Blue-green blues

Ryan Benson is proposing an engineered solution to the long chain of environmental insults that have left mountain-encircled Utah Lake an ecological basket case, largely unusable for humans and animals alike. Gazing out from Lindon Marina, the site of Utah Lake’s worst algal blooms, the CEO of Lake Restoration Solutions describes a vision of numerous artificial islands raised from dredged materials. These islands would safely contain the lake bed’s polluted sediments, keeping them out of the water column where they would otherwise feed the algae known to poison the lake. A deeper lake with less surface area would calm the wave action that stirs up sediments and would reduce evaporation. That’s the theory, anyway, but would it work? This project would be among the largest island-building projects ever attempted in history, and could, according to critics, result in far more environmental harm than benefit.

The president’s tour of the drought-stricken West comes as Congress is trying to finalize the details on a top legislative priority for the administration—a $3.5 trillion infrastructure and climate change resiliency bill backed by Democrats. During stops in Idaho and California Monday, and Colorado Tuesday, Biden planned to make the pitch that the bill shouldn’t just be about replacing old systems, but rather upgrades that make communities like those in the West more resilient to withstand extreme weather.

Some Utah GOP lawmakers and their Democratic counterparts want to pursue instituting carbon pricing that would impose fees on businesses that pollute the air and then give the revenue back to the state’s taxpayers. Would it work? Is it politically possible in conservative Utah?

Colorado’s coal country is preparing for the day coal-burning power plants are phased out for good. Communities are promoting tourist destinations, offering new job courses for workers and even converting the power stations to melt salt to store renewable electricity. Some leaders in Pueblo, home to the state’s largest coal-fired power plant, are thinking of going nuclear.

A few months ago the Land Desk began gearing up to run two big stories: One would announce the restoration—and perhaps expansion—of the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, the other would spotlight the reforms called for in the Biden administration’s review of the federal oil and gas leasing program. We’re still waiting.