EnvironmentalPolicy

A collection of High Country News articles concerning public policy and the environment.

If corporations are people, what are they really like?

The state of Montana is leading the way in the fight to destroy the bizarre legal fiction that corporations are people.

by Ray Ring, May 22, 2012
Western legislatures grab for control of public lands

Some Western states are rekindling the Sagebrush Rebellion and demanding ownership of federal lands -- but it's not just about local control.

by Jodi Peterson, May 16, 2012
Western legislative roundup

Some recent Western legislative highlights are noted, accompanied by quotes from the legislators involved.

by Jodi Peterson, May 14, 2012
Selling what's priceless is the nuttiest idea of all

Some Western legislators want to sell off our public lands -- an idea that is not only impractical, but contrary to the desires of most Westerners.

by Jeff Welsch, May 10, 2012
Arizona's clean-election law is pruned, but not uprooted

Clean-elections laws have a way of withering away, especially since the Supreme Court's controversial Citizens United ruling, but Arizona is still struggling to keep political campaigns fair.

by Danielle Venton, Apr 30, 2012
Will the real Mr. Pombo please stand up?

California Republican Rep. Richard Pombo made his mark blasting the Endangered Species Act, but now, he says, he’s learning to compromise on environmental issues

by Matt Weiser, Jul 25, 2005
D.C. and the West: Worlds apart

Washington, D.C., seems like another planet when seen from the West, as the political stories in this issue of the paper suggest

by Greg Hanscom, Jul 25, 2005
A good ranger stands up to bad bureaucrats

National Park Service ranger Robert Danno is still being punished by the agency he loves, despite being vindicated for his work as a whistleblower eight years ago.

by Andrea Lankford, Apr 20, 2012
A Hell of an Anniversary

High Country News' founder, Tom Bell, marks our 40th anniversary with a grim prediction: The West -- and the world -- are doomed.

by Ray Ring, Aug 30, 2010
Fracking is the big new gun

Hydraulic fracturing is changing the energy industry -- and the entire nation -- in ways we’re only beginning to understand.

by Randy Udall, Mar 29, 2012
Wilderness bills languish in legislative limbo

Even Republican sponsors can't seem to break their party's determined stonewalling on wilderness bills in the House of Representatives.

by Danielle Venton, Mar 05, 2012
Environmental warrior Martin Litton is still fighting at 95

Martin Litton, who has spent his entire life fighting to preserve Western landscapes, is still battling to save California’s giant sequoias.

by Jane Braxton Little, Feb 29, 2012
A conversation I look forward to having with the NRA

A lifetime member of the NRA is skeptical of the group's paranoia about President Obama’s gun-control plans.

by Pat Wray, Mar 01, 2012
Some politicians turn public lands into a political football

The West's vast public lands are under attack by politicians in the U.S. House of Representatives as well as by several of the Republican presidential candidates.

by William Meadows, Feb 24, 2012
The politics of growth

Almost every major election in Arizona is up for grabs this year, along with a rash of ballot initiatives, and some observers hope the state can pull out of its headlong rush into uncontrolled growth and development.

by Ray Ring, Oct 14, 2002
Montana court defends law defying Citizens United

As elections of state judges become increasingly contentious, the Montana Supreme Court defends the state's Corrupt Practices Act against the Citizens United decision.

by Rebecca Stanfel, Feb 15, 2012
The postal service is slipping away

A great nation needs a great postal system -- even if it doesn't quite pay for itself

by Ed Quillen, Feb 07, 2012
Detente in the rancher v. environmentalist grazing wars?

Buying out grazing permits from willing ranchers could help solve conflicts over grazing on public lands.

by Jodi Peterson, Jan 23, 2012
The logging town of Darrington, Wash., fights to save a fire lookout

A lawsuit raises questions about how far environmentalists should go to keep wilderness 'untrammeled.'

by Nathan Rice, Jan 25, 2012
Lawyer Laird Lucas on how and why he fights for the West

The environmental lawyer battles big industries and government agencies in the courtroom on behalf of the nonprofit Advocates for the West.

by Steve Bunk, Nov 01, 2011