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Livestock and Wolves: Defenders of Wildlife's proactive guide provides ranchers, land managers ways to protect stock -- and save wolves Read the comments (1)
Dec. 11, 2008
Fact
& Fiction and the Bookstore
at the University of Montana offer a review of Steven Rinella's "American Buffalo: In search of a lost icon."
Jan. 8, 2009
Jan. 25-27: Harvesting Clean Energy, Billings Mont. Read a preview
April 5-7: Colorado College's 2009 State of the Rockies Conference, Colorado Springs, Colo.
Obama administration suspends wolf-deslisting decision
The Obama administration put all eleventh-hour regulations by the Bush administration that had not yet been published in the Federal Register on hold for a legal and policy review, including the decision to take wolves in Idaho and Montana and the Great Lakes region off the endangered species list; expansion of a plan to develop oil shale resources in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming; and another that would change the Endangered Species Act.
NewWest.net; 01/22/2009
Colorado scientists find ozone buildup in the winter too
Scientists at the Boulder-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a study that found snow cover, a temperature inversion and chemicals released from drilling operations in southwestern Wyoming created ozone at higher levels than summer heat combined with vehicle emissions in urban parts of the West.
Denver Rocky Mountain News; 01/20/2009
As river level drops, Alberta asks oilsands operators to use less
For the first time since Alberta Environment's water management framework for the Athabasca River was implemented in 2007, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Suncor, Syncrude and Shell Albian Sands were asked to take less water from that river for their oil sands operations.
Edmonton Journal; 01/22/2009
EPA appeals board will review permit for N.M.'s Desert Rock plant
On Thursday, the Environmental Appeals Board granted a new review of the air-quality permit granted to the Desert Rock Power Plant, a proposed coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation near Farmington, N.M.
Farmington Daily-Times (AP); 01/23/2009
Montana campuses get $1.97M grant for wind power
The U.S. Department of Labor awarded a $1.97-million grant to Montana State University- Great Falls College of Technology to put wind turbines at that school, as well as MSU-Northern in Havre, MSU-Billings College of Technology and Montana Tech in Butte, and implement wind energy technical programs on each of those campuses.
Great Falls Tribune; 01/21/2009
Record-breaking crowd attends Ariz. Board of Regents' meeting
A proposal to cut $600 million in funding attracted the largest-ever crowd at an Arizona Board of Regents meeting on Thursday, with most of the 900 or so attendees speaking out against the proposal.
Arizona Republic; 01/23/2009
- Thousands rally in Las Vegas against Nevada education cuts
Gov. Jim Gibbons appeared to be the target of choice of the thousands of protesters who gathered on the University of Nevada-Las Vegas campus to express their outrage at what they believe are devastating cuts to the state's education budgets.
Las Vegas Review-Journal; 01/23/2009
Wyoming tribe wants Yellowstone Park bison
At a meeting Friday, Montana and federal officials recommended sending 41 head of bison that had wandered out of Yellowstone Park and held in captivity in Montana for the past few years to be sent to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
Casper Star-Tribune (AP); 01/20/2009
Navajo Nation, El Paso Natural Gas Co. sign pipeline deal
Houston-based El Paso Natural Gas Co. and Navajo Nation officials have reached an agreement over a pipeline right-of-way lease that expired in 2005, with the company agreeing to pay $350 million over two decades.
Arizona Daily Sun (AP); 01/20/2009
AP analysis ranks funds spent on endangered species efforts
The Associated Press analyzed federal funding for endangered species between 1996 and 2006, the latest year for which information is available, and while funding for salmon in the Pacific Northwest puts that species at the top for spending, the Mojave desert tortoise in Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California ranks among the top for spending for land-dwelling species.
Deseret News (AP); 01/20/2009
Western forests hit with double whammy of heat, drought
The results of a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey, which will be released in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, found that rising temperatures and attendant drought are doubling the rate at which trees in forests in the West are dying, and that the capacity of those forests to absorb carbon dioxide is decreasing as well.
Toronto Globe and Mail; 01/23/2009
Federal judge puts hold on BLM leases in Utah
A federal district court judge in Washington issued a temporary injunction sought by seven environmental groups over leases in Utah auctioned off by the Bureau of Land Management.
New York Times; 01/17/2009
Kempthorne orders BLM to streamline renewable-energy process
Under a Secretarial Order signed by outgoing Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne last Friday, the Bureau of Land Management will establish special offices in Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming and California to expedite permits for renewable-energy and transmission line projects on public lands.
