Joshua Tree National Park’s Eagle Mountains conjure up images of remote desert peaks, a boundless blue sky and the namesake bird of prey that soars above pristine canyons. But for many of us, Eagle Mountain brings to mind the ongoing battle over the proposed Eagle Mountain Landfill, to be located on lands belonging to Kaiser […]
Blog Post
Posted inGoat
Just in Time for Christmas: Itsy-Bitsy Solar PV
One of the big obstacles to industrial-strength solar power is space: photovoltaic technology used in solar panels, which transforms sunlight into an electrical current, takes up valuable real estate. And one of the biggest obstacles to portable solar power is also size: Who wants to haul around a 2-pound PV panel just to charge a […]
Posted inRange
California’s Carbon Game
As the world focuses on the Stockholm Climate Change Conference, how California is addressing climate change is generating conflict. In late November the California Air Resources Board (CARB) issued a draft of what are likely to be the first government regulations in the nation for carbon trading. Two environmental justice organizations – Communities for a […]
Posted inGoat
There’s gold in that there test-tube
Ten years ago, we ran a story about green groups suing the National Park Service over its plans to allow “bioprospecting” in Yellowstone. Private companies have made millions from heat-resistant microbes they’ve collected from the park’s thermal features (for example, Thermus aquaticus produced an enzyme used in DNA fingerprinting). Now, the Park Service is proposing […]
Posted inGoat
The picture of forest health
Rich Wininger, a Weyerhaeuser manager in the Northwest, recently wrote us in response to our Nov. 9 feature story “Roadless-less“, which included a photo of clearcutting on Weyerhaeuser forest lands (unfortunately we don’t have permission to reproduce that photo on our Web site).
Posted inGoat
Well wars
With water rights dating to 1865, you wouldn’t expect Joseph Miller to worry about the security of his water supply. But to Miller, the new homes and subdivisions popping up in Montana’s Gallatin Valley, where he owns a 500-acre ranch, are plenty of cause for concern. Miller suspects those developments, which pump groundwater from permit-exempt […]
Posted inGoat
An official state microbe
Colorado may not hold the record for “Official State Whatevers,” but it’s got to come close with both a state rock and a state gemstone, two official state songs, a state insect and a state reptile, as well as the usual flower, bird, fish, tree, mammal and the like. But Wisconsin may […]
Posted inGoat
Feels like teen spirit
Yesterday, the High Country News interns (Ariana Brocious, Cally Carswell and I) trekked to nearby Delta to speak to a journalism class at the local high school. After getting lost in the “big city” (Delta has about 6,500 residents to Paonia’s 1,500) we were greeted by five bright and eager young journalists. Well, sort of. […]
Posted inGoat
Climate change by any other name …
In towns from Pocatello, Idaho, to Las Cruces, N.M., local governments are responding to the West’s changing climate. They’re cutting energy consumption, insulating homes, reducing water usage, and more — but often without ever mentioning “global warming” or “climate change”, loaded terms that can trigger heated debates. Instead, they’re promoting their policies under the auspices […]
Posted inRange
How to Deal with a Deer Invasion
My mother has a tough decision to make. Her recent city newsletter informed her that the deer must die, and it’s up to her to decide how they croak. Bountiful, Utah has a mule deer problem—they’ve invaded. When I visited home this summer, I’d probably see at least one deer every week. They’d dart across […]
Posted inGoat
Desert Rock on hold
The proposed Desert Rock power plant on the Navajo Nation near Farmington, N.M., will need to find a new source of cash after the U.S. Department of Energy denied a $450 million stimulus funding bid for carbon-capture controls last week. The funding would have covered about 43 percent of the cost of those controls. The […]
Posted inGoat
A golden ruling
It’s not often that the world’s largest gold mining company doesn’t get what it wants, especially in the nation’s largest gold-producing state. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that Barrick Gold’s proposal to dig a 2,000-foot deep open pit at the Cortez Hill mine on Mount Tenabo lacks sufficient environmental review. The […]
Posted inGoat
The fight over cap and trade
The carbon emissions trading scheme known as cap-and-trade is on the global table as the United Nations Climate Change conference gets underway this week in Copenhagen. Cap-and-trade is also a feature of the Waxman-Markey bill currently being reshaped by the U.S. Senate after passage in the House in June. Hailed by supporters as “an important […]
Posted inRange
Indian Trust, settled at last
By Courtney Lowery, Newwest.net guest blogger, 12-08-09 The Obama Administration today announced that it will settle in the landmark class-action lawsuit against the Interior Department that alleged gross mismanagement of American Indian trust accounts. In a press conference, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Attorney General Eric Holder said the settlement will mean $1.4 billion will […]
Posted inRange
Seek bliss … and work together
What do we want in a health care system? It’s a question Dr. Donald Berwick asked an audience of 5,000-plus people at the Institute for Health Care Improvement’s National Forum in Orlando, Fla. on Tuesday. Such an easy question. I can quickly rattle off answers: I want health care for my family. I want to […]
Posted inGoat
A new line of defense
The attorneys for Tim DeChristopher, the University of Utah student who made bogus bids at a BLM drilling-rights auction last year, have come up with a new line of defense: selective prosecution. DeChristopher is charged with such federal felonies as interfering with a government auction and making a false representation. If convicted, he […]
Posted inRange
What the Nuclear Boosters Don’t Tell You
On its surface, Grants doesn’t look like the Gateway to the Nuclear West. Its shuttered buildings, dilapidated store fronts, and overgrown vacant lots are what’s left of the promised prosperity from the last uranium boom. To really understand Grants’ and the region’s past and potential future, you’ve got to go below the surface. From the […]
Posted inGoat
Doggone it
The black-tailed prairie dog won’t be protected under the Endangered Species Act, the feds announced today. Despite the fact that the ‘dogs now occupy about 3 percent of their original habitat, and despite plague, poisoning and “varmint hunts”, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service says populations are increasing. That’s good news for farmers, ranchers, and […]
Posted inGoat
Nuclear Nevada
“Some of you have been inconvenienced by our test operations,” the Atomic Energy Commission wrote to residents living near the Nevada Test Site, in Nye County, in 1955. “At times some of you have been exposed to potential risk from flash, blast, or fall-out. You have accepted the inconvenience or the risk without fuss, without […]
Posted inGoat
Down on copper mine
Plans to move forward with what would be the third- or fourth-largest copper mine in the country have been shelved for another year. The U.S. Forest Service has postponed an environmental impact study for a proposed copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains, 30 miles southeast of Tucson, Ariz., until April 2010 (see our 1997 […]