In the Rockies today, the focus is on energy.
A new-generation coal-gasification project will be built in Illinois, a location Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal had said was his second choice, with the first being Wyoming.
The project, expected to be completed by 2013, will turn coal into gas, with a minimum amount of emissions, including a 90 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.
Nuclear energy is on the agenda at a meeting in Idaho on Thursday, with MidAmerican Nuclear Energy Co. providing details of their proposal to build a nuclear-power plant in Payette County.
In Montana, the operator of the state's largest wind farm, said the company plans to build six more in that state.
And in Colorado, a proposal to drill for natural gas on the Baca National Wildlife Refuge is generating a lot of concern.
Rockies today
FutureGen's next generation 'clean-coal' plant will be built in Illinois
FutureGen's $1.76-billion, coal-gasification plant will be built in Mattoon, Ill., and is predicted to start producing 275 megawatts of energy--with little pollutants and only 10 percent of the carbon dioxide produced by the current generation of coal-fired plants--by 2013.
Christian Science Monitor; Dec. 19
Company to lay out nuclear plans for Idaho at Thursday meeting
MidAmerican Nuclear Energy Co. will detail its plans for a nuclear power plant in Idaho's Payette County at a meeting Thursday in Payette.
Idaho Statesman; Dec. 19
Energy company plans 6 more wind farms in Montana
Mark Jacobson, director of business development for Chicago-based Invenergy, which operates the largest wind farm in Montana, was in the state on Tuesday to meet with landowners to discuss leasing ground for future wind farms, and said that the company plans to build six more wind farms, three of which will be located between Great Falls and the Canadian border.
Great Falls Tribune; Dec. 19
Canadian company wants to drill test wells in Colorado wildlife refuge
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to release a draft environmental assessment on Lexam Energy Exploration's request to drill test natural gas wells on the Baca National Wildlife Refuge, established in 2003 and purchased with $33 million of taxpayer dollars, but the mineral rights didn't come with the deal, a fact that has drawn sharp criticism from groups and lawmakers.
Denver Post; Dec. 19
Alberta confirms 8th case of mad-cow disease
A 13-year-old beef cow on a farm near Red Deer is Alberta's eighth confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and Canada's 11th.
Edmonton Journal; Dec. 18
Colorado county homeowners head to Wal-Mart for water for hot tubs
A Colorado water commissioner was on patrol this fall to make sure Summit County homeowners were complying with their "indoor-use" only well-water permits, and found that about half of the 500 homes he visited were illegally using the water to water grass, fill hot-tubs and ornamental ponds.
Denver Post; Dec. 19
Organizers pick Montana as site for fifth annual Primal Quest race
Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado and Arizona were all competing to be the site for the 2007 Primal Quest race, a 400-mile endurance race held annually since 2002, and Montana won out, primarily due to the efforts of Billings mapmaker business MyTopo.com, a sponsor of the race that will produce maps for the race.
Billings Gazette; Dec. 19
Opinion
Kudos to Montana, Idaho senators for work to ditch federal fees
The "Fee Repeal and Expanded Access Act of 2007" sponsored by Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, along with Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, will repeal a measure slipped through Congress as a rider on a spending bill that allowed federal land agencies to impose use fees--fees that the General Accountability Office says are used primarily to collect the fees or sit unused in undesignated accounts.
Tucson Citizen; Dec. 19
A new review for Bush administration's spotted owl plan a good thing
The announcement this week that the Bush administration would conduct a new review of its spotted owl plan, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's appointment of widely respected biologist Steven Courtney, vice president of the Portland-based Sustainable Ecosystems Institute to lead the review panel, may give the plan some much-needed credibility.
Portland Oregonian; Dec. 19
Guest column:
Montanans need to be a little more tolerant of grizzly bears
Recent statements by a Montana wildlife officials about the state having too many grizzly bears was unnecessary rhetoric, and while human-bear conflicts have increased in the state, it's the humans, not the bears, that need to change their behavior. A guest column.
Betsy Robinson; Dec. 19
Beyond the region
U.S. House passes energy bill, which president says he'll sign
The U.S. House passed an energy bill on Tuesday that will set higher fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks and increase the annual production of renewable fuels fivefold over the next 15 years, most of it from corn, despite criticism that growing the corn needed is depleting aquifers, flooding rivers with fertilizer and driving up the cost of food.
Washington Post; Dec. 19
Federal Reserve proposes new rules for mortgage lenders
Congressional Democrats criticized new regulations proposed by the Federal Reserve crafted to curb deceptive mortgage lending practices that have played a part in the current foreclosure tumult because they said the rules do not go nearly far enough.
Washington Post; Dec. 19
U.S. House passes bill with $1.2 billion for border fence
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will have full discretion on what type of fence is built where on the U.S.-Mexico border under a measure passed by Congress, which proponents said will allow more flexibility to reduce the impacts of the fence, but opponents said it allows the government to backtrack on its promise to fence 700 miles of the border.
Arizona Republic; Dec. 19
|
