Environment
U.S. Senate advances nomination of Stone-Manning for public lands post
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Tuesday agreed 50-49 to bring to the floor the nomination of Montana’s Tracy Stone-Manning to head the Bureau of Land Management, following weeks of GOP attacks over her ties to a 1989 tree-spiking scheme. Due to a deadlocked 10-10 vote out of the U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources […]
Extreme heat waves in a warming world don’t just break records — they shatter them
“Extreme heat waves in a warming world don’t just break records — they shatter them” originally appeared in The Conversation. Summer isn’t even half over, and we’ve seen heat waves in the Pacific Northwest and Canada with temperatures that would be hot for Death Valley, enormous fires that have sent smoke across North America, and […]
Secretary Haaland meets with Colorado delegation in Grand Junction
During her first official visit to Grand Junction, the nation’s first Native American secretary of the interior, Deb Haaland, wouldn’t say whether the Bureau of Land Management headquarters will remain in the city or return to Washington, D.C. “It’s an open question, but needs to be known soon,” she said. Haaland was joined on Friday […]
Already narrowed, Colorado rule to reduce car commutes is withdrawn completely
Days after dramatically scaling down a proposed rule to require large employers to encourage alternatives to car commutes, Colorado air-quality regulators went even further to satisfy the concerns of business groups opposed to the measure, moving to withdraw it from consideration entirely. In a pair of motions filed with the Air Quality Control Commission this […]
Water ‘crisis’ discussed by Interior’s Haaland, Colorado officials at Denver roundtable
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s visit to Colorado began on Thursday at the headquarters of Denver Water, where she met with state and local leaders to discuss federal efforts to deal with the worsening drought conditions that have spread across much of the American West. “Being from New Mexico, I know how much climate change impacts […]
Stone-Manning nomination set to advance to U.S. Senate after emotions run high at committee vote
In a contentious meeting that distilled a weeks-long fight, the U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee deadlocked 10-10 along party lines Thursday on approving Tracy Stone-Manning’s nomination as head of the Bureau of Land Management. That means an extra procedural vote will be forced before the full U.S. Senate takes up the nomination of […]
Glaring injustices come with the federal oil and gas program
As a Mountain Mama living on Colorado’s Front Range, I am a strong advocate for the protection of our lands and waters so that our children can enjoy our outdoor quality of life for generations to come. A major way we can create a more resilient future, which our kids deserve, is by addressing the […]
U.S. House passes PFAS bill regulating ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Wednesday passed bipartisan legislation that would regulate toxic chemicals found in drinking water, as well as designate two types of those toxic chemicals as hazardous substances that would spark federal cleanup standards. The bill, H.R. 2467, also known as the PFAS Action Act of 2021, passed 241-183, with 23 Republicans […]
Neguse among Democrats uniting around ‘climate corps’ that could employ youth, prevent fires
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged on Tuesday to include a Civilian Climate Corps in a $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill later this year, as a broad swath of Democrats rallied around a framework of employing thousands of young people to do conservation work. Schumer (D-N.Y.) appeared with a handful of congressional Democrats, led by […]
Denver area again misses deadline to meet EPA air-quality standards
Spurred by the federal Clean Air Act, Colorado regulators are weighing a range of new pollution-fighting measures to reduce the Denver metro area’s long-running ozone problem — but for the second summer in a row, things are getting worse, not better. “The smoke alarm in Colorado is going off, and we need to put out […]
Colorado backs off plan to require large employers to encourage reduced car travel
Officials with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced on Tuesday that they would dramatically scale down a proposed rule to require large employers in the Denver metro area to incentivize their employees to reduce car travel, dealing a major blow to efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution. “The […]
Interior Secretary Haaland to visit BLM headquarters in Grand Junction
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will visit the Bureau of Land Management’s controversial new headquarters in Grand Junction later this week, Colorado’s two Democratic senators announced on Tuesday. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper have both called for the agency’s headquarters to remain in western Colorado, where it was relocated as part of a sweeping reorganization […]