Doug Burgum was once seen as a conservationist. Reality shows otherwise.
Energy & Industry
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Studies link New Mexico drilling to radiation, air pollution, health risks
Small towns in the Permian Basin have become a petri dish for the perils of living amid the nation’s largest oil fields.
Posted inSeptember 2026: On the Trail with Gary Paul Nabhan
Large solar project on Navajo Nation leaves residents skeptical
As renewable energy expands, questions about how renewable the projects are regulated on Diné land emerge.
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Nuclear power drive boosts southwestern uranium mill — and tribal health concerns
Havasupai, Ute Mountain Ute, Najavo (Diné) tribes worry that southwestern uranium mills may foul groundwater for generations.
Posted inSeptember 2026: On the Trail with Gary Paul Nabhan
In Arctic Alaska, 1.4 million acres of federal land is shifting to state hands
A cascade of changes is underway along its only northern highway.
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Solar and wind continue to push coal off the West’s grid
Trump’s war on clean energy falters.
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Arctic drilling in Alaska won’t get environmental review in new proposal
The Interior Department will soon publish a ‘categorical exclusion’ that will rubber stamp oil and gas development in Alaska’s remote National Petroleum Reserve.
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New Mexico’s rising climate-disaster costs are being paid by oil and gas revenue
The state is in a double bind of fossil fuel extraction and the destructive results of burning it.
Posted inAugust 2026: The Conversations Issue
What Standing Rock’s propaganda war means today
Ten years after the standoff, exclusive documents reveal that digital mercenaries targeted local communities and stirred up anti-protest sentiment.
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The BLM may stop notifying landowners about drilling under private land. Ranchers are alarmed
Western cattlemen are poised to lose almost all opportunity to comment on oil and gas development underneath their property.
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Tribally contested Badger Mountain solar project canceled by developer
Avangrid withdrew its application from the Washington state permitting process following years of objections and delays.
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Pueblo leaders, New Mexico lawmakers speak out to protect Chaco Canyon
Officials call push to remove an oil and gas buffer around the culturally critical monument ‘an absolute gut punch.’
Posted inJuly 2026: Lost in the Weeds
Alaska Native communities prepare for man camps driven by new mining boom
How one village established a Native-led sexual assault response team to help address the oncoming chaotic boomtown atmosphere.
Posted inSeptember 2026: On the Trail with Gary Paul Nabhan
Bears Ears cuts also end first-of-its-kind tribal land commissionÂ
A presidential proclamation slashed the monument by 90% despite a promise to involve tribes.
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Sen. Mike Lee targets the Roadless Rule
The Utah senator launched another unpopular assault on public lands.
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Elk herd habitat near Dinosaur National Monument to open for drilling
On June 16, the feds will open Colorado’s biggest public land sale in modern history, threatening wildlife and recreation.
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Treat water like family, not profit
Federal and state approaches to managing the Colorado River – as well as land and wildlife – reflect a lack of experience.
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Emails show Interior delivered new drilling permits for Burgum’s billionaire ally
Oil and gas giant Continental Resources wanted the BLM to sign off on new wells in Wyoming, despite a court injunction there. The agency obliged.
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Controversial gas pipeline across Navajo Nation to begin
The pipeline would eventually cross 234 miles of tribal land. The hearing initiating the project caught community members off guard.
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Nukes and AI require 1.4 million gallons of water a day at New Mexico lab
In a state that’s already short on the resource, Los Alamos National Laboratory expects to double water use.