Casper Star-Tribune; 01/21/2009
Judge's ruling puts 3 BLM plans in Utah into question
The federal judge's ruling that put 77 leases sold at a Bureau of Land Management auction in Utah on Dec. 19 on hold relied on three long-term resource management plans put in place by the BLM, and the judge's decision could ultimately affect those plans.
Salt Lake Tribune; 01/21/2009
BLM cites public concerns, pulls Colorado leases off auction
Bureau of Land Management officials announced they are pulling most of the energy parcels set to be auctioned on Feb. 12 off the auction block, and said that were deferring sale of the leases due to public concerns about them, which are on 16,400 acres of land in Colorado's LaPlata County in an area where little energy work has been done.
Durango Herald; 01/22/2009
Groups oppose last-minute changes in oil-shale leases
Colorado officials and environmental groups are protesting changes announced by the outgoing Bush administration on Jan. 16 to oil-shale leases on 160-acre parcels in Colorado and Utah revised a provision in original leases that said any regulations in effect when commercial development of the leases begins would apply to incorporate commercial oil-shale regulations proposed in November that lock in royalty rates at 5 percent during the first five years of production.
Grand Junction Sentinel (AP); 01/23/2009
RID Act will protect Utah from foreign nuclear waste
Utah's freshman Congressman Jason Chaffetz has joined U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson in his fight to keep foreign nuclear waste out of the state, and now Utah's other federal lawmakers, Rep. Rob Bishop and Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, should support the Radioactive Import Deterrence Act of 2009 as well.
Salt Lake Tribune; 01/20/2009
President Obama should address these Western issues first
Barack Obama will be sworn in today as the nation's 44th president, and he should consider putting these issues of import to Montana and other western states on his to-do list: keeping the nation's food supply affordable and secure; improving life on the nation's Indian reservations; upgrading century-old water delivery systems and expanding rural transportation options, just to name a few.
Great Falls Tribune; 01/20/2009
Western states may need mining, but mining needs states more
Mining companies, along with other extractive industries, often argue that states' economies need the jobs the companies provide, but mines need the states' minerals, metals and fossil fuels, and New Mexico needs to stand firm on protecting the state's land, water and air from damage inflicted by the extraction of these resources.
Santa Fe New Mexican; 01/19/2009
U.S. House should follow Senate's lead on public-lands bill
The Omnibus Public Lands bill has been thoroughly debated and aired, and will protect some of the nation's most wild places, including 315,000 acres in Colorado, and the U.S. House should act quickly to pass the bill and get it on President Obama's desk.
Denver Post; 01/22/2009
East Coast events dirty up 'clean coal's' image
The spill of a billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge in Tennessee and an order from a federal district court judge in North Carolina that four coal-fired power plants clean up their emissions have smacked the image of clean coal.
New York Times; 01/23/2009
U.S. Senate confirms Napolitano, Salazar to Cabinet posts
Acting quickly after the inauguration, the U.S. Senate confirmed Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as Homeland Security secretary; Colorado U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar as Interior secretary; former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as Agriculture secretary, as well as the nominees for Energy, Education and Veterans Affairs.
Los Angeles Times; 01/21/2009
SCHIP reauthorization would cover 36,000 more Utah kids
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who helped write the original State Children's Health Insurance Program 12 years ago, said he could not support the bill to reauthorize the program because there is simply no money in the federal budget to cover the expanded program.
Deseret News; 01/19/2009
Growing demand for Medicaid overburdens states
As more Americans lose their health insurance along with their jobs, Medicaid rolls are swelling, shredding estimates in states' budgets and contained within the federal stimulus package under consideration in Congress is a proposal that could divide half the funding evenly between the states and the other half using a formula that would direct more aid to states where job losses are highest.
New York Times; 01/22/2009
Idaho Sen. Risch gets committee assignments
Idaho's newly-elected Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Risch got his preferred assignment to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and was appointed to the Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations, the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Joint Economic Committee, as well as to the Select Committee on Ethics.
Idaho Statesman; 01/22/2009
Utah GOP senators get extra committee appointments
With fewer Republicans in the U.S. Senate, Utah's two senators have picked up additional committee assignments with Sen. Bob Bennett picking up a seat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Sen. Orrin Hatch getting an extra assignment to the Special Committee on Aging.
