By Eric DePlace It’s conventional wisdom that the heavier GOP configuration in Congress spells bad news for climate policy in the Pacific Northwest. There’s some truth in that, but there’s a more positive story for advocates to tell too. Here’s how I see the events of this week through the lens of climate policy. The […]
Climate change
Posted inRange
Beyond Boardman
By Jennifer Langston Oregon has been having a robust debate over the appropriate date for closing the state’s lone coal power plant. The Boardman plant could theoretically operate until 2040, but its owners have proposed an earlier closure to avoid investing in expensive pollution controls. There’s been a lot of discussion about whether the plant […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
‘The last word is action’
Boulder clean-energy activist sees declining coal supply as a boon
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Solar spree
In early October, the Interior Department gave its blessing to three solar energy projects in California’s sun-saturated Mojave Desert and Imperial Valley, and one in the Nevada desert. The approvals — the first ever on federal public land — came five years after the agency opened public deserts in the Southwest to solar development. A […]
Posted inGoat
Squeezing trees
The new data show forest carbon storage by region, with forests in the 11 Western states accounting for almost a third of the nation’s total. Forests in the West reach two extremes. Oregon, Washington, and southeast Alaska forests store the most carbon per acre of anywhere in the U.S., while those in Arizona, Nevada, New […]
Posted inRange
La Niña winter expected
The weather experts who look at the big picture say we’re facing a “La Niña winter” this time around. For the West, this means it will be wet in the north and dry in the south. But the moisture won’t arrive for a while. The La Niña pattern includes relatively warm, dry days well into […]
Posted inRange
350 Miles Through Utah: A Pilgrimage for Hope
Editor’s Note: Utahns Jamie and Ryan Pleume are walking 350 miles across Utah to raise awareness about climate change. They started their journey today. We will be posting periodic updates from their journey on this blog. “Hope is an action not an emotion.” A rabbi spoke these words in the sweltering heat, standing on a […]
Posted inArticles
In defense of wood heat
Why not burn trees where they’ll do some good — in your woodstove?
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
Breathing easy
West Oakland’s Breathmobile combats inner city asthma
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
Computer model slices and dices mountain climates
BLUE RIVER, OREGON On the face of a wind-swept cliff … At the bottom of a frost-prone hollow … Beneath the canopy of an old-growth tree … Oregon State University climatologist Chris Daly and his team have positioned their instruments in some oddball places here in central Oregon’s H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. “The World Meteorological […]
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
Dancing with Climate Change
Alpine species try to adapt to a warming world
Posted inBlog
Environmentalism’s communications problem
On Sept. 22, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported the most recent development in an ongoing dispute over the future of the Boardman power plant, located in the north-central part of the state. To meet state environmental regulations for emissions, Portland General Electric – the utility that operates the plant – has to figure out what to […]
Posted inGoat
Out of breath
A dry cough rattles the throat of 63-year-old John Mionczynski, who is sun-tanned, fit and active and should be one of the healthiest people in Wyoming. He’s spent his life goat packing through the Wind River Mountains and living off wild plants in the Red Desert. An ethnobotanist and wildlife biologist, he calls high, dry […]
Posted inRange
Enchanted with carbon caps
New Mexico is known for its stunning desert and mountain landscapes, vibrant mix of cultures and unique history. But this month the state is perched on the brink of becoming a leader in climate change regulation and plays a major role in moving the nation to a greener, stronger economy. The New Mexico Environmental Improvement […]
Posted inGoat
Quarry quandary
The limestone that comes from quarries near Durkee, Ore., has more mercury in it than average. As Jeremy Miller reported for HCN last January, when that limestone gets cooked in giant kilns to make cement, the mercury lifts into the air along with other dangerous pollutants like soot, hydrogen chloride, and hydrocarbons. From there, it […]
Posted inAugust 2, 2010: The Fiery Touch
Asbestos all around us
Libby is the most unsung of environmental disasters (HCN, 6/21/10). People know (or knew) about Love Canal and even Times Beach and Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, but no one has heard of Libby; and yet the exposures continue, as your “Data” stated. I have done work for the federal Department of Health and Human […]
Posted inGoat
The Heart of the Beast
As a kid in northern Wyoming, I watched my dad dump a five-gallon bucket of Powder River Basin coal into the heater in our living room every winter night before bed. I’d lean against the stove in my jammies, enjoying its warmth while a blizzard rattled the chimney pipe. Though most Americans never hear coal […]
Posted inGoat
Calm before the storm
Drought, beetle kill, extended fire seasons, disappearing glaciers, early spring runoff—these signs of climate change flicker at the edge of Western life like the lightning flashes of an approaching summer storm. Late last month, the Western Governors’ Association, a nonpartisan organization that works with the governors of 19 western states and three U.S. territories, took […]