In the Rockies today, Areva Inc. will build its $2-billion uranium-enrichment plant in Idaho.
The French-owned company considered sites in New Mexico, Washington state, Texas and Ohio as possible locations for the plant, but a late-session tax break passed by the Idaho Legislature wooed the company to pick the Gem State.
The plant will be built near the Idaho National Laboratory and Areva officials said it should be operational by 2014.
And in Wyoming, Exxon Mobile Corp. announced it would build a plant to continue development and testing of technology designed to capture and contain carbon dioxide emissions.
The plant will be built near Exxon's LaBarge natural gas plant, and will employ single-step cryogenic technology to pull carbon dioxide, as well as other unwanted compounds from methane.
And in our In-depth section, articles about rising oil and gasoline prices, and states' proposals to give consumers some relief from those high prices, along with a GOP request to the EPA to waive ethanol production targets to put more corn back into the nation's food supply chain.
Rockies today
French company picks Idaho as site for new uranium-enrichment plant
French-owned Areva Inc. will build a $2-billion uranium-enrichment plant in Idaho, near the Idaho National Laboratory.
Santa Fe New Mexican (AP); May 6
Exxon Mobil will build CO2 plant in Wyoming
Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to break ground this summer on a plant in Wyoming that will use cryogenics to remove carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other unwanted compounds from methane, with production at the $100-million plant near Exxon's Shute Creek natural gas processing plant at LaBarge.
Casper Star-Tribune; May 6
Sithe Global Power lets water contract for Nevada plant lapse
The company that wants to build the 750-megawatt, coal-fired Toquop plant near Mesquite has let its contract with its water supplier lapse, giving opponents of the Nevada plant hope that the developer is walking away from the project.
Las Vegas Sun; May 6
Montana county waits on Congress to renew aid programs
Ravalli County gets $1.4 million in annual federal Payments In Lieu of Taxes and about $375,000 in Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-determination payments each year, and officials of the Montana county said if Congress doesn't reauthorize the programs for the 2009 fiscal year, things will get a little tight.
Ravalli Republic; May 6
Colorado company to pay $9 million for damage in national park
Fort-Collins-based Water Supply and Storage Co. has agreed to pay the National Park Service $9 million for natural-resource damages caused by the 2003 breach of the Grand River Ditch within the boundaries of Rocky Mountain National Park; the settlement is the largest ever in the history of the 1907 Park System Resource Protection Act.
Denver Post; May 6
Trumpeter swans from Canada released in Montana valley
The Wyoming Wetlands Society is aiding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's reintroduction of trumpeter swans in the Rocky Mountain West, and on Monday, 10 trumpeter swans were released in the Blackfoot River Valley in Montana.
Great Falls Tribune; May 6
Treatment of CBM water in Wyoming on the rise
According to the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, gas companies treated about 8.8 percent of the 638 million barrels of water pumped to the surface by coalbed methane operators in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, or about 56 million barrels of water in 2007; operators treated 45 million barrels of the 680 barrels of water produced in 2006.
Casper Star-Tribune (AP); May 6
Opinion
Colorado bill linking growth, water supplies could have been better
If Gov. Bill Ritter signs legislation passed by the Colorado Legislature this session, developers of projects that contain 50 or more housing units will have to tell cities how water for the development will be supplied, and while the legislation could have gone further in shaping growth and water use in the state, it's at least a start.
Durango Herald; May 5
Colorado senator should know better than to support oilshale sham
Once again, Congress is heralding oilshale resources in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, as a solution for the nation's energy needs, but the reality is that considerable technological, environmental and financial barriers exist to commercial-scale oilshale production, and Colorado's Sen. Wayne Allard should know the score and join Sen. Ken Salazar in his efforts to extend the one-year moratorium on oilshale leases.
Grand Junction Sentinel; May 6
Removal of old barriers opens doors to West's new economy
Just days after the removal of the Milltown Dam in Montana, a radio-tagged trout made its way up the Clark Fork River and into the cold, clear water of the Blackfoot River, a trip that signifies a turning point in Montana, from the extractive industries of the past to the restoration economy. A column by Pat Williams, senior fellow at the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, of which Headwaters News is a project.
High Country News (Writers on the Range); May 6
Beyond the region
Federal government releases revamped salmon plan
The federal government released its final, court-ordered plans to protect 13 threatened and endangered species of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin on Monday, but environmental groups called the plan, which does not require the removal of any of the 14 federal hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers, a step backward.
Washington Post (AP); May 6
Senate panel hearing today on rocket fuel found in Colorado River
A main ingredient of rocket fuel, perchlorate, has been found in the water supply of at least 35 states and in the Colorado River, which is used to irrigate crops, providing a route for the chemical to make its way into the U.S. food supply, and today the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on the presence of perchlorate and trichloroethylene (TCE), a degreaser used by the military, in the nation's water and the Environmental Protection Agency's lack of standards for the chemicals.
Washington Post; May 6
Canada shuts down public access to government database
The Co-ordination of Access to Information Requests System was created in 1989 to provide public access to all requests received by Canada's federal government and documents provided in response to those requests, but on April 1, federal agencies were no longer required to update the system, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper said there were other ways for the public to request and receive the information.
Toronto Globe and Mail; May 6
In depth
Oil prices hit a new record high
Futures in light crude oil went as high as $122 a barrel Tuesday, nearly double the $62-per-barrel price a year ago.
Toronto Globe and Mail (AP); May 6
Some state lawmakers, governors mull cutting local gas taxes
Two presidential candidates, Democrat Sen. Hillary Clinton and Republican Sen. John McCain, have both called for a summer suspension of the 18.4-cent federal tax on gasoline, but with some states' gas taxes more than twice the federal rate, state lawmakers are proposing local relief as well. Contains a graphic showing states' gas taxes.
New York Times; May 6
Republican senators ask EPA to back off ethanol goals
Twenty-four Republican senators, including Arizona Sen. John McCain, sent a letter last week to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking that mandates for ethanol-based fuel production over the next 15 years be waived to help ease the rising price of food.
Denver Rocky Mountain News (AP); May 6
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