Off the rails

Colorado’s U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Joe Neguse are asking the Forest Service to delay final approval of a plan to route the proposed Uinta Basin Railway through a section of roadless area in the Ashley National Forest in northeastern Utah.

The crude will travel through Gore and Byers canyons, following the Colorado and Fraser Rivers. The trains then pass through Winter Park’s Moffat Tunnel towards Denver, and eventually down to gulf coast refineries. Every town in Grand County would experience this increase in train traffic.

Developers are seeking billions of dollars in tax breaks for a new oil railroad in Utah that will threaten the Colorado River and be a risk to the health and safety of millions of Americans while damaging Joe Biden’s climate credentials, campaigners say.

Even though a billion-dollar oil-moving rail spur is under development in the basin, lawmakers say $100 million highway investments in Indian and Gate canyons are needed now to accommodate the influx in oil production that shows no sign of abating

Amprius Technologies Inc. has signed a letter of intent for a 775,000-square-foot facility on East Bromley Lane for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries. It’s one of the first companies to receive grants from the Department of Energy as part of the federal infrastructure law intended to expand domestic manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles and other uses.

Utility-scale battery storage and solar facilities are becoming important tools for Idaho Power as the company works to keep energy reliable and affordable while demand for electricity continues to grow rapidly.

The state of Colorado is planning to launch a vehicle exchange program this summer that would shave thousands of dollars off the price of a new or used electric vehicle — if you’re willing to part with your current car.

Aging infrastructure is emerging as a key challenge for the Wyoming coal community trying to become a nuclear pioneer.

NorthWestern’s Jeff Decker told regulators a 320 megawatt power plant would likely cost between $1.2 billion and $1.6 billion. Other say cost is closer to $10 billion.

A minerals commodities report by the U.S. Geological Survey says the U.S. is more than 50% dependent on foreign imports for 51 important mineral commodities, including 15 in which the country is 100% import reliant.

A Nevada mining company claims to have discovered the highest-quality deposit of rare-earth elements in the nation at the far south end of the Bitterroot National Forest.

These nonproducing oil wells aren’t orphans. They have been abandoned. At great cost to taxpayers.

Coal-fired power plants and oil and gas drilling in northeastern Utah are responsible for ozone drifting to the east into Colorado’s nine-county nonattainment zone for the pollutant, according to the EPA. The amount of ozone that Utah is pumping toward Colorado violates the federal “good neighbor” rules of the Clean Air Act.

Indiana, Kentucky and Utah are weighing legislation to make it harder to close coal facilities. Montana lawmakers have tried to penalize utilities that didn’t keep up with maintenance of the state’s largest coal plant. And Wyoming has mandated that power companies supply some of their electricity using coal plants equipped with carbon capture.

The San Juan County Commission unanimously approved a plan submitted by the Public Service Company of New Mexico for demolition and remediation of the San Juan Generating Station.

TC Energy, the Canadian company that also owns the Keystone Pipeline System, has proposed increasing the capacity of its Gas Transmission Northwest pipeline that runs from British Columbia to California, going through North Idaho, Eastern Washington and Oregon on the way.

State lawmakers — and a landowners' group — wanted to block wind developers from using eminent domain to build infrastructure on private property. Gov. Mark Gordon disagreed.

"To me it's a bit of a precedent-setter," said the resolution’s sponsor. "Is the BLM going to recognize local concerns or not?"

What’s upsetting residents in Evergreen, Colo.’s foothills is what Jefferson County calls wildfire mitigation, alongside a larger effort to maintain forest health in a drying climate.

With a new $6 million trust fund designed to award grants to outdoor recreation projects, Wyoming is poised to join the growing list of states that are investing government dollars in the burgeoning industry.

Legislature also put money toward wildlife crossings, pulled back from regulating rivers.

The Bureau of Land Management confirms it's investigating the appearance of Nazi and white supremacist symbols that were etched into rocks in the Four Dances area, a place with significant cultural and religious significance for the Crow people.

An unnamed tribal government requested a discussion with the Department of the Interior before a board voted on a new name.

Colorado homeowners, no longer protected by the Gallagher Amendment, face unprecedented and unsettling increases in their property taxes next year as the run-up in home prices during the pandemic works its way into the state’s tax base.

Some lawmakers were “disappointed” that the Legislature didn’t do more to address soaring residential property taxes. What they did accomplish is “the first step toward long-term reform,” others said.

Lawmakers have advanced several bills aimed at making at least a dent in the challenges facing renters and aspiring homebuyers. Here’s where things stand as of early March.

A piece of legislation preventing HOAs, cities, and counties from banning accessory dwelling units is headed across the rotunda.]

An Indigenous professor is conducting a national study to learn more about the housing experiences of millions of American Indian and Alaska Native people living in urban areas.

A Colorado nonprofit is constructing its second affordable housing complex with an eye toward mass production.

In Utah, nearly half of respondents have considered moving to a different state because of housing prices, and across the region, the majority say their state is growing too quickly.

“Snowshoe hares and weasels turn white in the winter, and it’s thought to be a camouflage thing,” said Doug Smith, the former Yellowstone Wolf Project leader and one of the recent study’s co-authors. “Here, it might not have anything to do with camouflage at all. It has to do with disease, and that’s a window into the world, I think.”

A 14-foot trailer and three dumpsters filled with bison entrails, hides and bones were hauled from the Gardiner Basin to the Gallatin County landfill near Logan last week.

Habitat for the pygmy rabbit, a furry denizen of the West’s sagebrush steppes, is in such rapid decline that the species warrants federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, several environmental groups proposed in a petition filed Monday.

Since Feb. 8, avian flu has been confirmed in nine mammals in Colorado, according to the state agriculture department: four mountain lions, two red foxes, two bobcats and a black bear.

The length of the outbreak is hitting “unprecedented” levels.

As a cold-blooded species, salmon are at the mercy of the waters they swim in. New research finds logging restrictions along small, unprotected streams could go a long way to keeping water cool and safe for the at-risk fish.

The Priest Lake Outlet Dam makes the lake great for recreation by allowing only a small amount of warm surface water to flow off the lake and into the river. But that warm water has raised the river's temperature, creating an unsuitable habitat for native species, including native coldwater trout species, such as bull trout and cutthroat trout.

Peterson Zah, a monumental Navajo Nation leader who guided the tribe through a politically tumultuous era and worked tirelessly to correct wrongdoings against Native Americans, has died.

Proposals from the Bureau of Indian Affairs include easing rules for tribes to acquire additional land and could ensure that tribes can negotiate online-betting deals with states.

Lawmakers have been tangling with laws and rules governing wolves, exempt wells, grizzlies, water quality, electric vehicles, conservation easements, coal mining and more.

About 50 young people gathered for a climate strike at the Utah Capitol on March 3 to voice frustrations with the lack of climate legislation this past session and call for change.

Utah Farm Bureau says new law is a game changer in agricultural water use. It changes how water is saved, and where it ends up, with the Great Salt Lake being among the recipients.

The Bureau of Reclamation agreed to halt the releases at the request of Upper Colorado River Basin states due to above-average precipitation.

New Mexicans harmed by the world’s first nuclear bomb test will finally win assistance if Tina Cordova has her way.

Rural communities don’t exist to serve the self-actualization of “true crime” journalists.

It might not be as mustache-twirling a villain as Alden Global Capital, but its enormous scale has meant enormous losses for local journalism.