Some critics worry the programs provide cover for climate-harming practices.
Economy
Posted inArticles
FEMA spent billions fighting California wildfires. Now, it wants victims to pay it back.
The agency is pushing bankrupt PG&E to reimburse the taxpayer money it spent on disaster relief.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2020: How One Woman Took a Stand Against Tribal Disenrollment and Paid For It
Can new bus lines chart a course to better travel options in the West?
A European bus company is expanding options for regional travel. High-speed rail could be next.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Crossing to Safety
As Spokane grows, is it leaving low-income renters outside?
Proposals to protect tenants and reduce homelessness lack political support.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Crossing to Safety
In rural Colorado, the kids of coal miners learn to install solar panels
Where the mines once provided steady employment, solar energy now offers jobs for the next generation.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Crossing to Safety
Undocumented farmworkers could get citizenship from a new bill in Congress
A United Farm Worker organizer reveals the political strategy behind the scenes.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Party Favors
Wyoming’s coal-fired economy is coming to an end
The state faces a future without an industry that’s been very good to it.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Party Favors
Economic giants drive income inequality in a second Gilded Age
Can we look to history for reform ideas in the age of big tech robber barons?
Posted inArticles
From the Bundys to cheap burgundy: How myths shape the West
Novelist Frank Bergon meanders through a changing West and traces old stories refreshed.
Posted inArticles
Climate activists take aim at ‘Wall Street West’
Last week, protestors shut down business in San Francisco’s financial center.
Posted inOctober 14, 2019: Severed Ties
The prospect of more Airbnbs tempts a struggling New Mexico town
Vacation rentals have gutted the culture of nearby communities, but a new project in Questa flips the narrative.
Posted inSeptember 16, 2019: "We can either wait on Mother Nature – or we can give it a shot ourselves."
A water ‘win-win’ in Colorado? Not so fast.
A plan to export water from the San Luis Valley to the Denver Metro area is met with defiance.
Posted inSeptember 16, 2019: "We can either wait on Mother Nature – or we can give it a shot ourselves."
Trump’s trade war is draining profits for Montana wheat farmers
Today’s agricultural producers battle both environmental threats and geopolitical conflict.
Posted inAugust 5, 2019: From Prison to Fireline
Who pays for infrastructure in Borderland colonias?
In places like Vado, New Mexico, good roads are hard to find.
Posted inArticles
New Mexico’s economic and energy extraction quagmire
‘We’re on a death train, economically.’
Posted inArticles
Climate change research threatened by University of Alaska budget cuts
Gov. Mike Dunleavy slashed university funding by $130 million, alarming Alaskans, scientists and climate specialists.
Posted inAugust 5, 2019: From Prison to Fireline
With coal in free fall, Wyoming faces an uncertain future
As demand shrinks and the industry retracts, counties and the state are in an untenable situation.
Posted inAugust 5, 2019: From Prison to Fireline
The tyranny of lawns and landlords
Renting culture puts dreams of cultivating wildness out of reach.
Posted inArticles
Much of rural America is doomed to decline
Public policy solutions need to grapple with, not ignore, this economic reality.
Posted inArticles
New Wyoming coal company abandons mines and miners
State officials are picking up the pieces after Blackjewel goes belly up.