Yesterday I read, “What every westerner should know about oil shale,” a report published last week by the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West. It left my ears ringing with a sort of dull reverberation that, while it lasted, actually seemed to be getting louder. I think that ringing sound had something to […]
Energy & Industry
Posted inJune 15, 2009: Let's Get Small
Let’s Get Small
Can ‘hamster power’ help save the West’s landscapes — and the world?
Posted inGoat
Landscapes of power
A few miles north of Rock Springs, Wyoming, a big interpretive sign is titled, Landscapes of Power. Yes, the landscapes are powerful: The massive piece of earth that seems just to have awakened and violently ripped itself out of the land up the Green River from Vernal, Utah; or the cloud enveloped Wind River range, […]
Posted inGoat
Adobe Town drilldown
The tussle over Adobe Town continues. This spectacular chunk of Wyoming’s Red Desert has been in the sights of energy companies for years (see our story The desert that breaks Annie Proulx’s heart) . But the area has also been designated “Very Rare or Uncommon” by the state, in recognition of its unique geology, fossils, […]
Posted inGoat
What the FRAC do we know?
Drilling for natural gas really hasn’t been the most natural process. Numerous reports of groundwater contamination have skeptics and homeowners worried over hydraulic fracturing, a process used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the U.S. But finally, some proposed legislation to oversee the drilling: Representatives in both the House and the Senate […]
Posted inGoat
Sunshine and water
The solar-electric generating systems in my area are “photo-voltaic.” When photons from the sun strike certain materials, they give off electrons, which are then channeled to the electric grid. There’s another way to generate electricity from sunshine: Concentrate the solar rays to heat a fluid that in turn boils water, resulting in steam […]
Posted inJune 1, 2009: Voyage of the Dammed
Forestry from the inside
The Forester’s Log: Musings from the WoodsMary Stuever264 pages, softcover: $24.95.University of New Mexico Press, 2009. Forester Mary Stuever started writing newspaper columns “to share my love for forests and my passion for my chosen profession.” It’s a profession that has changed dramatically during the last 25 years, and in her new collection, The Forester’s […]
Posted inJune 1, 2009: Voyage of the Dammed
Distributed Generation Is The Answer
I live out in the Mojave Desert near where a bunch of large utility-scale solar thermal power plants are being planned on public land (HCN, 5/11/09). Thousands of acres of desert tortoise habitat will be scraped, and the company is trying to buy ranchers and farmers out for their water rights, because this power plant […]
Posted inGoat
May Bats Prevail
Back in March, I wrote a post about the grisly lawnmower effect wind turbines can have on bats. Well, there’s some good news: a new study conducted by Iberdrola Renewables and independent conservation group Bat Conservation International found that bat death can be reduced by more than 70 percent if the turbines are turned off […]
Posted inGoat
A change is gonna come
As more consumers choose to eat locally, agribusinesses tailor their ads to fit the market. According to Mark Muller of Civil Eats, this reactionary stance from the corporations is a big shift in our current food system. Lay’s just recently tried on the “local” hat. And Walmart did too last year. But skeptics are put-off […]
Posted inWotr
Government capitalism can be a very good thing
This year marks the 70th anniversary of an important event in western Colorado: the first annual meeting of the Gunnison County Electric Association. The group had only 116 members when it started and just $275 in the bank, but it went on to bring electric power to the area’s ranches, thanks to the federal government’s […]
Posted inGoat
New Ag-Jobs bill hits Congress
As High Country News noted last Fall in a story called Field Day, these days it’s hard for growers to find enough agricultural workers to tend and pick their crops. With tougher enforcement on the Mexican border, stiffer penalties for hiring undocumented immigrants, and a cumbersome H-2A guest worker program, many growers are in a […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Borne on the wind
Editors of Eco Forum, the newsletter of the South Dakota Resources Coalition, seem thrilled about the prospect of a compressed-air car coming to America. Indian carmaker Tata bought the rights to manufacture it from a company called Zero Pollution Motors. The technology seems almost too good to be true: The stripped-down six-seater averages 106 miles […]
Posted inRay
New grazing technology might save streams
I’m not sure how feasible this is for widescale installment on the many grazing parcels in the West. But it’s worth spreading the word to help it catch on. A grad student, Adam Sigler at Montana State University, has designed and tested a new technology that changes the way cattle use streams. It looks like […]
Posted inWotr
Why a sheep rancher never needs to go to Las Vegas
Shearing is risky: We could visit Wyoming’s reservation casinos, but we choose to run sheep. For us, the essential annual task — shearing — must happen during a particular moment in time. Our sheep recently left their Red Desert wintering grounds for the 80-mile trek to our lambing grounds. Ideally, the shearing crew shows up […]
Posted inMay 4, 2009: Salmon Salvation
High Noon
As the climate warms, environmentalists square off over Big Solar’s claim to the Mojave Desert
