Hearings on the Interior Department’s plan to lease public land for the 3,000 megawatt Kaiparowits power plant, which would produce electricity for a consortium of California and Arizona utilities, were held in six Western cities last week. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.19/download-entire-issue
Kaiparowits critics, boosters meet at Utah hearings
Sunlight Basin dam rejected
An application for a reservoir on scenic Sunlight Creek in northwest Wyoming was rejected by Wyoming’s state engineer. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.18/download-entire-issue
Concentrate coal development and problems
The western low-sulfur coal myth — that the vast majority of coal west of the Mississippi has a low sulfur content — is misleading because most of this coal also has a low heat content. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.18/download-entire-issue
Arco wants West opened up
Many energy demand-supply forecasts place U.S. coal production in 1985 at 1 to 1.5 billion tons, which Atlantic Richfield believes is a legitimate goal of our society. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.18/download-entire-issue
Speculators want Sunlight Basin
Six different applications have been files for constructing reservoirs in Wyoming’s Sunlight Basin, just east of Yellowstone National Park. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.17/download-entire-issue
Kaiparowits EIS describes major canyonlands impacts
The Environmental Impact Statement for the 3,000 megawatt Kaiparowitz coal-fired power plant proposed for Utah’s canyon country describes impacts including degraded air quality in surrounding national parks. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.17/download-entire-issue
Governors unite on energy rights
Several Western governors convened recently to hammer out general policies on energy issues for the region, striking a tone of “states’ rights” in relation to the national government. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.17/download-entire-issue
Power plant ahead
Wheatland, Wyoming, has so far dodged the energy boom, but it may be the future home of the Missouri Basin Power Project, a 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.16/download-entire-issue
Kaiparowits comes before the people
Many people in southern Utah favor construction of the Kaiparowits coal-fired power plant, which would be the largest in the country. But a growing number are starting to have second thoughts, and ranchers in the coal-mining areas are asking for help from environmentalists. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.16/download-entire-issue
Wilderness endangered by overuse
Most people believe wilderness should be left alone. But as more and more people use it, active management becomes necessary. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.15/download-entire-issue
What kind of place should Yosemite be?
In the process of writing a master plan for Yosemite National Park, the Park Service has scrapped the usual approach of holding local public hearings, and is instead hosting small workshops in major cities across the country. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.15/download-entire-issue
Life in a heron rookery
Entering a blue heron rookery is like stepping back into prehistoric times with great, reptilian birds. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.15/download-entire-issue
Slowing energy growth gives us time to choose
Can you imagine a U.S. energy future which doesn’t require immediate and massive commitments to western coal and oil shale development, nuclear power, offshore oil or foreign imports? Such a future is possible, according to the Ford Foundation’s Energy Policy Project. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.14/download-entire-issue
Northern Plains coal suit most important battle front
The federal government is likely to ask the Supreme Court to allow resumption of federal Powder River Basin coal development while it appeals last month’s court decision freezing that activity. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.14/download-entire-issue
BLM grazing suit foes reach agreement
Environmental groups and the Bureau of Land Management have reached an agreement for the preparation of local environmental impact statements in livestock grazing on over 150 million acres of public lands in 11 Western states. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.14/download-entire-issue
Is the Sierra Club in the national interest?
A public debate in Casper, Wyoming, this month focused on an oil man’s query: Are the energy-related policies of the Sierra Club in the national interest? Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.13/download-entire-issue
‘Irrigation water’ all goes to industry
Although Wyoming’s Fontenelle Reservoir was built under pretense of providing water mostly for irrigation, it is useless for agriculture — and may have been intended all along to serve industry. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.13/download-entire-issue
Who owns the West’s water?
Tight competition for water in the West is forcing the U.S. government to assert its rights under the federal water reservation doctrine, which maintains that the federal government reserved all the water necessary to operate Indian reservations, national forests, national parks, and oil reserves. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.12/download-entire-issue
Game range transfer threat to wildlife?
Debate follows the decision to transfer three wildlife ranges — the Kofa Game Range in Arizona, the Charles Sheldon Antelope Range in Nevada, and the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Range in Montana — to sole management by the Bureau of Land Management, after years of dual management with the Fish and Wildlife Service. Download […]
Charlie Scott: from Wyoming to Washington D.C. (and back again)
Charlie Scott, a rancher south of Casper Mountain in Wyoming, challenged himself as a bureaucrat in Washington D.C. for five years, but is pleased to be back in the West. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.12/download-entire-issue
