Energy & Industry

With beautiful, unseasonably warm weather this week, the West’s normally hungry news watchers had trouble keeping our eyes on the computer screens and away from the fruit trees blooming outside. Rallying our strengths, we found birds and elk did not fare well in Western news this week. Our cheer at the climate-conscious news coming from Environmental Protection […]

I’ve not written much about antibiotic use (or overuse) in livestock facilities. It always seemed like one of those perennial important-yet-not-going-anywhere topics where a group of concerned scientists write research-based, impassioned letters to the federal Food and Drug Administration listing all the potential consequences, but the agency never takes action. Which is not to say […]

The enemy grows among us, and it’s spreading. Worse, its powers stand to increase. Invading legions of superweeds have taken root in our fields. In California, growers battle at least 24 different types of herbicide resistant weeds, in nearly 2,000 sites across more than 200,000 acres. Idaho weed scientists report infestations across 240,000 acres. Around […]

As we reach the end of a week that seems rife with repetitions, and as candidates continue to wax and wane in popularity like so many moon cycles, we’re holding steady. Resignations have also been running amok, with some so fed up they leave their company, their zoo or even their empire, but fear not […]

There’s an ongoing, half-bitter joke at High Country News that nothing we cover ever reaches true resolution. Flip through newsprint HCN papers from the 1990s and you’re bound to see headlines you could very well read on our blog or in our now-glossy pages today: “Las Vegas seeks watery jackpot,” “Conservatism still reigns in Idaho,” […]

By now you’ve surely read the headlines that proclaim, “US Nears Milestone: Net Fuel Exporter” or “US Becomes Net Oil-Product Exporter” or, the most ambitious and egregious, “U.S. Becomes Net Energy Exporter.” The stories affixed to the headlines certainly have a triumphant air to them, and why shouldn’t they? After four decades of our leaders […]

From Twin Falls to American Falls, Jerome to Rexburg, a series of anti wind-energy billboards have been springing up around Idaho like mushrooms after a rainstorm. The big blue signboards feature pictures of windmills clustered around the campaign slogan: “Swindle” (the “wind” emphasized in bold red type), below which is written, “not cheap — not […]

When I read Tasha Eichenseher’s recent Land Letter article (sub reqd) about fracking’s use of water, I was alarmed by the numbers. In Colorado, alone, hydraulic fracturing operations use about 4.5 billion gallons of water per year. That’s expected to increase to more than 6 billion gallons over the next few years. The takeaway is […]

In agricultural technology circles, when talk turns to plant breeding as a way to boost crop yields, combat plant diseases, and adapt to a hotter, drier world, genetic modification has frequently dominated the conversation. This includes the Roundup-ready suite of crops, resistant to herbicides, or BT corn and soy, which are modified to manufacture their […]