The scandal-plagued Interior Department has certainly provided plenty of material for journalists during the seven-plus years of the Bush administration. Unfortunately, the tabloid-style headlines have come at a price: the pervasive mismanagement of the nation’s natural resources, from endangered species and clean water to federally-owned oil and gas reserves. Are things likely to be any […]
What the election means for the Interior Department
Posted inGoat
EPA reopens “National Libraries on the Environment”
The EPA’s “self-inflicted lobotomy” is about to be reversed — at least partially. More than a year ago, in response to Bush budget cuts, the agency began dismantling its network of 26 technical libraries, a crucial repository of scientific information for the agency’s own researchers and the public. It closed several regional libraries and moved […]
Posted inGoat
Nothing left to lose
Renewable energy sources may not belch carbon dioxide or other nasty gasses into the atmosphere, but that doesn’t mean they’re impact-free. Solar power, if done on the scale necessary to replace coal, would take up huge swaths of desert land. Wind turbines kill birds and bats and, to some people’s eyes, just aren’t very pretty. […]
Posted inGoat
Drilling setback in Nine Mile Canyon
This week, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation sent letters to the Bureau of Land Management raising concerns about plans to open Nine Mile Canyon for new energy development. The canyon, situated in eastern Utah’s Tavaputs Plateau, is home to ancient rock art, which has already endured damage due to increased truck traffic from the […]
Posted inGoat
How the federal election could impact public lands
The September 15th edition’s Snapshot focused on the high cost of restoring the Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park. The Snapshot reports restoration which is now underway will cost $240 million to complete. I found this price tag for “restoring” only one Glacier NP road curious. I live near Redwood National Park […]
Posted inGoat
Oil shale moratorium expires
At the moment this post goes live — 12 am, October 1, 2008 — the West will be one step closer to commercial-scale oil shale development. That’s because the provision that Ken Salazar inserted into last year’s Interior Department appropriations bill forbidding the BLM from issuing final regulations for granting oil shale leases will have […]
Posted inGoat
Do you live in a small town?
We’ve been hearing a lot about small towns during the campaigns this year, ranging from Barack Obama’s comment about bitter residents to Sarah Palin’s service as a small-town mayor. That means it might be a good time to find out whether you live in one. Community size is a consideration, of course, but these factors […]
Posted inGoat
Roan battle rages on
Yesterday, the BLM issued leases for natural gas drilling on the Roan Plateau. The leases were auctioned off about six weeks ago for a record-breaking $114 million. Environmental groups, hunters, anglers and Colorado politicians, including Governor Bill Ritter, opposed the BLM’s management plans, advocating for stronger protections on the unique and beautiful sanctuary in western […]
Posted inGoat
Ground gaming the system
The latest Colorado poll, conducted by Rasmmussen on September 28, has Obama up by one point. But is the race as close as it seems? Maybe not. There’s been some recent speculation, of course, that the the polls are skewing Republican because pollsters can’t get in contact with young voters who don’t have landlines. But […]
Posted inWotr
Wyoming should take the lead in using CNG
Wyoming is one of the largest natural-gas producing states, so why isn’t the state leading the nation in powering vehicles with this abundant fuel? If the price of gasoline stays high and a natural gas-powered car can run on $1-to-$1.25 per gallon-equivalent cost, however, I think we’ll see the light: We’ll understand that it makes […]
Posted inGoat
The bailout
In an election year already filled with topsy-turvy events and serial comeuppance, the stock market yesterday lost an average of $3 million per minute and chickens came home to roost on their dwindling 401K nest eggs. The headlines were screaming: Massive credit contraction…worst drop in U.S. stock market since 911…strangled economy…serious recession looming. But despite […]
Posted inArticles
One species versus 1.8 million others
I’m a student of roadkill. I keep an informal tally of the carcasses I spot on the roadside – what kind, how many and where — and I note the splatters that accumulate on our car windshield. They’re an indication of the diversity and abundance of animal and insect lives along the unnatural transects we […]
Posted inGoat
Palin the hostile
A recent piece by native rights attorneys Lloyd Miller and Heather Kendall-Miller — getting wide play in Native and alternative media — indicts Sarah Palin on Native issues in her home state. Alaskan Native villages are spread across 375 million acres, many of them roadless. Subsistence foods — fish and game — still comprise 60 […]
Posted inArticles
Clean coal is an oxymoron
After Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer made a fiery speech at the Democratic Convention, some people suggested that he’d make a fine secretary of Energy, no matter who wins the election. But although Schweitzer, a Democrat, may give a good speech, his near-fanatic promotion of coal should give one pause. The West has long suffered the […]
Posted inWotr
Confessions of a former Hillary supporter
It’s true: I’m a recovering Hillary supporter. A part of me felt I owed it to Hillary as a fellow product of an all-female education. When anyone bashed on the pantsuits, I called them “practical.” When they said she was cold, I said she was “objective.” Another part of me just wanted to see a […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Mr. Toad’s wild ride
Tiny toads, each only as big as a nickel, got a little help negotiating a bike trail at the Sunriver Resort in central Oregon. The Western toads were migrating from a man-made pond to a pine forest behind a line of condos. But first the little guys had to hop across an asphalt bike lane, […]
Posted inWotr
Trapped by fire on a mountain lookout
Updated September 29, 2008 The fire season of 2008 will long be remembered as the most destructive ever recorded in New Mexico’s Manzano Mountains. The human-caused Trigo Fire destroyed 59 homes after erratic winds pushed it from the west to the east side of the mountain range some 70 miles southeast of Albuquerque. Lightning ignited […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
All in a day’s work
It was Aug. 8, 2008, in high-altitude Evergreen, Colo., and Mike Speck was in a hurry because — at 8:08 that evening — he was going to be married. Speck, a 54-year-old contractor, was filling a camper with water and didn’t notice the black clouds building above him, until, wham! Lightning struck, the charge going […]
Posted inGoat
Diamonds in the Rockies
Molybdenum. Uranium. Silver, gold, copper, coal. You name it and Colorado has probably mined it. Now a company called DiamonEx wants to exploit those mineral-rich mountains for diamonds. The Australia-based company is seeking a permit for exploratory drilling in Larimer County, along the Front Range. DiamonEx says they hope to mine as many diamonds as […]