Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY)

"Ten years after the weeklong confrontation, the federal government faces paralysis over how to oversee a desert ecosystem."

"The Biden administration Wednesday finalized a 20-year ban on new oil and gas drilling and mining activity on 221,898 acres of federal lands within western Colorado’s pristine Thompson Divide." "The 20-year ban on new drilling will protect a pristine region that local advocates say is renowned for its wildlife and recreation."

"Would-be voters in this coal and oil state signal they’re increasingly alarmed by climate change."

"President Joe Biden’s administration has conditionally agreed to loan more than $2 billion to the company building a controversial lithium mine in Nevada with the largest known U.S. deposit of the metal critical to making batteries for electric vehicles key to his renewable energy agenda."

"It's a big, inspiring vision of wildlife connectivity. But could it work?"

"A bipartisan group of Colorado lawmakers are proposing legislation to reintroduce wolverines, one of the country’s rarest carnivores, into a state primed with deep snow and high mountains. The unprecedented move would be the first wolverine reintroduction in North America, and is part of an ongoing effort by Coloradans to restore the state’s native species."

"Stalled work on a major copper mine proposed in central Montana can proceed after the state’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that officials had adequately reviewed the project’s environmental effects."