Energy & Industry
The energy we take for granted is becoming scarce
A modern snowmobile is more powerful than any machine that existed on the planet 200 years ago. In an hour you can be 20 miles from the nearest road, high-marking a corniced ridge. But if the engine breaks or you run out of gas, how quickly the tables can turn. One minute you are omnipotent, […]
Falling off the heat ladder
Or … Daniel Boone never dug a snow cave
Guarding Galisteo
As oil and gas companies sink more drills into Western soil, landowners often find themselves at the mercy of corporations and industry-friendly federal law. Citizens of Santa Fe County, N.M., however, are pushing the limits of local control and demanding a seat at the table. In Galisteo Basin, south of tony Santa Fe, ranchers and […]
From poo to power
Poop. That’s what powers Bartertown, the violent setting of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the 1985 post-apocalyptic movie. Beneath the crime-ridden city, one man controls the seething, stinky pig-manure pit from which electricity is generated — and he can shut off the power at will. Fortunately, that’s not the pattern for biofuel these days. Instead, the […]
Power from the underground
The West is just beginning to tap its potential for clean, renewable geothermal energy
Reluctant Boomtown
Mining abandoned Superior a decade ago. Now the industry is ready to return, but this little Arizona town is not sure it wants it back.
Mining the West
A glimpse at mining data — including workforce, mining salaries, metals revenue and production, minerals produced in 2007, the metals and minerals one person uses in a lifetime, miscellaneous statistics, and specs on the world’s biggest dump truck! Download the PDF » Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story: Reluctant Boomtown […]
A Rico renaissance
Post-mining economy threatened by proposed moly mine
Death of a mine
In Utah, a major new copper producer goes belly-up in just two years
The short life of Lisbon Valley
August 1995 After four years of collecting environmental data, Summo USA Corp. applies to the Bureau of Land Management for a permit to mine copper in Lisbon Valley, roughly 40 miles southeast of Moab. March 1997 The Moab BLM office approves the mine, but enviros appeal. June 1998 The Interior Board of Land Appeals rules […]
Mining reform has one foot in the door
For only the second time in 136 years, Congress is nearly unanimous in its call to update the 19th century law that still governs the country’s metal ore mining. “There’s a pretty broad sentiment in both parties and both houses that the mining law of 1872 needs to be reformed,” says Luke Popovich of the […]
A bad idea hits the gas pumps
A quiet invasion is under way near my home in Colorado. Inconspicuous black stickers are appearing on gas pumps to announce the arrival of a new molecule looking to occupy gas tanks. It goes by the name of C2H5OH – ethanol. Typically, my consumption of ethanol is strictly oral, in the form of alcoholic beverages. […]
Time to call the gas industry’s bluff
There’s been a steep falloff in friendly chit-chat around the local gas pumps, and no wonder. With diesel at $3.40 a gallon and gasoline only somewhat cheaper, it’s common to see someone drop $100 on a tankful. The Pump N Pay is as glum as a morgue. A typical American family will spend more than […]
It’s time to call the gas industry’s bluff
There’s been a steep falloff in friendly chitchat around the local gas pumps, and no wonder. With diesel at $3.40 a gallon and gasoline only somewhat cheaper, it’s common to see someone drop $100 on a tankfull. A typical American family will spend more than $3,000 on liquid fuels this year, and another two grand […]
Let’s reform the 1872 Mining Law – finally
Like many Westerners, I grew up with the luxury of unlimited adventure outdoors. I could wander around, fishing rod in hand, looking for the next hidden pond near my family’s cabin in northern Colorado. That was before I began working in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado as a mountain guide for a kids’ […]
An octopus wants to eat the West
What’s 3,500 feet wide, 6,055 miles long and 2.9 million acres big? That’s wider than Hoover Dam, bigger than Yellowstone National Park and almost three times as long as the Mississippi River. This behemoth goes by the name of the West-Wide Energy Corridor, and if you live in the West it could soon devour a […]
Wyoming hits a green roadblock
Will Wyoming’s vast coal mines be forced to cut back or close down during our lifetimes? When the current energy boom started in the fall of 2002-2003, just five short years ago, several commentators predicted that the state’s energy-based prosperity would stretch out for decades. I was certain of this, too. The prediction was based […]
A political speech the West needs to hear
“One of our most urgent projects is to develop a national energy policy. The United States is the only major industrial country without a comprehensive, long-range energy policy. Our program will emphasize conservation … solar energy and other renewable energy sources. … We must face the fact that the energy shortage is permanent. There is […]
Like it or not, corn is in every meal
For the first time in history, the youngest generation alive today is at risk of a shorter lifespan than their parents. As we begin the 21st century, we have managed to take a great leap backward: We’re living shorter lives. We know why. It’s because of our poor diets, our alarming proclivity for fast food, […]