
ban
SOURCES: Healthstatus.com,
International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association, NATIONAL PARK
SERVICE
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Two weeks in the West.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
