An AI server farm tsunami threatens to overwhelm the West’s power grid and water supplies.
Energy & Industry
Posted inArticles
Western climate litigants keep fighting
After disappointing losses in Alaska and Montana, an Indigenous-led climate case is making strides in New Mexico.
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Will this threatened frog stop drilling near Denver?
Northern leopard frogs were found near the site of what would be one of state’s largest fossil fuel operations.
Posted inIssues
Western economies falter under the Trump administration
Tariffs, layoffs and federal funding clawbacks stress budgets.
Posted inNovember 2025: Precious Metalheads
For rural Californians, unreliable power has become the norm
Years ago, the state’s largest utility rolled out a power outage program designed to reduce wildfires. Customers now experience thousands of outages a year.
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The nation’s energy dominance falters
Trump is killing clean energy, and it’s not even helping fossil fuels.
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Proposed Wyoming oil and gas leases overlap wildlife corridors
BLM lease sales planned for next summer land along migration paths. Public comments accepted through Nov. 17.
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The aging Los Alamos lab at the center of America’s nuclear overhaul
Contamination incidents, work outages and declining infrastructure have plagued the site, but the lab remains the linchpin in an effort to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons.
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What the government shutdown means for public lands
Many parks will stay open, and oil and gas permitting will continue — even as tens of thousands of staff are furloughed at NPS, BLM and USFS.
Posted inOctober 2025: Limits to Growth
In a changing Arctic, how much noise is too much?
Alaska’s bowhead whales can hear the climate changing. Scientists are listening in, too.
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The Trump administration’s war on wind
How energy companies and states are navigating federal policy that’s hostile to wind.
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How to make electricity in the West cheaper and more reliable
Regionalized power markets give utilities more buying options, driving down prices and boosting stability.
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New Mexico’s billion-dollar orphaned oilfield problem
After oil companies go bust, the state is left paying to clean up abandoned wells, tanks, machinery and sludge pits.
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Decades of public-lands planning, overturned in a day
The House voted to nullify three Bureau of Land Management plans, and critics fear many more could follow.
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Resistance to data centers rises on the border
In Doña Ana County, New Mexico, residents have long struggled to access clean water. Now, developers plan to spend $165 billion on a massive data center complex.
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Court delays land transfer that would enable copper mine at Oak Flat
The Western Apache and a coalition of environmental groups have fought for years against the Resolution Copper mine, which would become one of the country’s largest at the cost of a site revered by the tribe.
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The Trump team sets double standard on migratory bird rules
The administration said it will go hunting for cases of wind energy companies unintentionally killing migratory birds — something it has long argued is not a violation of federal law.
Posted inAugust 2025: Fire Culture
How one California community is turning an old oil field into protected habitat
Despite federal policies complicating Fullerton’s conservation success story.
Posted inAugust 2025: Fire Culture
The West’s data centers suck (water and power)
From simple searches to chatGPT, the big digital buildup threatens the grid and water supplies.
Posted inArticles
Law enforcement surveilled Nevada lithium mine protesters, according to records
Activists opposed to the Thacker Pass mine were ‘under the microscope’ for years.