Colorado leasing case gives climate change new weight.
Coal
Posted inGoat
The West’s crucial 2014 U.S. Senate races
The big question of the 2014 midterm elections — other than, “Eric Cantor lost?!” — is which party will emerge with control of the U.S. Senate. A number of Western states will host Senate races this year – Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Alaska – but only three will be hotly contested, […]
Posted inGoat
A new era of clean air regulation is dawning
Court rulings are not typically repositories of poetic prose. But they occasionally contain beautiful little gems, like this quote from the King James Bible, embedded in Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s majority opinion in a clean air case the Supreme Court ruled on this week: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2014: When California Kicks Coal
Navajo Nation bets on coal
A tribe digs into a dying industry.
Posted inMarch 17, 2014: When California Kicks Coal
California’s energy policies have ripple effects across the West
As the Golden State shifts from coal to clean, economies in other states feel it too.
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
‘Clean and healthful environment’
Montana’s constitution could stop a huge mine
Posted inArticles
Clean coal is an oxymoron
After Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer made a fiery speech at the Democratic Convention, some people suggested that he’d make a fine secretary of Energy, no matter who wins the election. But although Schweitzer, a Democrat, may give a good speech, his near-fanatic promotion of coal should give one pause. The West has long suffered the […]
Posted inArticles
Battle line on the northern border
In Montana’s Flathead Basin, another industry–versus-environment conflict is brewing. But this time, the battle lines follow the U.S. – Canada border. Montana senators, federal agencies, and even Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are trying to stop a planned mine just north of the border. Cline Mining Corporation is seeking British Columbia’s approval for a mountaintop […]
Posted inApril 16, 2007: Phoenix Falling?
The hidden costs of our coal habit
Sometimes ignorance feels like bliss. When you’re stowing your breakfast eggs and sausage, you don’t want to think too much about their origins. But ignorance is also dangerous. Take, for example, the electricity that powers the stove and coffeepot behind your morning breakfast. Today, more than half of U.S. electricity comes from burning coal. This […]
Posted inNovember 13, 2006: Bred for success
Spinning coal into gasoline
Questions hang over promise of clean diesel and energy independence
Posted inAugust 7, 2006: Is It or Isn't It (Just Another Mouse)?
Worlds converge in energy’s shadow
Located on a dusty mesa above the San Juan River in northwestern New Mexico, Alice Benally’s home on the Navajo Reservation sits less than a mile away from the massive smokestacks of the Four Corners power plant. For four decades, the electrons generated by the plant’s steam-propelled turbines zipped past her lantern-lit home on their […]
Posted inMay 1, 2006: Magic Valley Uprising
Magic Valley Uprising
How an Idaho citizens’ coalition gunned down a dirty power plant — and what it means for the West
Posted inMay 1, 2006: Magic Valley Uprising
Meet Idaho’s Revolutionaries
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Magic Valley Uprising.” Father Hugh Feiss Father Hugh Feiss is one of the 15 Benedictine monks who have vowed to spend their lives at the Monastery of the Ascension, about five miles from the butte where Sempra wanted to build its coal plant. He […]
Posted inMay 1, 2006: Magic Valley Uprising
The push is on for ‘clean coal’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Magic Valley Uprising.” Westwide, the power-plant industry has proposed building several dozen new coal-fired plants — the biggest such buildup since the 1980s. But at the same time, the industry is moving toward a new “clean coal” era, nudged by citizen uprisings like the […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Slaughter in Serene: The Columbia Coal Strike Reader
Slaughter in Serene: The Columbine Coal Strike Reader Lowell May and Richard Myers, ed. 196 pages, softcover: $19.05 Bread and Roses Workers’ Cultural Center, 2005. workersbreadandroses.org, 303-433-1852 Coal mining has played a major role in the histories of most Western states, including Colorado. Slaughter in Serene tells the story of striking miners in the late […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
The end of an era on the Colorado Plateau
As the Mohave power plant closes its doors, two Arizona tribes wonder what’s next
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Coal company takes refuge in a blind spot
Last spring, the government of British Columbia allowed Montanans only four days to comment on plans for an open-pit coal mine six miles north of Glacier National Park. To environmentalists on both sides of the border, who have fought similar mine proposals for three decades, the hurry seemed suspicious. Montana’s congressional delegation, along with many […]
Posted inWotr
Western utilities beware: Coal is a risky business
It wasn’t long ago that I got one of those flyers about rates that comes with my bill from Xcel Energy, formerly Public Service Co. and now one of the country’s largest utilities, serving much of Colorado and several other Western states. I knew that Xcel was planning on building a huge and expensive coal-fired […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
King coal is back
With natural gas supplies stretched thin, and the Bush administration loosening environmental regulations, energy companies are turning their attention back to coal
Posted inNovember 6, 2000: 'Re-inhabitation' revisited
Colorado’s Coal Basin starts a new life
Students and the state help recover aformer miningtract