Some of the land recently marked for drilling in Utah may be pulled from the oil and gas auction block. In late summer and early fall, six resource management plans were rushed through at a break neck speed, opening up 80 percent of the 11 million acres in the planning areas for energy development. Cultural […]
Energy & Industry
Posted inGoat
Grabbed my shovel and I went to the mine
Here’s one more addition to the list of Western industries being affected by the economic downturn: coal. Peabody Energy — the world’s biggest coal company, made famous as the villain in the John Prine song “Paradise” — has announced that it is freezing all hiring at its three Wyoming coal mines. The company said in […]
Posted inGoat
Southern Utes discover a new kind of crude
The Southern Utes mean business. Their investment company, the Southern Ute Growth Fund, manages more than $1 billion in assets, including a set of real estate development companies and an oil and gas drilling business. Just this week, they opened a new high-end casino on their reservation south of Durango, Colorado. But the Utes are […]
Posted inGoat
Recession in the gasfield?
Last weekend, the family and I drove over to Grand Junction, Colo., about an hour away from here, to run some errands. GJ, as we call it, is the metropolitan and service center of Colorado’s Western Slope. In other words, it’s awash with malls, big boxes, strip malls and fast food chains, not to mention […]
Posted inGoat
Anticlimax
Over the past couple years, it’s looked like the region would see a resurgence in hardrock mining, thanks in large part to China’s booming economy. As recently as late summer, copper prices were well above $3 per pound; molybdenum hovered over $30 per pound. Towns like Leadville, Colo., which was devastated when the Climax molybdenum […]
Posted inGoat
The West from 30,000 feet
Recently I had the opportunity to fly from Salt Lake City to Arcata on the coast of Northern California during the daytime. I’ve noticed that most airline passengers don’t look out the windows very often. But when I have a clear day I delight in the views. One of my favorite games is to try […]
Posted inWotr
Pushed to the wall, we can power down
We seem to learn hard lessons about energy scarcity only when something big and unexpected happens. That was definitely the case this summer in Juneau, Alaska, when avalanches suddenly destroyed our power supply and threw our community headlong into an experiment in conservation. The avalanches, released 40 miles south of Juneau on April 16, were […]
Posted inGoat
Energy future: geothermal
Calling it “a model for working together to make decisions about our energy future,” Department of Interior secretary Dirk Kempthorne yesterday unveiled the agency’s plan to open 190 million federally-managed acres to geothermal energy development. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Forest System, the land sprawls across 12 Western states and […]
Posted inGoat
Dove Creek Dreams
Fields here are draped over hillsides and wrapped around sandstone canyons like brown and green quilts. Farm machinery rolls along county two-lanes, filling them from shoulder to shoulder. Houses of the hunker-down school of architecture sit here and there, each surrounded by a scruff of thirsty trees. This is Dove Creek, Colorado, the Pinto Bean […]
Posted inGoat
ABC censors clean energy ad
Oil companies have bought influence in Washington and used that influence to make life easier for themselves and harder for their competitors. This may be a controversial statement, but it’s not an unfounded one, given the amount of money the oil industry pours into politics and the regularity with which it gets its way in […]
Posted inGoat
Bureau of Land Ravagement?
Just days after the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation raised serious concerns about the Bureau of Land Management’s plan to open up rock art-rich Nine Mile Canyon to 800 more gas wells, the agency is under the scrutiny of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office for its extensive use of categorical exclusions to permit energy […]
Posted inWotr
We’ve heard the “drill now” drumbeat before
Perhaps it is telling that when it comes to energy policy, President George W. Bush has inspired nostalgia for Jimmy Carter. “If we had only followed Carter’s energy plan,” people say, “we wouldn’t be in this fix now.” For Westerners, though, following Carter would have been a big mistake. Granted, there were some sensible aspects […]
Posted inGoat
Nothing left to lose
Renewable energy sources may not belch carbon dioxide or other nasty gasses into the atmosphere, but that doesn’t mean they’re impact-free. Solar power, if done on the scale necessary to replace coal, would take up huge swaths of desert land. Wind turbines kill birds and bats and, to some people’s eyes, just aren’t very pretty. […]
Posted inGoat
Drilling setback in Nine Mile Canyon
This week, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation sent letters to the Bureau of Land Management raising concerns about plans to open Nine Mile Canyon for new energy development. The canyon, situated in eastern Utah’s Tavaputs Plateau, is home to ancient rock art, which has already endured damage due to increased truck traffic from the […]
Posted inGoat
Oil shale moratorium expires
At the moment this post goes live — 12 am, October 1, 2008 — the West will be one step closer to commercial-scale oil shale development. That’s because the provision that Ken Salazar inserted into last year’s Interior Department appropriations bill forbidding the BLM from issuing final regulations for granting oil shale leases will have […]
Posted inGoat
Roan battle rages on
Yesterday, the BLM issued leases for natural gas drilling on the Roan Plateau. The leases were auctioned off about six weeks ago for a record-breaking $114 million. Environmental groups, hunters, anglers and Colorado politicians, including Governor Bill Ritter, opposed the BLM’s management plans, advocating for stronger protections on the unique and beautiful sanctuary in western […]
Posted inWotr
Wyoming should take the lead in using CNG
Wyoming is one of the largest natural-gas producing states, so why isn’t the state leading the nation in powering vehicles with this abundant fuel? If the price of gasoline stays high and a natural gas-powered car can run on $1-to-$1.25 per gallon-equivalent cost, however, I think we’ll see the light: We’ll understand that it makes […]