In the Rockies today, a bid for Montana coal, another natural gas pipeline proposed for Wyoming, and a Nevada biomass project stumbles.
In Montana, a London bank representing an undisclosed investor wants to pull the coal out of Otter Creek, and wants permission to do so by September.
Rothschild executives declined to name the company the bank is representing but said it's a company with substantial experience.
In Wyoming, natural gas producers are aglow about the prospect of a third pipeline to carry their product to eastern markets.
The 800-mile Rockies Alliance would originate in Wamsutter and terminate on the Minnesota-Canada border.
And in Nevada, a much-touted biomass electrical plant built to supply two prisons with power has been operational just a few days in the six months since it went online because the state can't find the wood needed to fuel the plant.
Rockies today
London bank asks Montana to lease Otter Creek coal tracts
Rothschild executives declined to name the company the London bank represents in the request that Montana lease coal tracts in the southeastern portion of the state, but did say that the company is a corporation with considerable mining experience, but Montana officials doubt they can meet the bank's request to have coal leases in place by September.
Billings Gazette; March 26
Pipeline project pumps up prospects for Wyoming natural gas producers
Questar Overthrust Pipeline Co. and Alliance Pipeline Inc.'s 800-mile-long Rockies Alliance Pipeline will originate in Wamsutter, move through Wyoming's natural-gas rich Powder River Basin and terminate on the Minnesota-Canada border and will be in service within three years.
Casper Star-Tribune; March 26
Nevada biomass electrical plant runs out of wood
The $8.3 million biomass facility built to provide power for two prisons in Nevada has hit a supply problem: officials cannot find a sustainable, reliable supply of wood to keep the plant powered up.
Reno Gazette Journal (Nevada Appeal); March 24
Group sues NPS over elk-culling plan in Colorado national park
A lawsuit filed Tuesday by WildEarth Guardians against the National Park Service alleges that the federal agency should have considered introducing wolves into Rocky Mountain National Park to cull the elk herd in the Colorado park rather than sharpshooters.
Denver Post (AP); March 26
BLM discovers bike jumps built by heavy equipment on N.M. lands
Bureau of Land Management personnel said heavy equipment was needed to build a track of seven, 5-foot ramps in the Glade Run Recreation Area in New Mexico, and said the construction of those jumps probably destroyed fragile plants and possibly artifacts that cannot be restored by simply moving the dirt back to where it was.
Farmington Daily Times; March 26
B.C. pine beetles eat their way into famine
The British Columbia Forestry Minister and an executive with the Council of Forest Industries said that the infestation of pine bark beetles in the Canadian province is winding down simply because the bugs are running out of trees.
Toronto Globe and Mail; March 26
Loss of forest cover to beetles impacts salmon runs in B.C.
Pine-bark beetle infestations in British Columbia have affected nearly 60 percent of the Fraser River watershed, where the dead and dying trees no longer intercept rain and snow nor provide shade to slow spring snow-melt, which creates flooding and high peak stream flows that erode streams, and eventually leads to summer drought, higher summer water temperatures in the rivers, which adds additional stress to salmon runs.
Vancouver Sun; March 26
Idaho congressman wants to ease path for new nuclear power plants
Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson said the process to get a license to build a nuclear power plant is too rigorous and takes too long, and he wants to eliminate some of the rules to ease the way for more nuclear power plants.
Idaho Statesman (AP); March 26
Opinion
It's time to end taxpayers' subsidy of nation's mining companies
The U.S. House has already passed an overhaul of the antiquated General Mining Act of 1872, but similar legislation in the Senate is facing some bedrock opposition from the likes of Nevada's Sen. Harry Reid, New Mexico's Sen. Pete Domenici and Idaho's Sen. Larry Craig, but hopefully Washington's Sens. Maria Cantwell and Ron Wyden can convince their colleagues to dig through the rock-hard opposition and get this relic of the Gilded Age reworked. A column by Joel Connelly.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer; March 26
Arizona city to go dark for an hour on Saturday
Phoenix is one of the major cities around the world that will participate in Earth Hour 2008, which started last year in Sydney, Australia, and was so successful that organizers are hoping for a worldwide event this Saturday, where all nonessential lights are shut off for one hour between 8 and 9 p.m. local time, creating essentially a wave of darkness around the world to encourage energy conservation.
Arizona Republic; March 26
Beyond the region
International crew trains for Mars mission in Utah
The Mars Society, a nonprofit headquartered in Colorado, operates the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah which provides international teams an opportunity to test space equipment developed by Space Logistics Project and other partners at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Christian Science Monitor; March 26
Presidential candidates mum on Social Security, Medicare
A new report issued Tuesday by the Bush administration said that Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund will be depleted by 2019, and that Social Security's reserves would be gone by 2041, but none of the candidates seeking the Oval Office have said what they'll have to do to shore up these programs.
New York Times; March 26
Antarctic ice shelf loses chunk 7 times the size of Manhattan
Satellite imagery showed a portion of the Wilkins ice shelf in western Antarctica had collapsed, and the remainder of the shelf, which is about the size of Connecticut, is holding on by a narrow beam of ice, raising concerns that it too may fall.
Washington Post; March 26
Chipotle, Va. hog farm partner up on local food effort
When Chipotle Mexican Grill wanted to buy locally, it found a willing partner in Polyface Farm, and after 17 months of negotiations and working out the logistics, the Virginia farm is close to supplying 100 percent of the pork in served in Chipotle's Charlottesville restaurant.
Washington Post; March 26
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