In the struggle to clean up nuclear waste left by weapons programs and power plants, the West’s men in black robes are ganging up on the U.S. Department of Energy. So far this year, ruling in environmentalist lawsuits, no fewer than three federal judges have ordered the department to do a more careful job. On […]
Energy & Industry
Posted inSeptember 1, 2003: Courting the Bomb
State land no longer just for the cows
For the first time, environmentalists have outbid a rancher to gain control of a grazing allotment on state land in Arizona. The Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians had tried to lease the allotment since 1997. But the state land office repeatedly rejected the applications, saying only ranchers could bid on Arizona’s 8.3 million acres of school-trust […]
Posted inSeptember 1, 2003: Courting the Bomb
Courting the Bomb
The Bush administration’s new nuclear bomb factory is looking for a home — and the leaders of Carlsbad, New Mexico, are determined to give it one.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2003: Courting the Bomb
BLM sinks local input to drill Roan Plateau
Local and environmental concerns tossed by the wayside in western Colorado
Posted inSeptember 1, 2003: Courting the Bomb
Building a new bomb factory could cause global aftershocks
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Courting the Bomb.” Building a new factory for nuclear bomb triggers could spark another arms race, say opponents of the Department of Energy’s proposed “modern pit facility.” They argue that the facility would violate the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which went into effect in 1970 […]
Posted inSeptember 1, 2003: Courting the Bomb
Rocky Flats, the sequel?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Courting the Bomb.” During public hearings this summer, Department of Energy officials repeatedly stated that nuclear bomb triggers could be built safely. Their “modern pit facility” would be, as its name suggests, fully modernized and superior to the department’s previous pit-manufacturing projects. Their insistence […]
Posted inWotr
The Bush administration is moving to mine our heritage
By any standard political measure, July was not the best of times for the protection of the last remaining wild places in this country. On July 16 came a ruling by a Wyoming court challenging the legality of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule — a policy to protect 58.5 million acres of untrammeled national forests […]
Posted inAugust 18, 2003: Where the Antelope (and the Oil Companies) Play
Where the Antelope (and the Oil Companies) Play
In Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin, gas drillers lock horns with the locals
Posted inAugust 18, 2003: Where the Antelope (and the Oil Companies) Play
Energy bill will likely boost drilling in the Rockies
Western senators parry over the nation’s future energy supply
Posted inAugust 18, 2003: Where the Antelope (and the Oil Companies) Play
Gas crisis puts Rockies in hot seat
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Where the Antelope (and the Oil Companies) Play.” Since last spring, Congress, the White House, economists, consumer groups and business leaders have been sounding the alarm about a natural gas crisis. While there’s plenty of disagreement on the cause and the solution, nearly everyone […]
Posted inJune 23, 2003: 'Sound science' goes sour
Is it a farm – or is it a pharmacy?
Western farmers consider the risks and benefits of ‘biopharming’
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
County commission stands down on gas wells
Last summer, Colorado’s Delta County Commission made history when it denied state-approved drilling permits for four out of five coalbed methane wells (HCN, 9/2/02: One Colorado County Takes a Stand). The commissioners cited concerns about drilling’s impacts on water quality. But in May, they backed down. County Attorney Brad Kolman says they didn’t have much […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Why I fight: The coming gas explosion in the West
Here’s what I once believed: that if the president knew about the damage done to our land by the energy industry, the damage would cease. I once believed that if you could show that industry can extract gas without damaging land right near us — as it does on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, and […]
Posted inWotr
Let’s not succumb to the temptation of biopharming
It’s hard to take issue with a technology that might have been able to save my parents’ lives. But that’s what I’m going to do. I’m talking about biopharming, the process that makes medicine from crops. Take a corn plant or a tobacco plant; inject it with a protein-making gene from humans or animals; harvest […]
Posted inMay 26, 2003: A losing battle
A green light for gas drilling
The Bush administration’s push for increased oil and gas development in the West just got a boost from the Bureau of Land Management. In April, the agency issued two separate decisions that pave the way for 66,000 new coalbed methane wells and 5,000 conventional oil and gas wells in the Powder River Basin by 2011. […]
Posted inMay 26, 2003: A losing battle
Mining rules put industry on rocky ground
California has two new regulations that industry officials say could spell the end of gold-mining in the Golden State. On April 7, Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill requiring mining companies to fill in open-pit mines near sacred Indian sites on federal lands, once they have completed mining. The same week, the California State Mining […]
Posted inMay 26, 2003: A losing battle
Agriculture exacts a price in the High Sierra
Scientists home in on what’s killing frogs, and raise new questions about how far the damage could spread
Posted inMay 12, 2003: Planting time
Farmland protection may dry up
As California faces its largest budget deficit ever, a nearly 40-year-old farmland-protection program could go to the chopping block. Reacting to a burst of mid-century sprawl, the state legislature passed the Williamson Act in 1965. Under the act, farmers promise to keep their land in commercial agriculture in exchange for county property tax breaks. The […]
Posted inMay 12, 2003: Planting time
Phelps tries to dodge bond
Phelps Dodge Corporation, the state of New Mexico and environmentalists remain locked in a conflict over the cleanup of an open-pit copper mine in southern New Mexico. In March, the New Mexico Environment Department approved a draft permit for the Chino Mine near Silver City, the fourth-largest copper mine in the country, with a suggested […]
Posted inMay 12, 2003: Planting time
Healthy energy on public lands
Wind turbines and solar panels may be coming soon to a national forest near you. According to a new report, there are plenty of opportunities to develop renewable energy on millions of acres of federal land in the West. In Assessing the Potential for Renewable Energy on Public Lands, the Bureau of Land Management and […]