Climate change. Severe wildfires. Invasive species. A booming human population. The Bureau of Land Management identifies these as four key threats to Western public lands. Stick conventional and renewable energy development, endangered species protection, and recreation in the mix, and there’s less room each year for a past widespread use of public lands: livestock grazing. […]
Energy & Industry
Posted inBlog
Radioactive Justice
Lately I’ve been trying to keep up with the debate about uranium mining in the Grand Canyon region. I’m sorry to admit that like many people I’m not well-versed in the physical properties of uranium or radioactivity in general, so my first impulse when approaching this subject is a sort of vague, knee-jerk fear. As […]
Posted inGoat
Full frackin’ disclosure
New regulations in Wyoming requiring gas companies to disclose chemicals used in fracking go a long way toward addressing a rising chorus of health and environmental concerns. But, like a wholesome, Wyoming first date, it’s just a start, and they don’t go all the way. Drillers have long contended that the chemical cocktails they use […]
Posted inGoat
More surprises flow from Ruby Pipeline
Last month the HCN magazine ran a story on the furor over a conservation deal meant to keep two environmental groups from suing to stop construction of the Ruby Pipeline, a 675-mile-long natural gas pipe stretching from Opal, Wyo., to Malin, Ore. Western Watersheds Project and the Oregon Natural Desert Association opposed fragmentation and destruction […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Conservation calculus
Are trade-offs in Wyoming’s Jonah natural gas field a boon for wildlife?
Posted inRange
Remembering Labor on Labor Day
Labor Day comes on Monday. It inspires thoughts of picnics and mountain outings, but it also brings to mind a conversation I had years ago with my state representative — the rare Republican who carried a union card. Several mines had closed. Our area had lost a lot of well-paid steady jobs with excellent benefits. […]
Posted inGoat
On the radio
Laura Paskus was recently interviewed about her story “The life and death of Desert Rock” on KVNF, Paonia’s community radio station, by former HCN intern Ariana Brocious. Take a listen below, or check out an interview Laura did with KUNM in Albuquerque. Listen here!
Posted inBlog
Cows, coyotes and a revelation
Reporting on the West’s public lands and environment can be a gloomy task. The news from four decades of High Country News – battles over massive strip mines, ancient forests decimated by greedy timber companies, the sorry state of public grazing land, gas wells popping up like a pox and recreation enthusiasts trampling the land […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
‘Clean and healthful environment’
Montana’s constitution could stop a huge mine
Posted inRange
The Goliath of beets
By Michelle Venetucci Harvey As of a recent court hearing, a multinational biotech company feels threatened, thousands of farmers in the Pacific Northwest see impeding doom, and half of the US sugar industry is potentially depleted. What could be causing all this ruckus? The sugar beet. This month’s ruling by US District Judge Jeffrey White […]
Posted inBlog
A renter’s market?
For the first time in decades it’s cool to be a renter. So why is it so hard to rent a home and still be “green”? This week, as news outlets across the board reported a steep decline in home sales and prices in July, especially in the West, some reported increased preferences for renting, […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Surprises flow from Ruby Pipeline
A conservation compromise fails to stave off lawsuits
Posted inGoat
Uranium pullback
It looks like Colorado won’t have a functioning uranium mill anytime soon – to the relief of anti-nuclear advocates. We reported in July that Cotter Corp. was planning to reopen its Canon City site by 2014. Legislation passed this spring means that Cotter would have to clean up prior contamination before starting to process uranium […]
Posted inArticles
The life and death of Desert Rock
The Navajo Nation’s proposed coal plant always rested on shaky ground. Now, it may collapse entirely.
Posted inAugust 16, 2010: Young, All-American, Illegal
Monstertruck alley
Remember the last time a fleet of semis roared past you on the interstate? Now triple the size of the trucks and halve the size of the road, and you have a rough image of a plan to ship 207 loads of oversized mining equipment through Idaho and Montana to the Kearl Oil Sands in […]
Posted inBlog
What a week for wind
On Tuesday, July 27, the Los Angeles Times reported the groundbreaking of the immense Alta Wind Energy Center near the Mojave Desert town of Tehachapi. The story described a facility “being called the largest wind power project in the country,” and its potential to generate three gigawatts of electricity for Southern California homes. Though light […]
Posted inAugust 2, 2010: The Fiery Touch
Leasing lag?
During the past two years, the Bureau of Land Management has been offering less land for oil and gas leasing in Wyoming. The trend is due largely to market conditions — a reflection of low current and future oil and gas prices — but energy experts also cite a surplus in non-producing acreage, an increase […]
Posted inAugust 2, 2010: The Fiery Touch
Vermillion surprise
BLM’s no-drilling decision in Colorado startles locals
Posted inGoat
Will the real data please stand up?
Facing a comprehensive federal investigation on the health and environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing of gas wells, some natural gas advocates seem resistant to finding any answers at all. In preparation for its much-anticipated study this summer the Environmental Protection Agency is holding public hearings around the country, asking citizens to help determine the study’s […]
