A U.S. District Court judge blocked a plan approved by federal agencies for 35 fracked gas wells across 30,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service land between Gunnison and the Grand Mesa, handing a victory to environmental groups suing the government for failing to take climate change into account in approving new drilling. U.S. District for […]
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Posted inClimate, Energy, Environment, News
West Elk mine cannot leak methane, must flare the greenhouse gas, judge rules
The West Elk coal mine must keep flaring dangerous methane and seek state air pollution permits instead of leaking the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, in a consent decree hailed by environmental groups across Colorado. Though burning the methane on-site near Somerset creates CO2, it causes far less damage to the atmosphere than allowing raw […]
Posted inNews
Colorado ranchers are selling off cattle to survive another year of dried-up grass and parched soil
Janie VanWinkle can hear it in the discontented way her cows call to their calves, the way the dried grass crunches into powder under her boots. It’s the sound of drought. The landscape where her cows graze in Grand Junction doesn’t have a green tint this spring. It’s gray and brown, ugly and parched. “And […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Coloradans, Economy, Environment, News
Colorado’s North Fork Valley finds “baby-step” solutions to tackle its big problem with methane-leaking mines
Chris Caskey points across the river to a thin thread of steam rising from a snow-caked cliff. “That’s methane,” he said of the emissions seeping from the long-shuttered Bear Mine. “Millions of cubic feet, every day. That’s the equivalent of tens of thousands of cars.” Across the North Fork Valley in Gunnison County, nearly 20 […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Colorado’s Bureau of Land Management lawsuit needs to go forward, even with Biden’s oil and gas pause
Why is the state of Colorado suing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and does it even matter now that the Biden administration is at the helm? The answers are: For us, and yes! Filing suit against the BLM is something state officials are doing for the public good, and we’re grateful they are standing […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Colorado oil and gas industry blasts Biden’s pause on public lands drilling as environmental advocates cheer
Conservation advocates in the West quickly praised President Joe Biden’s executive order pausing new oil and gas leases on federal lands and in federal waters, while the resource industry and local business backers called it a misguided attack with massive economic fallout. “For far too long, federal lands in Colorado have been leased to big […]
Posted inBusiness, Crime and Courts, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Colorado sues Bureau of Land Management over Western Slope management plan from William Perry Pendley
Gov. Jared Polis didn’t like the Bureau of Land Management’s long-range management plan for the Uncompahgre Plateau, saying the expansion of oil drilling in the region did not jibe with state laws and regulations protecting water, air, wildlife and recreation. And because the agency did not resolve those issues in its Resource Management Plan, Polis […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Economy, News, Wildfire
Grape disappointment: Colorado vineyards say an October freeze will chill their 2021 vintage
The grape vines lined up in rows throughout the Grand and North Fork valleys look promising for a 2021 vintage with their usual winter-brown foliage bunched neatly on trellises. But cut into a bud, or scrape a stalk, and there are hints of the underlying damage done by a severe late-October freeze. An estimated 70% […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Colorado’s farm-to-table capital is under threat from drilling
A Saturday morning stroll through your local farmers market, is there anything like it? It’s a popular way that many Front Range people decide to spend their weekends, where you get to peruse the abundance and score some of the best food you can buy. They fill their baskets with organically grown produce, chat with […]
Posted inSunLit, SunLit Interviews
How fly-fishing lessons and movie soundtracks figured into a Colorado author’s “Stolen Heart”
K. L. (Karen Lea) McKee earned her B.A. in English from Regis University, worked in the Reference Center of the Mesa County Library for 29 years before retiring in 2014 to pursue writing full time. She is a member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She and her husband reside in Western Colorado. Her roots in […]