By Eric De Place, Sightline.org Much to their credit, the United Steelworkers and the AFL-CIO want more sunlight on oil company practices. The unions believe that a string of accidents — including the deadly 2010 fire at Anacortes, Washington where Steelworkers are employed — is evidence that more safety information should be made public. WSJ’s MarketWatchreports: […]
Energy & Industry
Posted inMay 2, 2011: The Westerner in D.C
Wind farms test efforts to cooperate on Oregon’s Steens Mountain
On a hazy autumn day, Fred Otley leans against his flatbed pickup and talks about managing the Otley Brothers Ranch in desolate, windy southeast Oregon. A careful rotation of grazing and fire sustains the open mosaic of juniper and sagebrush on the valley slopes, he explains. He points to the water tank he installed to […]
Posted inRange
Moving Washington beyond coal
By Jennifer Langston, Sightline.org A deal to wean Washington off coal power is a hair’s breadth away from becoming law. Both houses of the Legislature have approved a bill to close the state’s largest single source of greenhouse gas, mercury, and nitrogen oxide pollution over the next decade and a half. And with the addition […]
Posted inGoat
Clearing the way for renewables
On public lands, mining claims are staked for more than just the riches hidden underground. Some are made simply to wrest cash from competing users — namely possibly renewable energy developers, according to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Speculators can could grab up mining claims in areas considered for wind and solar energy development […]
Posted inGoat
Sucking up gold
Gold has hit $1500 an ounce — and that’s got would-be miners casting a covetous eye at Western streams and rivers. The Gold Rush may have ended more than a century ago, but there’s still gold to be gleaned, if you’ve got a pickup, a wetsuit or waders, and a suction dredge (see our 2006 […]
Posted inRange
American Indians suffer from high gas prices
A few weeks ago Bloomberg News reported that Saudia Arabia is investing $100 billion in renewable energy sources. In other words the country with the largest known reserves of oil is spending its profits building power plants fueled by nuclear energy, wind, geothermal and solar power. What does Saudia Arabia know that the rest of […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Rare-earth reality check
Not far from Devils Tower in the Black Hills of eastern Wyoming, work crews are preparing to drill dozens of new holes amid ponderosa pines and rolling meadows. But they’re not looking for gold. Instead, they hope to strike neodymium, europium and other exotic-sounding rare earth metals — a group of 15 elements, plus two […]
Posted inGoat
Sustainable ag education loses funding
The U.S. government has long been in the business of supporting education for farmers. In 1914, Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act, which formalized a system of agriculture education that is still ongoing. Known as cooperative extension, it was a partnership between the U.S Department of Agriculture and the land grant colleges. The partnership allowed the […]
Posted inRange
Time is running out for the Grand Canyon
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House On July 21, a moratorium on staking new uranium and other hardrock mining claims on over one million acres of public land near the Grand Canyon National Park, will end. Unless the Department of the Interior makes a decision on the land withdrawal prior to that–which seems unlikely, […]
Posted inBlog
Jobs vs. the environment?
A few weeks ago in this space, I bemoaned the slow pace of green energy development in the face of nuclear disaster in Japan and oil-spill devastation in the Gulf of Mexico. As a consumer of both these dirty fuels, I feel complicit in and mostly helpless to change this unsustainable state. I have steadfastly […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
One thumb up, one thumb down
After seeing the cover of HCN in February — a fear-stricken cow moose and a defenseless calf surrounded by wolves — I was pleasantly surprised by Tracy Ross’ article (HCN, 2/21/11). It was a fair assessment of the politics behind the increasingly controversial and risky methods that Alaska is employing to rid the state of […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Cleverly clean
Kudos to Lake County, Ore., for its support and promotion of renewable energy (HCN, 3/21/11). They clearly have a joint vision, a marketing strategy, and are working together in a collaborative manner. Oregon has become a national leader in the field of clean energy and sustainability. Even with tight budgets, a myriad of agencies continue […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Air quality and equity
Lee van der Voo’s article on renewable energy development in Lakeview, Ore., was well-balanced and informative (HCN, 3/21/11). There is one energy-related issue in Lakeview that was not mentioned, however: air quality. As in most of the rural West, many folks in and around Lakeview use wood heat. But the area is prone to winter […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Consumers feel Big Beef’s squeeze, too
Thank you for covering the harm to Western ranchers from consolidation in the cattle industry (HCN, 3/21/11). It’s worth adding that this trend has terrible consequences for consumers as well. Since four corporations control 80 percent of the beef slaughtered in the U.S., in addition to paying ranchers poorly, those companies can charge consumers higher […]
Posted inGoat
On Navajo Nation, Power Authority slips away
On April 8, a week after Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly testified before Congress on the immense energy potential in Indian Country, the Nation’s energy development enterprise, Dine Power Authority, will shut its doors, laying-off all but two of its staff. In operation since 1985, the DPA has yet to lift one major electric energy […]
Posted inWotr
LEDs ought to be leading the way
How many cities does it take for Western utilities to change a light bulb? Federal Department of Energy research shows that light-emitting diode streetlights — called LEDs by just about everybody — can reduce energy use by 12 percent when used in place of conventional high-pressure sodium lighting above high-speed roads. LEDs also can save […]
Posted inBlog
Using Japan to discuss energy at home
I noticed this week that I’ve been writing and thinking about energy almost constantly. Obviously I’m not the only non-expert who has become obsessed with this subject, but it is interesting to me how something that used to seem so technical and dispassionate now churns the emotions so powerfully. Perhaps it is the very mysteries […]