As U.S. coal’s comedown continues, our latest Issue Backgrounder takes a close look at the factors behind the industry’s decline and finds a combination of economics, competition and shifting global markets, along with aging technology, politics and environmental pushback. What’s in store for coal in 2020?
"The decadeslong Pacific Northwest salmon war may be nearing the end. But it's economics, not fish, that could be the demise of four dams at the center of the fight."
Missed the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual gathering in Fort Collins? Never fear, for our in-house humorist David Helvarg has herein recounted the “highs” (and paranoid lows). Among them: oddball scientists, strolls in a snow storm, bad burros and beet-based dinners. Plus, the secret strategy behind SEJ’s conference site selection.
"DENVER — A group opposed to hydraulic fracturing announced a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to halt new oil and gas drilling permits until updated regulations are in place."
"The Interior Department failed to analyze the cumulative impact that new fossil fuel exploration on a million acres of federally managed land in Colorado will have on the climate, the Center for Biological Diversity said in an Oct. 8 lawsuit."
"The Trump administration will soon be required to more fully disclose any potential development or other activities on millions of acres of public lands excised from a pair of national monuments in Utah."
"LEADVILLE, Colorado — With ominous orange-gray smoke clouds seething on the western horizon, it's easy to understand how Colorado's highest city and other mountain communities are directly threatened by global warming."
As the Society of Environmental Journalists heads to Colorado this week for its annual gathering, it’s a good time to consider how to report on the vast public lands throughout the western United States. The latest TipSheet explores the history of conflict over public lands, the stories they yield and the resources needed to better report the issue.
"BUTTE, Mont. — The long-awaited discharge of treated wastewater from a former open pit copper mine into Silver Bow Creek in Butte has started with little fanfare."
"Warming waters and a series of dams are making the grueling migration of the Chinook salmon even more deadly — and threatening dozens of other species."
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