“An industry of this size is not
something you can just turn on its head in six
weeks.”
—Colorado Oil and
Gas Association Executive Director Greg Schnacke on the rash of
oil- and gas-related bills moving through the Colorado General
Assembly
Sacred trumps
sewage: Snowbowl ski area near Flagstaff, Ariz., wants to
use treated wastewater to make snow. But area tribes, including the
Navajo and Hopi, didn’t like the idea of yellow snow spewed
all over their sacred San Francisco Peaks. So they sued, and on
March 12 they won: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, comparing
the proposal to requiring baptisms to be conducted with toilet
water, said that snow made from sewage (even if it’s
purified) violates the tribes’ religious freedom. The court
also determined that the Forest Service’s environmental
analysis of the plan failed to consider what might happen if some
hapless skier ate the snow. The owner of the ski area said he would
appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
The American West: Land of wide-open spaces, rugged
individualism, methamphetamines and venereal disease.
Gonorrhea cases are swelling in the West, even as they shrink in
other parts of the country, according to a March report from the
Centers for Disease Control. California and seven other Western
states saw a 42 percent increase in the disease from 2000 to 2005,
indicating that the incidence of sexually transmitted disease is
going up generally. Public health officials attribute the apparent
rise, in part, to more and improved screening. But methamphetamine
use may also be a factor. The drug, relatively prevalent in the
rural West, creates an increased urgency for sex, and a 2003 study
by the CDC found that meth users are more likely to have casual or
anonymous sex than non-users.
If the West is the
nation’s energy colony, then some of the subjects are getting
restless.
New Mexico’s state Legislature
in March passed a bill intended to stop gas and oil drillers from
running roughshod over owners of split-estate lands. The bill
requires energy companies to provide extensive information to
surface landowners prior to drilling for the reserves below. It
also requires companies to reclaim the drill site, and allows
landowners to recover costs for loss of agricultural income or land
value.
Colorado lawmakers are considering their own
split-estate bill, along with three other gas- and oil-related
bills this session. One would overhaul the commission that
regulates gas and oil drilling in the state. Currently, the Oil and
Gas Conservation Commission’s mission is to encourage and
promote energy development, and its members are mostly connected to
the industry. The proposed bill will tweak the commission’s
mission to include protecting public health and the environment,
and the membership will be diversified to be less industry-heavy.
“Landowners have been at the mercy of companies for
a century,” says Gwen Lachelt of the Oil and Gas
Accountability Project. But, she says, the passage of the New
Mexico bill and the potential success of the Colorado bills mark
“a shift in the paradigm.”
Montana’s green
energy-related bills have yet to shift anything, though: Laws that
would have upped environmental standards on coal, oil and gas
operations appeared dead, while five bills that favor the energy
industry seemed headed for approval. But still alive in mid-March
was a bill to reduce statewide emissions of greenhouse gases, and
Gov. Brian Schweitzer finally unveiled his “clean and
green” energy bills — which include tax breaks for
alternative power projects — on March 16.
Other legislative accomplishments: Colorado
lawmakers designated John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain
High” as the state’s second official song, despite
critics’ claims that it glorifies drug use. New Mexico
legislators named the bolo tie as the state’s official
neckwear and banned cockfighting. Wyoming lawmakers voted to give
filmmakers a greater financial incentive to work in the state; the
Oscar-winning movie Brokeback Mountain was filmed in Canada,
although set in Wyoming. And Idaho legislators killed a bill that
would have increased oversight of the state’s elk-ranching
industry.
A flock of wildlife refuge
managers, biologists and other refuge workers will be scanning
“help wanted” ads beginning this spring. U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service budget woes have forced the agency to
“reorganize” its refuge system. Hardest hit is the
Southwest region, which announced March 8 that it plans to slash 38
jobs, including 22 in New Mexico and Arizona. It will also combine
some refuges to cut costs.
Data: Mindset
2 – National ranking in terms
of suicide rates for Nevada and Montana (a tie).
11, 36 – National ranking of Montana and
Nevada, respectively, for per capita spending on mental health.
4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 – National
ranking in terms of suicide rates for New Mexico, Wyoming,
Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Oregon, respectively.
49, 50 – National rankings of Idaho and
New Mexico, respectively, for per capita spending on mental health.
10.1 – Percent of people in
Utah suffering from at least one major depressive episode in 2004.
1 – National ranking of Utah
in terms of percent of people suffering from at least one major
depressive episode in 2004.
6.5 – Percent of persons in Utah aged 12
and up who used pain relievers non-medically in 2004.
1 – National ranking of Utah in terms of
percent of people aged 12 and up who used pain relievers
non-medically in 2004.
17 – Percent of youths age 12-17 who binge drink in Montana, the highest
in the nation.
87 – Rate per
100,000 of teen deaths by suicide, homicide or accident in Montana,
second-highest in the nation, after Alaska.
Sources:
Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count data book, American
Association of Suicidology, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human
Services, National Alliance on Mental Illness
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Two weeks in the West.
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