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Utah's 'water OPEC'

Rockies Today
Utah's 'water OPEC'
By Mountain West News • Issue #264 • View online

Drips of news on the Colorado River crisis
Why the second-driest state rejects water conservation
Utah has some of the highest per-capita water use and is the fastest-growing state. Yet a powerful group that steers Utah’s water policy keeps pushing for costly infrastructure over meaningful conservation efforts.
www.propublica.org  •  Share
Scarcity the theme of Colorado River conference
Scarcity the theme of Colorado River conference
Sobering. Troubling. The new abnormal. Crazy bad. These were the words used to describe conditions on the Colorado River at the largest annual gathering of water managers and experts in Las Vegas this week.
aspenjournalism.org  •  Share
California, Arizona and Nevada agree to take less water from ailing Colorado River
California, Arizona and Nevada agree to take less water from ailing Colorado River
With Lake Mead continuing to decline, California, Arizona and Nevada agreed to further cut their use of Colorado River water.
www.latimes.com  •  Share
Tribes take a greater role in managing the Colorado River, still seek water rights
Tribes take a greater role in managing the Colorado River, still seek water rights
Native communities hold senior water rights on the Colorado River, but until recently have been excluded from talks about the water management.
www.azcentral.com  •  Share
The Western megadrought is revealing a famed desert landscape long drowned by a controversial dam. It’s raising questions about the future of this oasis, and water in the American West.
www.npr.org  •  Share
Barreling along
Surface Transportation Board approves proposed Uinta Basin oil railway
The federal Surface Transportation Board has granted final approval for an 85-mile rail line that backers say is needed to connect the Uinta Basin’s oil production to markets outside of Utah. 
www.sltrib.com  •  Share
The next big boom
The next big boom
Oil and gas could be poised for a comeback in Southwest Colorado.
www.durangotelegraph.com  •  Share
Colorado health officials detect elevated benzene in Weld County community
Colorado health officials detect elevated benzene in Weld County community
Colorado health officials are investigating elevated benzene detected last week by an air monitoring truck parked in a community 600 feet from an oil and gas industry site in Weld County.
www.denverpost.com  •  Share
Granholm to oil industry: 'Get your rig count up'
Granholm to oil industry: 'Get your rig count up'
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm yesterday said the Biden administration won’t reimpose a ban on crude oil exports, calling for common ground with oil producers and a speed-up in construction of energy infrastructure.
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The week’s total rig count is the highest the total rig count has been since the first week of April 2020, when upstream producers were cutting their budgets and pulling rigs from domestic fields in response to low oil demand and plunging oil prices as the coronavirus pandemic raced around the globe.
www.spglobal.com  •  Share
About half of U.S. oil pipeline space is empty after boom time building spree
About half of U.S. oil pipeline space is empty after boom time building spree
About half of U.S. oil pipeline space is sitting unused, heating up competition for barrels in higher-output areas like the Permian Basin in Texas.
www.reuters.com  •  Share
Toxic tailings: Oilsands water could be released
Toxic tailings: Oilsands water could be released
Extracting bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands requires water—lots of it. And for decades, oilsands companies in Canada were banned from releasing the used water back into the environment. So as the industry skyrocketed, the reservoirs of water grew. There are now more than 1.4 trillion litres of toxic wastewater stored in these tailings ponds. Experts say that could be a disaster waiting to happen. The federal government is working on regulations that would eventually allow companies to treat and release the water back into rivers and lakes.
www.cbc.ca  •  Share
Development tracker
Judge ends ‘Village at Wolf Creek’ land exchange
The ruling confirms a major victory for environmental groups in Southwest Colorado that have fought to stop the 1,700-unit development that would have served 8,000 to 10,000 people adjacent to the remote Wolf Creek Ski Area.
www.durangoherald.com  •  Share
The price of preservation: Transferable development right sales price hits $1.8 million in Pitkin County
The price of preservation: Transferable development right sales price hits $1.8 million in Pitkin County
The Aspen area’s super-heated real estate market has helped push the price of transferrable development rights from $360,000 last year to close to $2 million now.
www.aspentimes.com  •  Share
Neighbors band together to fend off Munger Mountain glampers
Neighbors band together to fend off Munger Mountain glampers
The Bozeman-based glamour camping developer Under Canvas has approached the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments about building a tent city on a parcel of state-owned land on Munger Mountain.
www.jhnewsandguide.com  •  Share
Missoula County puts Larchmont housing proposal on back burner
Missoula County puts Larchmont housing proposal on back burner
A proposal to build housing on the Larchmont Golf Course property has been put on the back burner by Missoula County.
missoulian.com  •  Share
Three Sisters developer sues Town of Canmore for rejecting project
Three Sisters developer sues Town of Canmore for rejecting project
The company behind massive residential and commercial developments that would have doubled Canmore’s population is suing the mountain town and members of its former and current council for rejecting the proposal.
calgaryherald.com  •  Share
Findings
Idaho potato industry could wither under rising temperatures
Bingham County, Idaho, is the nation’s largest potato-producing county with more than 57,000 acres under spud cultivation last year. Yet the potato prowess of Bingham County and the rest of Idaho will be challenged as climate change tightens its grip on the state’s agricultural economy, according to a new analysis. So will cattle and milk production, and forestry, all of which play major roles in the state’s agricultural economy.
