High Country News

Let the EPA finish its work in Pavillion, Wyoming

The gas industry and its political partners are going to great lengths to try to derail and discredit an EPA report that blames Pavillion, Wyoming’s polluted water on hydraulic fracking.

by John Fenton, Jan 23, 2012
Producing more power means using more water

Federal agencies often overlook the tight relationship between energy production and water use.

by Judith Lewis Mernit, Dec 12, 2012
Frack forward

Wyoming's tough new hydraulic fracturing rules are meant to keep federal regulators at bay.

by Cally Carswell, Oct 05, 2010
A Western mystery with an environmental twist: a review of Buried by the Roan

In Mark Stevens' second novel, Allison Coil, a tequila-drinking hunting guide, investigates a mysterious death in a remote landscape much sought after by oil and gas developers.

by Erica Olsen, Aug 07, 2011
EPA aims to clean up polluted air in Western gas fields

The federal government sets its sights on clearing the air above gas operations

by Cally Carswell, Sep 04, 2011
Montanans close to Yellowstone better wake up

The oil and gas industry -- and its many environmental side effects -- are coming to Montana's Yellowstone country.

by Andrea Peacock, Sep 03, 2010
The Latest Bounce

EPA abandons attempt to regulate hydraulic fracturing; BLM briefly cuts forestry school funding and Republican Rep. Greg Walden grills logging critic Dan Donato; California regulator tries to stop ecological crash in San Francisco Bay-Delta

by Matt Jenkins, Mar 20, 2006
Chill, baby, chill

The largest drilling boom in Western history is ending as new technologies make it easier to get shale gas from other parts of the country.

by Randy Udall, May 01, 2009
Conscientious Objectors

Under increasing political pressure from the Bush administration and its appointees, agency scientists find it difficult to keep both their jobs and their integrity

by Laura Paskus, Dec 20, 2004
Follow-up

EPA will investigate allegations that bunk science led to approval of hydraulic fracturing; racketeering lawsuit against environmentalist dismissed; ACLU sues over BLM’s decision to Wyoming’s Martin’s Cove historic site to Mormon Church

by Matt Jenkins, Apr 18, 2005