One of the West’s largest utilities may be betting that the future lies with coal-fired power plants rather than efficiency and alternative fuels. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.13/download-entire-issue
PacifiCorp bets on coal, and against efficiency
Wyoming tribes lose again in court
The Wyoming Supreme Court has rejected a plea to reconsider its 3-2 ruling that restricts the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes’ use of “future” water and makes the state the administrator of federal reserved-water rights. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.13/download-entire-issue
Power could come from a shared vision
These two special issues of High Country News say that we have overbuilt our electric power system by up to five times. We could shut down up to four out of five power plants, coal mines, and hydroelectric dams while providing the same services and a higher quality of life. Download entire issue to view […]
Can coal burn cleanly?
To help coal survive as the nation’s number one source of electricity, the federal government subsidizes a wide range of clean-coal research programs. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.12/download-entire-issue
How clean coal helped kill a utility
Rebuilding the Colorado-Ute Electric Association power plant at Nucla, Colo., was a technical success. Unfortunately, although the operation went well, the patient died a lingering and painful death. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.12/download-entire-issue
The end of the ‘official future’
Pacific Gas and Electric, a huge California utility, tries to turn on a dime, abandoning nuclear power in favor of efficiency and alternative sources of energy. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.12/download-entire-issue
Tribe wins back stolen water
A century-long battle for water rights waged by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Arizona ended as Western film rarely do: The Indians won. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.11/download-entire-issue
Is Yellowstone taking grizzlies’ turf?
Grizzly bears feeding on spawning trout have fueled a debate over the $48 million Fish Bridge redevelopment project proposed for the heart of Yellowstone National Park. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.11/download-entire-issue
‘I lay lizard-like on a boulder, basking and sun-drying’
I’d always had this urge, possibly primeval, to live in a cave for a while. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.11/download-entire-issue
National forest grazing cuts are stalled by politics
Two Idaho and Montana studies by the Forest Service represent the first full-scale efforts by the agency to control damage caused by grazing, but substantial improvements on the range may be a long way off. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.10/download-entire-issue
Land claims and money divide Western Shoshone Tribe
A handful of Western Shoshones have declared independence from the United States at the remote northern Nevada ranch of Carrie and Mary Dann. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.10/download-entire-issue
Everett Ruess: ‘I have really lived’
Unless he returns to tell it himself, we’ll never know his fate for certain, but it appears that he began to realize that his love of wilderness, his quest for oneness with nature, had him trapped. He knew he could never go back. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.10/download-entire-issue
A small town fights a large mine
For more than 100 years, the last thing the people of Victor, Colo., would think of doing is to say “no” to gold mining. Now they are saying “whoa.” Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.9/download-entire-issue
Rural economies can reform or go the way of Detroit
Environmentalism is the vanguard of urban America, which is giving the rural West the choice of adapting to the larger society’s vision or of dying. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.9/download-entire-issue
How you and a bear can survive a chance meeting
When meeting a black bear, friendly or otherwise, it is best simply not to move … Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.9/download-entire-issue
The race for Montana’s one congressional seat pits polar opposites
Politicians, environmentalists and business leaders agree, the 1992 congressional campaign in Montana (between Pat Williams, a Democrat, and Ron Marlenee, a Republican) is likely to result in the most important — and interesting — election in perhaps a generation. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.8/download-entire-issue
Idaho river basin denied protection
When the state Water Resources Board proposed a ban on hydroelectric development for streams in the Henry’s Fork Basin, few expected it would face rough sledding in the 1992 Idaho Legislature. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.8/download-entire-issue
Indians hope buffalo can revive tribes’ fortunes
A hundred years after the West’s wild buffalo herds were wiped out, the Native American Inter-Tribal Buffalo Cooperative is attempting to bring the great animal-back to Indian lands. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.8/download-entire-issue
‘Disaster, disaster on the range,’ report says
The General Accounting Office (GAO) has repeatedly criticized the Bureau of Land Management’s handling of livestock grazing on the nation’s public lands, citing overgrazed, cattle being favored over wildlife, lack of land management planning, and grazing of excess numbers of livestock. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.7/download-entire-issue
Blowing the whistle while covering your ass
Some survival tips for whistleblowers: Copy everything, take notes, know who your friends are, test the system but don’t trust your boss. And always tell your family before you fight the good fight. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/24.7/download-entire-issue
