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

Enviro group appeals BLM decision to extend Colo. leases

Posted: May 10, 2013

A Colorado environmental group yesterday appealed the Bureau of Land Management's decision last month to extend more than two dozen leases in the state's rugged Thompson Divide area, arguing the agency should have let the leases expire.

Earthjustice, representing the Carbondale-based...

New Interior secretary waiting for study on wild horses

Posted: May 9, 2013

New Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday that she is still undecided about how to handle a burgeoning wild horse and burro population that is eating more than half the horse budget at the BLM and sparking outrage among wild horse advocates.

Jewell said in an interview with The...

Sequester seen as test for 'pretty lean' DOJ environment division

Posted: May 9, 2013

At first glance, the Department of Justice's division for investigating and prosecuting environmental crimes appears to have escaped the worst of the sequester.

Attorney General Eric Holder told the Environment and Natural Resources Division last month that it, as well as the rest of DOJ...

Coal mine smoldering poses fire risk in SW Colo.

Posted: May 8, 2013

At least seven coal fires are smoldering near the site of a wildfire that burned 10,000 acres in southwestern Colorado last year.

Coal fires are not uncommon and can burn for decades underground without ever producing open flames. But the number of fires near the mountain concerns state...

EPA criminal enforcement suffers from sequestration

Posted: May 8, 2013

When a jury last week found a former suburban Chicago water department chief guilty of 11 charges related to mixing contaminated well water into a town's drinking water supply, the verdict represented an important victory for U.S. EPA's criminal enforcement efforts.

EPA officials hope the...

Interior proposes rule allowing limited take of lesser prairie chicken

Posted: May 8, 2013

The Interior Department today proposed a limited exemption to Endangered Species Act protections for a small grouse that roams the southern Great Plains, a move aimed at strengthening habitat protections but which drew fire from one conservation group.

The proposed special rule would...

Drought, development drying up Ariz. river, says USGS

Posted: May 8, 2013

One of Arizona's longest free-flowing rivers could dry up within a few decades if development continues to deplete groundwater that sustains the waterway, a report released yesterday by an environmental group warns.

The report, which is based on information collected by a volunteer team...

New flower species found in Montana

Posted: May 6, 2013

When Pete Lesica and Dave Hanna get their boots on the ground, they like to keep their eyes there, too.

Their intense focus on flora paid off in 2009 when the duo found what they thought might be a new species of Indian paintbrush deep in the heart of the Scapegoat Wilderness Area.

...

Interior head promises fracking rule within weeks

Posted: May 6, 2013

The Obama administration plans to unveil new federal regulations for hydraulic fracturing and drilling on public lands within the next few weeks, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said during a teleconference with reporters.

The drilling rule will impose stricter standards on oil and...

Molybdenum mine on Mount Emmons gets initial federal approval

Posted: May 6, 2013

The longest-running mining fight in the West entered a new chapter in April as U.S. Energy won federal approval on a molybdenum-mine plan on Mount Emmons, just outside Crested Butte. The 204-page plan calls for a mine that would produce 12,600 tons of ore per day and operate for 33 years....