You are viewing news tagged as 'environment' || Red Lodge Clearinghouse

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...

Groups sue BLM over grazing in Ariz. national monument

Posted: May 24, 2013

Two environmental groups yesterday filed a lawsuit in a federal district court challenging the Bureau of Land Management's decision to allow livestock grazing in a half-million-acre national monument in Arizona, claiming the decision was based on a "deeply flawed pseudoscientific analysis."...

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...

Groups urge BLM to revise policy for keeping O&G lease nominations secret

Posted: May 23, 2013

Environmental groups today urged the Bureau of Land Management to overturn its decades-old policy of keeping secret the names of companies that nominate public lands for oil and gas leasing.

The letter to Neil Kornze, BLM's principal deputy director, is a sign that environmentalists...

Researchers, hunting for climate consensus, find it among scientists

Posted: May 23, 2013

There's a "minuscule" amount of climate skepticism among scientists studying global warming, according to new research that contrasts starkly to the opinions of a large segment of the public that sees no consensus among experts.

Ninety-seven percent of scientific study summaries, known as...

Experts say more funding, coordination needed to battle infestations

Posted: May 22, 2013

Invasive weeds will infest more than 100 million acres of public lands by 2017 if the federal government does not pick up its pace tackling the problem, a weed scientist warned lawmakers yesterday.

Federal agencies treated 3.2 percent of public land infested with invasive weeds in 2009...

BLM moves Ariz.'s largest wind-power project closer to approval

Posted: May 21, 2013

The Bureau of Land Management announced today that it has completed a years-long environmental review of what would become the largest wind power project in Arizona, covering nearly 40,000 acres of public land.

Houston-based BP Wind Energy North America Inc.'s proposed 500-megawatt Mohave...

New BLM fracking rule might defer to some state regs

Posted: May 21, 2013

The Interior Department proposed a hydraulic fracturing rule today that would allow states to propose their own standards for the controversial oil and gas production technique if they can prove their regulations are as strong as federal rules.

The revised draft rules released by the...

As drilling grows, Colo. records first-ever high wintertime ozone levels

Posted: May 21, 2013

Colorado regulators this year have measured elevated wintertime ground-level ozone levels for the first time, prompting an environmental group to petition the Bureau of Land Management to halt all new oil and natural gas drilling on federal lands in northwest Colorado where the pollution was...