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Climate change has destabilized the Earth’s poles, putting the planet in peril
Climate change has destabilized the Earth’s poles, putting the planet in peril
New research shows how rising temperatures have irreversibly altered both the Arctic and Antarctic. Ripple effects will be felt around the globe.
www.washingtonpost.com  •  Share
Oregon scientists call for more forest protection to fight climate change, save species
Oregon scientists call for more forest protection to fight climate change, save species
A new study maps the Western forests that would store the most carbon and help the most species if they were given the same level of protection from logging, grazing and mining as designated wilderness areas receive.
www.opb.org  •  Share
Study: Western state budgets hit hard from wildfire costs
Study: Western state budgets hit hard from wildfire costs
The study focused on the fiscal impacts to state budgets, and found Western states collectively spent nearly $12 billion dollars on suppressing wildfires between 2005 and 2015.
www.boisestatepublicradio.org  •  Share
Scientists find climate-driven tree mortality and fuel aridity increase wildfire fuel availability
Scientists find climate-driven tree mortality and fuel aridity increase wildfire fuel availability
New research conducted by scientists at The University of New Mexico suggests climate-driven tree mortality and fuel aridity are increasing fuel availability in forests leading to record-breaking wildfires in size, spread and plume formation.
phys.org  •  Share
Snow drought research finds predictability in uncertainty
Snow drought research finds predictability in uncertainty
Recognizing the link between snow and water security, a Dartmouth team compiled an unprecedented global-scale dataset of snowpack to show how uncertainties over determining snow depth and inconsistencies in classifying snow drought can actually be used to improve predictions of water availability.
www.eurekalert.org  •  Share
Dispatches from the energy transition
Lithium miner rips its own research in ESA fight
A mining company seeking to build a massive open-pit lithium mine in western Nevada put up around a quarter of a million dollars, hoping to prove it could safely move a rare wildflower out of the mine’s path. Instead it wound up paying for research that could give the federal government the science it needs to protect the flower, known as Tiehm’s buckwheat, under the Endangered Species Act.
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White Mesa Mill moves into rare earths processing with eyes on growing U.S. demand
White Mesa Mill moves into rare earths processing with eyes on growing U.S. demand
“I tell people, you may not like oil and gas, but man—you better love mining if you want to go big into electric vehicles. It’s going to take a lot of materials to make all those electric vehicles that people want.“
www.utahbusiness.com  •  Share
The energy transition and public lands, Part III
The energy transition and public lands, Part III
In order to decarbonize the existing system, as opposed to dismantling it and starting virtually from scratch, we will need to work within it. And in order to fill the gaping abyss between power supply and demand that will open up when utility scale generators go offline, we’ll need to build utility scale wind and solar developments along with de-balkanizing the existing grid. And that most likely will mean utilizing public lands.
www.landdesk.org  •  Share
Wyoming's GDP shrank dramatically over 2020, data shows
Wyoming's GDP shrank dramatically over 2020, data shows
Wyoming’s GDP has dwindled considerably since its peak at $50.7 billion in 2008. At the end of 2020, it was just $36.3 billion—a decline also attributed to the state’s shrinking mining industry.
trib.com  •  Share
Wyoming left out of federal coal community assistance program
Wyoming left out of federal coal community assistance program
Gov. Mark Gordon and Wyoming’s congressional delegation allege political prejudice in state’s exclusion from the Build Back Better Challenge.
wyofile.com  •  Share
New Mexico regulators have denied a request by the state’s largest electric provide to divest itself from one of the Southwest’s few remaining coal-fired power plants by transferring its shares to a Navajo energy company.
apnews.com  •  Share
Power plant owners and operators have reported to EIA that they plan to retire 28%, or 59 gigawatts, of the coal-fired capacity currently operating in the U.S. by 2035.
www.eia.gov  •  Share
Platte River Power Authority seeks out solar contracts to reach 54% renewable electricity
Platte River Power Authority seeks out solar contracts to reach 54% renewable electricity
Platte River Power Authority plans to add another 250 megawatts of solar power to its electricity portfolio, and the power provider is seeking out projects that include battery storage and distributed energy systems. This addition, which could come online by 2025, would bring Platte River to 54% noncarbon electricity. It’s the biggest renewable addition that the power provider for Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Estes Park has ever sought out.
