Mountain West
At State’s Energy Summit, Wyoming Promises to ‘Make Sure Our Fossil Fuels Have a Future’
In late April, the Biden administration finalized a series of rules that would reduce emissions and pollution from the power sector. A week later, at Wyoming’s annual energy conference, those moves were met with frustration, dismay and, at times, downright defiance from politicians and fossil fuel company executives who spoke glowingly about the state’s “all […]
Read MoreWyoming’s Wind Industry Dodged New Taxes in 2024 Legislative Session, but Faces Pushes to Increase What it Pays the State
By almost any measure, Kara Choquette’s hometown of Kearney, Nebraska, is windy, particularly where it meets Interstate 80. But a drive 450 miles west, and over 4,000 feet higher, leads to an even windier place: Carbon County, Wyoming. In 2009, Choquette leaned into that wind, moving west and taking a job as communications director with […]
Read MoreUtah Legislature Takes Aim at Rights of Nature Movement
Lawmakers in Utah are advancing legislation aimed at stopping a growing “rights of nature” movement that has coalesced around efforts in the state to save the Great Salt Lake, which is drying up as a combination of climate change, development and agriculture drain on its freshwater sources. With activists promoting legislation recognizing that the Great […]
Read MoreEnvironmentalists See Nevada Supreme Court Ruling Bringing State’s Water Management ‘Into the 21st Century’
The Nevada Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that the state can restrict new groundwater pumping if it will impact other users and wildlife, a decision that strikes a blow to the plan of a developer that at one time hoped to build a new city of 250,000 people in the Mojave Desert and could […]
Read MoreIt Could Soon Get a Whole Lot Easier to Build Solar in the Western US
The Biden administration has outlined how it could dramatically expand the public lands available to streamline solar development in the Western U.S., a major step that could help sustain the surge in solar energy projects across the country. The Bureau of Land Management last week released a proposal to update its 2012 Western Solar Plan […]
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