In the Rockies today, the focus is on energy and climate change.
The Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Energy are planning a broad-scale analysis of the environmental, economic and social impacts of building solar-power projects on federal lands in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
The White House released a report on Thursday, that contained what environmental groups said is a long-awaited admission that human activity is contributing to climate change.
Coal-fired power plants are considered some of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases which have been linked to climate change, but efforts so far to develop newer, cleaner such plants have stalled lately.
And in Wyoming, where carbon dioxide is in high demand to pump up production in the state's aging oil fields, there's yet to be a meeting of the minds between government agencies who are focused on efforts to capture and store carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants and oil companies' demand for the gas to force oil out of the ground.
Rockies today
BLM, DOE to team up on solar-power study in 6 Western states
Bureau of Land Management officials announced Thursday that the agency will work with the Department of Energy to conduct analyses of solar-power projects on federal lands in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP); May 30
White House's report admits human activity a factor in climate change
A report issued Thursday by the National Science and Technology Council and the U.S. Climate Change Science Program admitted that natural causes alone cannot explain recent extreme changes in the Earth's weather, a stance environmentalists said was a big shift from previous reports.
Arizona Republic; May 30
Efforts to build 'clean-coal' projects stall
Coal is an abundant, cheap fuel in this country, assuring it will continue to be used, and everyone from energy companies to environmentalists to all three top presidential contenders have embraced carbon sequestration as a way to clean up coal-fired power plants' emissions, but since the first of the year, the government has canceled what was to be its showcase project to do that and other projects in Washington state and others have also stalled.
New York Times; May 30
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Wyoming energy conference explores supply, demand for carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, but it is also an essential element in pumping of oil production in aging oil fields, and at a Wyoming conference on carbon dioxide, industry experts said that oil and coal-fired power producers are on the cusp of a changing market, with oil producers needing more carbon dioxide to pump up production in aging fields and coal-fired power plants still pumping CO2 into the air.
Casper Star-Tribune; May 30
Air-quality forum in Colorado addresses fallout from N.M. power plants
At an air-quality forum in Durango on Thursday, federal, state, tribal and local government officials met with representatives of health care and environmental groups and discussed the increasing problem of air pollution in the Four Corners region, citing the region's coal-fired power plants and oil and gas development as the culprits for the increase in pollution.
Durango Herald; May 30
Group: Jemez Mountains epicenter of climate change in N.M.
The Nature Conservancy's "Implications of Recent Climate Change on Conservation Priorities in New Mexico," said the state's Jemez Mountains are already showing considerable effects of a changing climate, putting the already endangered Jemez Mountain salamander at further risk.
Santa Fe New Mexican; May 30
TWS disputes report that access to U.S. energy resources restricted
The Wilderness Society said the Bureau of Land Management's report last week that said 62 percent of the oil and 41 percent of the natural gas resources on public lands in the Rocky Mountain West, and tied lack of access to those resources to higher energy prices is inaccurate, and said companies have leases on millions of acres of land that they have yet to develop.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP); May 30
Opinion
Renewable energy needs to be included in climate change debate
The U.S. Senate is poised to take up the Lieberman-Warner climate bill, and New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman should use his position as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to ensure that tax incentives for renewable energy and more efficient vehicles should be included in that debate.
Santa Fe New Mexican; May 30
Beyond the region
Utah company gets contract to maintain tanks at Hanford nuclear site
Washington River Protection Solutions, a partnership between Utah-based EnergySolutions, Washington's URS Corp. and a subsidiary of France's Areva Group, was awarded a $1.7-billion federal contract to maintain the 177 storage tanks on the Hanford nuclear complex in Washington state.
Deseret News; May 30
Washington state monitoring toxic spill in Columbia River
A break in a pipe at the huge Teck Cominco lead and zinc smelter in Trail, British Columbia, dumped approximately 2,100 pounds of lead and 100 gallons of acid into the Columbia River, putting Washington state environmental regulators on alert.
Idaho Statesman (AP); May 30
Fryer-grease thefts on the rise across the nation
Although national statistics are slippery, anecdotal evidence suggests that thefts of used cooking oil from restaurants are on the rise, as the price of fuel soars and takes the price of used fryer oil along with it.
New York Times; May 30
Federal investigators probe investors' role in rising oil prices
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Thursday that it was investigating the role of large investors that have been buying up oil futures in the spiraling cost of oil.
Los Angeles Times; May 30
Global community questions water's role as right or resource
Cities and countries around the globe are importing and exporting water, and some analysts are saying water has become the "oil of this century," but while oil is used up, water only changes forms, but fresh water consumption has nearly doubled worldwide since World War II, and waste, climate change and pollution have depleted fresh water supplies.
Christian Science Monitor; May 30
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