www.coloradoan.com  •  Share
Critter ticker
A ‘firestorm’ of public comment leads Montana FWP to rethink elk management proposal
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has backpedaled on a controversial elk management strategy after a public response that FWP Director Henry “Hank” Worsech described as a “firestorm.” Even after the department backed away from the most contentious proposal it had planned to present to the Fish and Wildlife Commission, public commenters continued to raise concerns at yesterday’s commission meeting in Helena about a process they said has been rushed and favors large landowners and brings the state closer to privatizing wildlife. 
montanafreepress.org  •  Share
Months after Idaho lawmakers enacted a controversial law expanding wolf hunting and trapping, pushback from critics has continued, with a cadre of opponents once again taking their complaints to the court system. 
www.idahostatesman.com  •  Share
Montana joins tri-state grizzly hunting deal
Montana joins tri-state grizzly hunting deal
Montana’s Fish and Game Commission unanimously endorsed the agreement to manage grizzly bear hunting around Yellowstone Park, should the state ever get oversight of the federally protected animal.
missoulian.com  •  Share
Can hunting a few ewes save the herd?
Can hunting a few ewes save the herd?
Wyoming Game and Fish mulls hunting female bighorn sheep to prevent possible pneumonia die-off in Jackson Herd.
www.jhnewsandguide.com  •  Share
Quacks, trills and peeps could help save migratory habitat
Quacks, trills and peeps could help save migratory habitat
The Atlantic Richfield Co. and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology teamed up this fall to try to get a better sense of the biodiversity and density of birds at the Warm Springs Ponds.
missoulian.com  •  Share
The shad hoard: Is the proliferation of a nonnative fish in the Columbia River harming native salmon?
The shad hoard: Is the proliferation of a nonnative fish in the Columbia River harming native salmon?
On any given day at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, the most common fish fighting its way up the dam’s fish ladders is a silvery member of the herring family. 
www.spokesman.com  •  Share
What else we're reading today
Oregonian Chuck Sams sworn in as 1st Native American director of National Park Service
Oregonian Chuck Sams sworn in as 1st Native American director of National Park Service
His supporters are optimistic Sams’ background and citizenship with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation will help him work to improve how the agency and its hundreds of national parks, historic sites, monuments and recreation areas work with tribal nations and incorporate their history and culture.
www.oregonlive.com  •  Share
BLM director details agency headquarters' return to D.C.
BLM director details agency headquarters' return to D.C.
The Interior Department’s moving the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters back to Washington, D.C., while establishing a Western HQ in Colorado. On Tuesday, BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning shared details on how that’ll work.
www.boisestatepublicradio.org  •  Share
BIA launches new website spotlighting missing and murdered Indigenous people cases
BIA launches new website spotlighting missing and murdered Indigenous people cases
“The missing and murdered Indigenous peoples crisis has plagued Indian Country for too long, with cases often going unsolved and unaddressed,” Bryan Newland, a BIA assistant secretary said in a press release announcing the website’s launch. “This new website represents a new tool in the effort to keep communities safe and provide closure for families.”
www.azmirror.com  •  Share
Geographic naming board agrees to scrape offensive name from Chaffee County gulch
Geographic naming board agrees to scrape offensive name from Chaffee County gulch
Board recommends renaming derogatory Chinaman Gulch as Yan Sing Gulch, which translates to “resilience” in Chinese.
coloradosun.com  •  Share
Restitution and reconciliation on America’s stolen lands
Restitution and reconciliation on America’s stolen lands
What would it look like, and what would it mean, if the United States acted to reconcile its brutal treatment and violent dispossession of Indigenous people?
radiowest.kuer.org  •  Share
The great danger of the tiny bark beetle
The great danger of the tiny bark beetle
As the climate warms, this insect’s population is booming. That’s bad news for the ponderosa pines of the Sierra Nevada.
www.wired.com  •  Share
The crucial ingredients for decarbonizing an economy, and safeguarding a region
The crucial ingredients for decarbonizing an economy, and safeguarding a region
Lessons from a year of reporting on climate solutions for Washington, Oregon and British Columbia.
www.invw.org  •  Share
Unsurprisingly, hedge fund Alden Global Capital has turned to the courts to try to gain leverage in its hostile takeover bid for Lee Enterprises.
www.poynter.org  •  Share
A 6,300-acre Paradise Valley property that borders the Dome Mountain Wildlife Management Area has been sold to a company owned by Home Depot’s co-founder, Arthur M. Blank. Michelle Uberuaga, executive director of the Park County Environmental Council, said she thinks the deal is good news for conservation and for all who live in Paradise Valley.
www.bozemandailychronicle.com  •  Share
With ‘Gunfight,’ an insider takes on a community that was once his own
With ‘Gunfight,’ an insider takes on a community that was once his own
Montana’s Ryan Busse used to be a prominent figure in the firearm industry. A recent book details his disillusionment as he saw gun culture transform—and has drawn disdain from former allies.
www.nytimes.com  •  Share
Rockies Today is edited by Matthew Frank, fellow in regional journalism at the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana.
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