Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY)

"A week after opponents of coal-fired electricity flooded the chambers of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, regulators have denied a bid by Idaho Power to charge its customers $130 million to help implement mandated pollution controls for two of four generators at the Jim Bridger coal plant near Rock Springs, Wyo., where the utility company is part owner."

"SIDNEY, Mont. -- One cold morning last year, a math teacher jogging through her hometown in eastern Montana was abducted, strangled and buried in a shallow grave. Charged in her death were two drifters from Colorado, drawn to the region by the allure of easy money in the oil fields."

"Eagle deaths lead to Duke Energy Corp. paying $1 million for birds killed at two Wyoming wind farms. It was the first time a US wind energy company had been successfully prosecuted for the deaths of eagles or other protected birds."

"State health officials rolled out groundbreaking rules for the oil and gas industry Monday to address worsening air pollution, including a requirement that companies control emissions of the greenhouse gas methane, linked to climate change."

"DENVER — Three Colorado cities voted Tuesday to ban fracking, the kind of test that might be coming to states from California to North Carolina as oil and gas drilling surges from coast to coast."

"RENO, Nev. -- Rural neighbors of an abandoned World War II-era copper mine that has leaked toxic chemicals in northern Nevada for decades have won up to a $19.5 million settlement from companies they accused of covering up the contamination."

"Measure to enact a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing trailing slightly in Broomfield."

"DENVER -- Four cities along [Colorado's] Front Range will decide Tuesday whether to halt new oil and gas development when voters cast their ballots on a series of local initiatives."