Allen River, Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska. Photo George Wuerthner
Hats off to High Country News for publishing A quest for Alaska oil sparks a fight over tribal sovereignty by Max Graham in their July 6th edition. It represents a good start in providing a more balanced perspective on […]
Continue Reading →NEWPORT, OR — Despite the government shutdown, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has continued to accept new drilling permit applications and requests for site inspection at proposed oil and gas wells. Since December 22, when the shutdown began, a BLM database has posted notice of new proposed oil and gas wells in Alaska, Montana, New Mexico, and […]
Continue Reading →Massive Lease Sale Includes Public Land Near National Park, Wildlife Refuge
RENO, Nev — The Trump administration plans to auction more than 900,000 acres for oil and gas extraction on the doorstep of Nevada’s only national park and other protected public lands. It would be the largest single lease sale of public lands […]
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By Erik Molvar, Executive Director, Western Watersheds Project
While Trump administration issues directives banning discourse on climate change and muzzles scientists in federal agencies, the fossil fuel industry may have an even tighter stranglehold over state institutions. In his new exposé of industry meddling in higher education, Behind the Carbon Curtain (slated for an April […]
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FILLMORE, Utah— Conservation groups today condemned a U.S. Bureau of Land Management proposal to auction off 14,943 acres of public land in central Utah for fracking and drilling, which will hurt an imperiled population of greater sage grouse.
The Bureau previously announced that it would include lands occupied by the Sheeprocks sage grouse population and […]
Continue Reading →This past week, Public Broadcasting’s Nature film series featured the Sagebrush Sea. The film’s main focus was on the Greater Sage Grouse which is the emblematic creature found in this vast landscape that covers the bulk of many western states including substantial parts of New Mexico Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, California, Montana and Idaho.
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Continue Reading →New Democrats clear away over 40 years of Conservative rule-
Alberta has never really elected a clearly left wing party, but did so yesterday with a vengeance. Populist yes in the past, e.g, the Social Credit Party, but not a left-wing party.
Voters gave the left wing New Democrats (NDP) a large parliamentary majority (53 […]
Continue Reading →Second rupture under Yellowstone River in four years makes Keystone look more ominous-
There has been a massive rupture of the Poplar oil pipeline under the Yellowstone River near Glendive, Montana. This is about a hundred miles upstream from the North Dakota border and the Yellowstone’s confluence with the Missouri River.
The pipeline lay buried […]
Continue Reading →First priority for new Congress is Keystone pipeline. Why?
Here in Pocatello, Idaho, today gas prices fell to $1.99 a gallon. They have been dropping for over a hundred days in a row. In January a year ago, prices were over $3.75 a gallon.
Meanwhile, the new Republican congress is about to get underway. Their […]
Continue Reading →Will the new, low petroleum prices cut the legs off tar sands and oil shale?
Almost every American now sees that the price of oil has plummeted. Driving by a gas station makes seeing it easy. Gasoline is below $3 a gallon, often well below. In fact crude oil prices are down by 40% since […]
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