Going nuclear

When Peninsula Energy decided to idle its uranium mines in northeastern Wyoming in 2019, the cause was simple, says CEO Wayne Heili: “poor uranium markets.” But in the four short years since the company stopped production, much has changed. With a contract to supply 300,000 pounds of uranium to help fill the new national reserve, a growing understanding from reactor owners that “relying on the Russians for supply is a bad idea” and the expected “advent of small modular reactors in the market,” Heili said Peninsula is preparing to start mining again by the end of March.

The troublesome and so far unsolved problem of nuclear waste storage may derail promising new nuclear technologies.

The Biden administration envisions dozens of ‘modular’ nuclear plants sprouting across the country. Why coal communities are so eager to be the staging ground for the risky endeavor.

Mike Lockhart, a wildlife biologist specializing in eagles who worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years, says the impacts to eagle populations from Wyoming’s wind farms is being underreported and downplayed.

“One of the most challenging issues that those of us in some form of conservation are facing is that we are finding ourselves often on the opposite side of these battles about (renewable) energy projects,” said David Robinson, the director of conservation advocacy at the Tucson Audubon Society.

Comprehensive legislation that would give more scrutiny to Utah’s tax credits brought blowback from a wide range of Utahns who say it will chill progress toward converting to clean energy and building out new industry.

An NPR/Floodlight investigation found that a longtime Republican insider is stoking solar opposition by spreading bad information about health and environmental risks. Her influence is growing.

“This story is the same everywhere,” said Ian Lange, a professor of economics at the Colorado School of Mines. “If you don’t want to mine for minerals, we’re going to keep drilling for oil and gas.”

A week after a federal judge closed a lawsuit against federal land managers and a mining developer, three Native American tribes have filed a new lawsuit centered on the largest known source of lithium in the United States.

Teck Resources Ltd said on Tuesday it would be spinning off its steelmaking coal unit as the Canadian miner focuses on industrial metals such as copper, which are crucial to the global energy transition.

Instead of replacing existing cars with EVs, a far more sustainable path would be to build up and prioritize public transit, maximize lithium recycling, and reduce the size of EV batteries, according to a new report from UC Davis’s Climate and Community program.

Routt County commissioners are preparing a letter of support for protecting public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management in Routt County to prevent oil and gas leasing and development.

If the plant were to close, the air and water across the Front Range – as well as the people who live here – would benefit. But what would be the price of losing Colorado’s only oil refinery?

Exposing animals that play a critical role in freshwater food webs to diluted samples of flowback and produced water from fracked wells causes lasting harm, scientists reported earlier this month in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology.

"There is just no excuse" for the rise in methane emissions last year, IEA director says.

A real estate agent’s opinion that hunters should pay financial damages for passing through the airspace of a ranch doesn’t hold water, a judge stated.

As outdoor recreation and tourism on public land skyrocket, a bipartisan bill in the U.S. Senate aims to increase collaboration between national parks and the communities around them.

Montana House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee considers bill that would cap reservations at state parks to 80% of capacity.

Watchdogs allege the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest failed to conduct adequate analysis and solicit meaningful public comment when it installed a radio repeater in 2020 in the West Pioneer Wilderness Study Area.

A study of homeowners in Deschutes County, Oregon, published this month in the Journal of Environmental Management, found that people with an “egalitarian” outlook – those more likely to express concern about the environment and their communities – tend to take more wildfire preparedness measures than others. “Fatalists” – those who feel risk is unpredictable and resources are limited – take the fewest precautions.

Philip Powers argued that the wildfire he set in 2018 was necessary to save his life. But a court found that he was so unprepared, he created his own emergency.

Climate change has foresters rethinking planting strategies as fires make the restoration of seed orchards more urgent.

A new report highlights recovery solutions to fires, droughts and other climate catastrophes.

From leaving some farmland fallow, to pressuring cities to conserve more water, Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, says everything should be on the table to use Colorado River water more efficiently and help it sustain life in the southwestern U.S. for years to come.

Experts and advocates say the moves represent a step in the right direction for Utah’s capital, but it’s going to take more than one community to save the city’s namesake ecological feature.

Tribal nations say the decision to reduce water flow on the Klamath River “has more to do with potatoes than it does fish.”

Scientists warn that Montana’s ski season could be halved by 2050.

Public employees who contribute to Colorado’s pension system have called on state lawmakers to enact a first-of-its-kind measure that would require the fund to factor the state’s greenhouse gas emission reduction goals into its investment decisions.

The Cannabis Resource Optimization Program, or CROP, will offer technical assistance to growers who want to better understand their current energy and water use and learn about cost-effective strategies to improve efficiency.

Some miners are promising more climate-friendly operations, but research shows the industry is a long way from putting that into practice.

Stockgrowers welcome relief for livestock killed by wolves in Wyoming’s unregulated "predator zone" even if compensation isn’t expected.

A bill under consideration at the Montana Legislature would give cities, counties and resort districts the option of levying a tax on Airbnb-style, short-term rentals if they use the money to give rebates to landlords who rent to local workers on a long-term basis.