Beetle Battle

Coming soon, to a pine tree near you! He’s a tiny little feller, about the size of a grain of rice, but boy is he hungry. The Mountain Pine Beetle Dendroctonus ponderosae is a Rocky Mountain native and we had learned to live with occasional outbreaks. We are now in the middle of a full [...]

Temperature tantrum

I see that it was snowing in Colorado and Wyoming yesterday. Imagine that, snow in October. So, there you have it, global warming is a fake. That’s about as deep into the data as the folks who denounce climate change like to go.
One of the favorite ploys of climate change deniers is to claim that [...]

NUMBY Californians

Here’s another reason why carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is not really such a good idea. The basic idea is that we will just capture all the CO2 produced by coal-fired power plants, pump it under high pressure across the country and shove it thousands of feet underground where it will stay for infinity and [...]

Coal ash conundrum

Last week, the Bugle published an article concerning a recent National Research Council study on the hidden health and environmental consequences of power production in the U.S. The study found that we pay, as a nation, about $120 billion per year, mostly in increased health problems and early deaths for our reliance on fossil fuels.
Along [...]

There ain’t no free lunch

It is imperative for the health of the planet that we move away from extractive, carbon-based energy and toward more environmentally friendly alternatives. However, an article in the New York Times this morning reminds us that there are always going to be consequences to the planet no matter how we get our electrical power. Two [...]

People are stupid

That may be a bit harsh. Maybe a better word would be “uninformed“. As we come down to the line on passing some kind of clean energy legislation through the Congress, it has come to my attention that most people don’t have a clue what the hell we are talking about, but are never the [...]

The real cost of coal

As Congress moves haltingly forward with health care and energy reforms, the National Research Council has released a very interesting peer-reviewed report on the Hidden Health and Environmental Costs of Energy Production and Consumption.
The report, done for the Department of Energy, examines the “hidden costs” of energy, such as the damage done to human health [...]

Warming western water woes

We live in Montana so that means that we love to fight over water. It’s a western tradition. Sadly, with the progression of climate change we will likely see more altercations.
We all know the story. You only have to look around to see the effects of climate change in Montana. Temperatures have increased from 1-2% [...]

Where’s mine?

I guess the goal is to reduce U.S. carbon emissions and it looks like we are preparing to do that by buying off every stakeholder with something they want. In June, the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill narrowly passed out of the House of Representatives 219-212. There were many things that I didn’t like about [...]

Clean Coal – Dirty Water

Tired of breathing all those toxic chemicals belching out of coal-fired power plants? Big Coal has an answer. Nearly 50 percent of the coal-fired power plants in the country have installed scrubbers to remove toxic chemicals from their emissions. Sound good? Well, maybe not. Emission scrubbers work by spraying water and chemicals into the plant’s [...]