Deseret News; 01/23/2009
Arizona
Arizona House panel passes bill to ax speed cameras
The Arizona House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved House Bill 2016, which would force the removal of speed cameras on interstates and highways.
Arizona Republic; 01/23/2009
Colorado
Colorado lawmaker wants to jump start nuclear power
Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, said he'll sponsor legislation that would require the state to study what it would take to get nuclear power going in Colorado.
Grand Junction Sentinel; 01/20/2009
Idaho bill would raise fine for misuse of nontaxable diesel fuel
Idaho lawmakers said an increase of highway use of nontaxable diesel fuel, which is dyed a different color and is classified for use in off-road vehicles such as tractors and ATVs only, indicates that the fine for violating that law isn't high enough and proposed raising the fine for misuse to $1,000.
Twin Falls Times-News; 01/21/2009
Idaho
Idaho water agency asks lawmakers to shore up aquifer funding
The Idaho Department of Water Resources is concerned that the state's current budget woes will imperil its comprehensive management plan for the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, which could cost as much as $100 million over the first decade.
Twin Falls Times-News; 01/22/2009
Montana
Montana lawmakers get a preview of mobile biomass generator
University of Montana researchers Brian Kern and Paul Williamson took their semi trailer-sized downdraft gasifier to Helena on Thursday to give lawmakers a look at the mobile biomass power generator that turns wood chips and other organic materials into electricity.
Great Falls Tribune; 01/23/2009
Montana city supports raising population limit for resort tax
Current law in Montana limits the resort-tax option for towns to those with fewer than 5,500 residents, putting Whitefish above that limit, so the Montana town and local lawmakers are working on a bill to raise the population limit to 10,000.
Kalispell Daily Inter Lake; 01/21/2009
Small-power producers take exception to Montana bill
Developers of small power projects in Montana said a proposed bill that would change rules that determine sales prices and contracts benefit only NorthWestern Energy, and will make development of small projects more difficult.
Helena Independent Record; 01/21/2009
Montana lawmakers advance 1 stream-access bill
The Montana House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee passed House Bill 190, by Rep. Kendall Van Dyk, D-Billings, that would make it easier for the public to access Montana waters from public bridges, by a 16-2 vote; another bill on the issue that would have passed control over bridges to counties from the state did not pass.
Helena Independent Record; 01/21/2009
New Mexico
N.M. lawmakers put finishing touches on brackish-water bill
Legislation designed to regulate brackish water, which has a mineral content too high to be used for drinking or irrigation water, has been tweaked to address concerns of the oil and gas industry in New Mexico, and will be ready for lawmakers to work on in the legislative session that begins today. You may have to view an ad to read this article.
Albuquerque Tribune; 01/20/2009
Wyoming
Wyoming House gives preliminary nod to carbon-storage bills
A suite of bills tweaking Wyoming's existing laws on carbon sequestration and storage were given an initial nod from a House panel last week, and a bill establishing a legal system to compensate landowners for storing the carbon was approved by a legislative panel.
Casper Star-Tribune (AP); 01/17/2009
Firm predicts Montana, Colorado will escape housing downturn
Housing Predictor, an online research firm, predicted that Montana, Colorado and North Dakota will escape the turbulent housing markets seen in other states, with modest home appreciation rates forecast in an economy where 36 states are predicted to see double-digit decreases in housing prices.
Bozeman Daily Chronicle; 01/20/2009
- RealtyTrac: 50 percent of nation's foreclosures in 4 states
Foreclosures in Arizona, Nevada, California and Florida account for about half the nation's foreclosures, according to a report released late last week by RealtyTrac.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP); 01/20/2009
- Report: Vacant commercial space in Las Vegas highest ever
Voit Commercial Brokerage reported that Las Vegas has 48.6 million square feet of commercial office space vacant in the fourth quarter of 2008, 17.3 percent of all such space in the Nevada city and the highest on record.
Las Vegas Review Journal; 01/19/2009
N.J. biotech firm to open $100M facility in Arizona
Chandler officials said Covance, one of the world's largest drug-development companies in the world, will open a new $100-million facility in the Arizona city, bringing hundreds of new jobs.
Arizona Republic; 01/18/2009
German company may bring flooring plant to Montana town
At the Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce economic development meeting on Tuesday there were signs of cautious optimism with the news that a German flooring company was considering the Montana town's industrial park for a new plant.
