By Matthew Brown, The Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. — The Biden administration is planning to sell oil and gas leases on huge tracts of public land in the U.S. West, despite the Interior Department’s conclusion that doing so could cost society billions of dollars in climate change impacts, according to government documents. Administration officials announced […]
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Posted inBusiness, Climate, Economy, Energy, Environment, News
Biden administration to gauge climate damage from federal oil and gas sales
By Matthew Brown, The Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. government regulators for the first time will analyze greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas drilling on federal lands on a national scale, as the Biden administration steps up efforts to address climate change, the Interior Department said Friday. The announcement comes as officials are […]
Posted inNews
From sky to bedrock, researchers near Crested Butte are resetting what we know about water in the West
CRESTED BUTTE – Eight white shipping containers, instruments spouting from the tops of some and a generator humming away in another, sit in the East River valley, on the outskirts of this mountain town, pulling data out of the air. The containers, a “mobile atmospheric observatory,” will gather bits of information over the next two […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: Apocalypse now — Washington keeps dithering while the West suffocates
In the same week that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest report, Denver achieved the dubious distinction of being the city with the most dangerous air in the world for a few hours. Our Air Quality Index on Aug. 7 was 167. I was on a road trip across the Pacific Northwest […]
Posted inClimate, News
Interior Department launches review of climate damage from coal mining on public lands
By Matthew Brown, The Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. officials launched a review Thursday of climate damage and other impacts from coal mining on public lands as the Biden administration expands its scrutiny of government fossil fuel sales that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. The review also will consider if companies are paying fair […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: In the war on reality, Westminster, Colorado, is Everytown, U.S.A.
For decades, we’ve heard that a reckoning was coming. Climate change would threaten our fundamental way of life in the West. After years of neglect, essential parts of our infrastructure would fail. The bills for the costs of maintaining our essential services — kicked willy-nilly down the road to a murky unidentified date in the […]
Posted inEnvironment, News
What’s behind the heat wave that hit the American West?
By Anita Snow, The Associated Press PHOENIX — Much of the American West has been blasted with sweltering heat this week as a high pressure dome combines with the worst drought in modern history to launch temperatures into the triple digits, toppling records even before the official start of summer. Record daily highs were seen […]
Posted inClimate, Culture, Food and Restaurants, News
Colorado restaurants are funding farming and ranching projects that suck carbon from the atmosphere
By Michael Elizabeth Sakas, Colorado Public Radio On an early weekday morning in Longmont, the co-owners of the boutique catering company Whistling Boar are busy in the kitchen getting their weekly meal boxes ready for delivery. David Pitula and Debbie Seaford-Pitula moved to Colorado from Brooklyn five years ago with dreams of living closer to […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News
Study: Drought-breaking rains more rare, erratic in Colorado and the West
By Matthew Brown, The Associated Press BILLINGS, Montana — Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate change warmed the planet, according to a sweeping government study released Tuesday that concludes the situation is worsening. The most dramatic changes were recorded in the […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Coloradans, Energy, Environment, Housing, News
A disillusioned ExxonMobil engineer quit to take action on climate change. He found his net-zero place in Arvada.
For 16 years, Dar-Lon Chang worked as an engineer at ExxonMobil. Fresh out of graduate school, he was by all accounts exactly the type of person the company is known for hiring: smart, driven, diligent. From his base at Exxon’s sprawling campus outside Houston, Chang helped the company maximize production at far-flung oil and gas […]