The Bundy precedent

Accountable.US, a left-leaning watchdog group, released a report last week connecting the insurrection with earlier conflicts over ranching and mining on federal lands, beginning with the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s.

Perhaps this will be the year some of these folks are held accountable for their actions. 

Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, has been arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, authorities said Thursday.

Hacked documents allege that Frank Eathorne enrolled in the far-right anti-government extremist group, along with former gubernatorial candidate Dr. Taylor Haynes.

Eric Parker went to a ranch in Nevada, pointed his rifle at federal agents, then beat the feds in court. It made him a folk hero in the militia movement. And he’s worked hard to soften the image of his militia. Instead of fighting the government, he’s become an increasingly powerful political force pulling the state GOP even farther right. Now he’s after a new title: state Senator in Idaho.

The recent reversal of Marathon Pipe Line Inc.’s Capline pipeline is sending oil sands crude produced in landlocked Alberta to export terminals on Gulf Coast where it can be shipped to other countries. Exports to Asia were at their highest ever, with India the leading destination by far, followed by China and then South Korea. The development marks a sea change for Canada’s oil industry. The country holds the third highest crude reserves in the world, but exports to markets beyond the U.S. have been limited due to a lack of infrastructure. 

The latest tailwind for the Canadian energy sector could emerge from Mexico’s decision to curtail crude oil exports.

A federal judge yesterday ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to take yet another look at whether Yellowstone-area bison require Endangered Species Act protections.

On Wednesday, the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes completed the transfer of 28 Yellowstone bison to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Poplar, Montana.

A new rule adopted by Colorado wildlife officials allowing ranchers to haze wolves that get too close to livestock operations came too late for a North Park cowboy whose dog was killed last weekend by a wolf. 

Grand Targhee Resort’s proposed expansion in Teton Canyon has wildlife managers, national park concerned for the wellbeing of a perilously small bighorn herd.

Chris Erickson’s large-scale sculpture—which has generated buzz online and on ski lifts since it debuted atop the sundeck at Aspen Snowmass’ Ajax Mountain this past December—provides a startling glance at what we stand to lose, especially given the current threat climate change poses to the beloved winter sport, as well as the outdoors in general.

There’s less snow and stricter rules, but skiers are adjusting in surprising ways.

The West has new 30-year snowpack averages, but do they blunt reality? The updated snowpack averages are important for researchers and hydrologists in their work to better understand current climate conditions. The problem for some, however, is that by continually calling degraded conditions from climate change “normal,” both scientists and the public adjust their sense of normal to a situation that is anything but.

If the measure passes, it would require all industries in the second-biggest U.S. oil-producing state to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide and methane, to 50 percent of 2005 levels by 2030. The bill would have the state cut emissions to the equivalent of zero emissions by 2050, using a combination of actual reductions and offsets.

PacifiCorp had about a decade to comply with a regional haze plan that required installing additional pollution controls at the coal-fired power plant that employs 700 workers.

Wyoming lawmakers will consider a new bonding option Thursday in ongoing efforts to ensure operator-funded reclamation in the era of coal bankruptcies.

With electric vehicle registrations in November eclipsing 10% of all new Colorado vehicle registrations for the first time ever and $57 million in federal aid headed to the state to help build out charging networks and capacity over the next five years, Colorado is now in a “brave new world” when it comes to how people power themselves from one place to another.

According to the data compiled by economic analyst and Jackson Town Councilor Jonathan Schechter based on 2019 IRS tax returns—the most recent figures available—Teton County’s mean, or average, per-return adjusted gross income was $312,442. Not only was that the highest mean AGI in the nation for that year, it was also the first time any county had eclipsed $300,000 in mean AGI in history.

A state-owned parcel retired Utah lawmaker Mike Noel hoped to use for a luxury golf course in Kanab will instead be developed into a dense vacation hotspot called Mineral Village under a proposal going before the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) board next week.

For some business owners and leaders, the changes to Salt Lake City’s downtown business district look a lot like gentrification.

Park approves plan to expand telecommunications systems, allowing commercial, cellular and internet coverage.

Increasingly destructive Idaho wildfires that the state’s Republican governor blames in part on climate change have resulted in him proposing a budget adding more firefighters and $150 million for future firefighting costs.

Regions that never used to burn are now suffering from forest fires—and that raises the risks of dangerous mudslides that are hard to forecast.

Nobody knows how much water New Mexico has. Finding out is the best way to ensure survival against drought and climate change.

The average statewide temperature in that period was 53.4 degrees, more than four degrees higher than long-term averages.