While Congress does nothing, Western state lawmakers pass a flurry of consequential and/or crazy — bills.
Articles
Posted inArticles
Oil industry profits don’t pay for cleanup
A failure of regulation has allowed industry to avoid the true cost of cleaning up its unplugged wells.
Posted inArticles
The great Clean Girl vanishing act
The search for an ‘invisible’ perfume is rooted in frontier aesthetics.
Posted inArticles
How a small town with limited resources is planning for climate change
Oregon’s Grants Pass is known for its climate, and its sustainability plan aims to keep it that way.
Posted inArticles
A cartography of loss in the Borderlands
Mexicali’s Colorado River Family Album documents what is no more.
Posted inArticles
How the Colville Tribes are restoring traditional lands and wildlife
The tribes are re-establishing native species wiped out by systematic colonization.
Posted inArticles
See how bad your community’s air will be in 30 years
New data forecasts the nation’s future air quality, all the way down to individual addresses.
Posted inArticles
During climate chaos, a witness and champion of the West
A Q&A with author and educator Laura Pritchett.
Posted inArticles
What happened to the Great American Outdoors Act?
A historic public lands act passed in 2020. Here’s what it’s done so far.
Posted inArticles
A proposed bottle-deposit bill in Washington would help the environment — and low-income communities
The legislation would add a premium for bottles returned by organizations supporting people who rely on deposit refunds.
Posted inArticles
What this winter’s snowfall says about the future of skiing
A snow-obsessed meteorologist dishes on this year’s precipitation — and what it means for winters to come.
Posted inArticles
Wild ice: A training ground for rural skaters
On the Western Slope of Colorado, frozen reservoirs and rivers offer interesting terrain for skating.
Posted inArticles
Stolen Indigenous land is the foundation of the land-grant university system. Climate change is its legacy.
Extractive industries are filling public university coffers on stolen land.
Posted inArticles
Fund conservation as you drive
Colorado’s new wolf-themed specialty license plate joins a regional menagerie of critter-themed plates.
Posted inArticles
Gov. Newsom releases new plan to save California salmon
A wave of dam removals is planned, but salmon strategy relies on voluntary water cuts.
Posted inArticles
New DNA technique could bring closure for families of missing and murdered Indigenous people
But experts say this risks DNA sovereignty.
Posted inArticles
Biden plan will earmark millions of acres of public land for solar development
Proposed updates to the Western Solar Plan would also close sensitive areas to utility-scale solar projects.
Posted inArticles
Alaska is short on gravel and long on development projects
The state’s North Slope communities need rocks, and they’re hard to come by.
Posted inArticles
Is uranium poised for a renaissance?
As prices climb, mining proposals proliferate. But it might just be hype.
Posted inArticles
New Mexico pushes back on Big Oil
New bills in the legislature could curb industry excesses.