Magazine
Courting the Bomb

September 1, 2003

The hardscrabble desert town of Carlsbad, N.M. – already home to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant – is brushing aside the fears of environmentalists and arms-control advocates in its eagerness to host the Bush administration’s planned new nuclear bomb factory. Also in this issue:Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, R, is President Bush’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, and some environmentalists fear he will prove little more than a yes-man.

Feature

Courting the Bomb
The hardscrabble desert town of Carlsbad, N.M. – already home to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant – is brushing aside the fears of environmentalists and arms-control advocates in its eagerness to host the Bush administration’s planned new nuclear bomb fac
Michelle Nijhuis Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition

Sidebar

Building a new bomb factory could cause global aftershocks
The Bush administration’s plans to build a new factory for nuclear bomb triggers could spark a brand-new arms race, critics say
Michelle Nijhuis Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
Rocky Flats, the sequel?
The Department of Energy says any new nuclear bomb factory will be safer than Rocky Flats, but critics have their doubts
Michelle Nijhuis Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition

Editor's Note

The return of the Nuclear West
Those who thought the West’s nuclear role would wind down with the end of the Cold War are facing a brand-new nuclear age, one that is being created behind closed government doors where few questions are asked
Paul Larmer Opinion Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition

Essays

The best little radio show in the West
Radio High Country News is fondly remembered, along with the brilliant and crazy people who made it possible
Greg Hanscom Essay Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
Like Paul on the road to Damascus
An encounter with Alaska’s Gwich’in people years ago convinced the writer to give up his truck and take personal responsibility for the environmental and cultural destruction caused by consumerism
John Wahl Essay Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition

Writers on the Range

The EPA needs an urban pit bull
Putting Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency is like using a goldfish to guard a junkyard
Ed Marston Essay Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition

Book Reviews

Digging through the dust of Libby
Journalist Andrea Peacock chronicles the tragic story of Libby, Mont., and its betrayal by the W.R. Grace Corp. in Libby, Montana: Asbestos and the Deadly Silence of an American Corporation
Michelle Nijhuis Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
A peek over the edge
Plundered Promise: Capitalism, Politics, and the Fate of the Federal Lands by Richard W. Behan is a provocative travel guide to the corporate take-over of the public lands under the Bush administration
Ray Ring Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
NEPA gets short shrift in the courts
A recent study by Defenders of Wildlife documents the Bush administration’s unprecedented rollback of the National Environmental Policy Act
Hal Clifford Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition

Heard Around the West

Heard Around the West
Boy Scouts with hatchets and heavy equipment; vanishing Lake Powell; speaking ill of the dead in New Mexico; Forest Service suspends supervisors for centerfold displays; suspicious of the Declaration of Independence in Flagstaff; and a Montana stoic adapt
Betsy Marston Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition

Dear Friends

Dear Friends
Farewell, Radio HCN; and Farewell, radio staffers Adam Burke, Krissy Clark and the recently arrived Maria Schell
Paul Larmer and Greg Hanscom Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition

News

Mr. Middle Ground gets called to Washington
Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, R, is President Bush’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, and some environmentalists fear he will prove little more than a yes-man
Matt Jenkins Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
Follow-up
Interior Department’s top lawyer, William Myers, under investigation for conflict of interest; Kane County, Utah, goes after BLM road signs; pro-property rights Paragon Foundation joins enviros in fighting to protect New Mexico’s Otero Mesa; and compromis
Matt Jenkins Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
In fire’s aftermath, salvage logging makes a comeback
Despite the warnings of scientists who say it’s a bad idea, the Bush administration is eager to log trees burned by the Biscuit Fire in Oregon’s Siskiyou National Forest
Kathie Durbin Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
BLM sinks local input to drill Roan Plateau
In Western Colorado, locals burned by the oil shale boom 20 years ago are dubious about planned natural gas drilling on the Roan Plateau, especially since the BLM unexpectedly dropped their favorite plan
Joshua Zaffos Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
Bush administration stretches a lawsuit to get the cut out
The Bush administration plans to more than double the amount of logging in public forests west of the Cascades in Washington, Oregon and Northern California
Michael Milstein Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
Feds to Energy Department: Slow down
Three federal judges, ruling in three environmentalist lawsuits, tell the Department of Energy that it has to be more careful with nuclear waste
Ray Ring Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
State land no longer just for the cows
The environmental group Forest Guardians outbids a rancher to gain control of a grazing allotment on state school-trust land in Arizona
Mitch Tobin Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
Developer tries to make a killing off the Black Canyon
Colorado developer Tom Chapman is marketing an inholding in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, advertising it online on eBay while the federal government scurries to meet his price
Gail Binkly Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
Calendar
Staff Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition

Letters

Light them and leave them
G. Arthur Janssen Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
We can restore the forests
Marc D. Barnes Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
We're starving our land managers to pay private companies
Michael J. Aune Sept. 1, 2003 From the print edition
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