Remember The Tongue River Valley

As you happily prepare for a fun-filled July 4th weekend the State of Montana, DNRC, The State Land Board and Governor “Coal Cowboy” Schweitzer are busily drawing up plans to utterly destroy the Tongue River valley. Two public meetings were held this week, one in Miles City and another in Lame Deer to seek comments [...]

Failure To Communicate

“A popular government, without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps, both.” — James Madison
Letter to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822 (copied from the Sunlight Foundation website)
The Helena Independent Record reports that Montana once again received a grade of F in [...]

A Horse Named Mike

Couple of good articles in the Great Falls Tribune this morning about the Mike Horse mine project near Lincoln. One article gives a pretty good overview of the of the history of the remediation project and the other outlines some recent changes in funding. Both articles are taken from the masters thesis project of Elizabeth [...]

Sagebrush Rebellion

We live in the West and we are intrinsically bound to sagebrush. It’s part of our soul. Lewis and Clark camped among the “sage bushes”, Zane Grey wrote “Riders of the Purple Sage“, John Wayne rode the “Sagebrush Trail“, it is the state flower of Nevada. We love the smell and the lore and we [...]

NIMBY Mormons

Salt Lake Tribune – June 23 – Utah Senator Bob Bennett “said Monday the nation needs to construct 100 new nuclear reactors by 2030 — doubling the nation’s current number of 104 plants — if it is serious about slashing carbon emissions while still producing enough electricity to keep up with American needs”. “”To propose [...]

Water’s For Fightin’

Every year about this time the mountains start to green up, wildflowers begin to bloom and we get a rosy report on how much water will be available for summer irrigation. Each year, the Governor’s Drought Advisory Committee is required to release THE GOVERNOR’S REPORT on THE POTENTIAL FOR DROUGHT IN MONTANA. This years report [...]

Cap And Charade

I’m really not a complete Pollyanna. I realize that it takes a certain amount of accomodation to move legislation through Congress, but sometimes I get frustrated with compromise. When the end product has the opposite effect of the original intent or has very little effect at all, the process breaks down. That’s what happened with [...]

Parade Planning

My day is made! If you haven’t made plans for the 4th of July yet, you might want to consider a road trip to Bozeman. The Green Coalition of Gay Loggers For Jesus has applied for and received a permit to hold a parade down Main Street an hour before the planned Tea Party parade. [...]

Western Governors Conference Update II

The Western Governors Association has wrapped up its annual meeting in Park City. To their credit, the governors seem to recognize the need for coming to grips with climate change and the nation’s energy problems. Their answers however, continue to be a bit stuck in the past. As headwater entities, they encourage conservation as one [...]

Western Governors Conference Update I

On Sunday, our man, Brian took over the reins as chairman of the Western Governors Association as Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. stepped down in anticipation of being named Ambassador to China.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu gave the conference an update on global warming on Monday. Chu voiced the fact that climate change is real and [...]