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Former NASA head says mining oil sands will make climate change 'unsolvable'

Posted: May 24, 2013

While visiting London, climate scientist James Hansen continued his efforts against the exploitation of Alberta's oil sands, saying that "oil from tar sands makes sense only for a small number of people who are making a lot of money from that product."

Last month, Hansen left his position...

Energy company aims to turn Colo.'s dead trees into electricity

Posted: May 24, 2013

Xcel Energy Inc. wants to use beetle-killed trees and other forest waste in Colorado to generate electricity.

The Minneapolis-based company announced yesterday in a filing to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission that it plans to seek bidders willing to build and operate a 2-megawatt...

Water bills propose desalination, hydropower and a BLM transfer

Posted: May 24, 2013

The debate over the federal government's role in research and development will turn to desalination technology this week, as a House Natural Resources Committee subpanel weighs whether to renew a 16-year-old funding program.

On Thursday, the committee's subpanel on Water and Power will...

Wiretap ruling could haunt environmental lawsuits

Posted: May 24, 2013

A Supreme Court ruling on the government's international wiretapping operations could impinge on efforts by advocacy groups to file lawsuits under environmental laws, according to some experts in environmental law.

In a 5-4 decision in February, the court held in Clapper v. Amnesty...

Farmers struggle as aquifer runs dry

Posted: May 24, 2013

The southern part of the High Plains Aquifer, located in Texas, Kansas and Colorado, is running out of water.

About one-fifth of farmland along a 100-mile stretch of the aquifer has gone dry.

Farmers relied on the aquifer for water during the last two drought-stricken years. And...

Protest could delay Forest Service's update of aging air fleet

Posted: May 23, 2013

A Missoula, Mont.-based air tanker company has protested a Forest Service plan to issue contracts for seven new air tankers, potentially hampering the agency's ability to battle wildfires well into the 2013 season.

Neptune Aviation Services yesterday protested the contracts to the...

Silvery minnow faces cruel, cruel summer on parched Rio Grande

Posted: May 21, 2013

With flows on the Middle Rio Grande in central New Mexico expected to slow to a trickle this summer, the endangered silvery minnow is facing one of its worst years ever.

Farms and cities in the Middle Rio Grande Valley that rely on the river are also bracing for low flows. Under a 2003...

Warm spring temps shrank Rockies snowpack over last 30 years

Posted: May 21, 2013

When a Denver resident turns on the sprinkler in midsummer, it applies last winter's Rocky Mountain snowfall to the lawn. In the northern Rockies, that snowmelt fills the Columbia River, whose hydroelectric dams provide power to Seattle residents. Meanwhile, the meltwater flowing into the...

O&G lobbies for access to White River National Forest

Posted: May 17, 2013

The oil-and-gas industry is claiming that closures of land and increased regulations contemplated in the White River National Forest will make drilling “uncompetitive.”

Five organizations affiliated with the gas industry submitted comments last winter to the Forest Service as part of the...