Hungry Horse News; 01/21/2009
Mining equipment company opens rebuild shop in Colorado
West Virginia-based Phillips Machine Services, the world's largest independently owned mining equipment repair company, opened a repair and rebuild facility in December in Delta, bringing a dozen new jobs to the Colorado city.
Grand Junction Sentinel; 01/23/2009
Company produces first synthetic crude from Alberta oilsands
Calgary-based Nexen Inc. and its partner Opti Canada Inc., announced the first production of synthetic crude oil at its Long Lake project in Alberta's oil sands region.
Calgary Herald; 01/22/2009
Colorado oilseed plant squeezes all it can from sunflowers
The San Juan Bioenergy Plant began its life as a cooperative to produce biodiesel fuel, but a changing economy redirected the Colorado plant's mission to produce cooking oil from sunflower seeds, with the residue left after the oil is squeezed out used to make livestock feed, and next week when the plant's gasifier fires up, the sunflower heads, leaves and stalks will be turned into gas either heat the facility or run a generator to produce electricity.
Durango Herald; 01/23/2009
Washington governor requests cap-and-trade emissions bill
Gov. Chris Gregoire's Climate Action Plan is nothing new but the bill that would cap greenhouse gas emissions may have a better chance before the Washington Legislature this year given her support.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer; 01/21/2009
Paper mill, laboratory team up on Wash. carbon-storage project
Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland are boring holes in land owned by Boise Inc. near Wallula in Washington state they hope to use as a test case to sequester carbon emissions from Boise Inc.'s paper and pulp mill.
Tri-City Herald; 01/22/2009
Memo outlines Canada's plan to limit environmental reviews
An internal memo from a Canadian official indicates the federal government's plan to eliminate the need for environmental assessments of any construction project worth $10 million or less or in cases where provinces are doing such an assessment, a process the NDP says clearly indicates the government's position that economic development and environmental protection cannot co-exist.
Toronto Globe and Mail; 01/23/2009
Idaho, Washington support Spokane River study
A University of Washington geology professor has applied for a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study and develop a model for public input and regional decision making on managing the Spokane River's 2,400-square mile watershed.
Spokane Spokesman-Review; 01/23/2009
Drought concerns curb California farmers' planting plans
Some of the nation's largest farmers in California's Central Valley said they would reduce acres planted in tomatoes and other produce over concerns that drought would drastically reduce federal water supplies.
Las Vegas Sun (AP); 01/23/2009
Arizona's jobless rate jumped to 6.9 percent in December
The last time Arizona's unemployment rate was 6.9 percent was in 1982, and the state's unemployment rate hit that benchmark in December.
Arizona Daily Sun; 01/23/2009
Oregon's unemployment rate up 1 percent in December
Oregon's unemployment rate is now 9 percent, the highest reported since 1976.
Portland Oregonian; 01/21/2009
Unemployment in Utah hits 4.3 percent
The number of jobless in Utah jumped up 0.6 percent to 4.3 percent in December, which is still much lower than the 7.2 percent national unemployment rate.
Salt Lake Tribune; 01/21/2009
Unemployment in Washington state hit 7.1 percent in December
Washington state experienced its largest one-month increase in unemployment in December in more than three decades, rising from 6.3 percent in November to 7.1 percent.
Seattle Times; 01/22/2009
Intel to close 5 plants in 2009, one in Oregon
California-based Intel is Oregon's largest for-profit employer, and the company's decision to shut down its computer chip factory in Hillsboro could idle up to 1,000 workers this year.
Portland Oregonian; 01/22/2009
Clear Channel cuts 1,850 jobs
CPCC Media Holdings, which holds radio stations and billboards under the Clear Channel name, announced it was cutting about 9 percent of its staff, or 1,850 jobs; according to Clear Channel's web site it owns 15 radio stations in Arizona; 22 in Colorado; one in Idaho; 16 in New Mexico; four in Nevada; and six in Utah.
New York Times; 01/21/2009
Rio Tinto to cut 241 jobs in Utah
Rio Tinto, the parent company of Kennecott Utah Copper, Kennecott Land and Kennecott Exploration, said that it will cut 66 current employees and 151 contract positions in Utah as part of its plan announced in December to cut 5,500 employees and 8,500 contractors across its worldwide operations.
Salt Lake Tribune; 01/20/2009
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