Exempt water ain’t free water

Exempt groundwater wells are back in the news this week. Five Montana ranchers filed a petition Tuesday with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation claiming that the overuse of exempt wells has become a direct threat to their livelihood. The practice of exempting small groundwater withdrawals from the normal permitting process has turned into [...]

And again

A study of Congressional Budget Office data by a respected MIT economist finds that the Senate health care bill will save consumers money. The new study found savings of $200 on health insurance premiums for single folks and savings of $500 for a family of four in 2009 dollars once the new plans become available. [...]

Another ace for A.C.E.S

Moving Montana away from dirty extractive energy production will not only help the earth, it will help Montanans. A new study by a team of researchers at the University of California, using a state-of-the-art forecasting model predicts that “comprehensive clean energy and climate policies would create jobs, increase consumers’ income, and strengthen the U.S. economy [...]

Decision time for bull trout

Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) are not evil. Lake trout are weeds, a pelagic version of spotted knapweed. Weeds do fine in their native habitat, they have predators and natural controls that keep them in control. Outside their natural range, weeds and lake trout alike tend to decimate local populations. Lake trout out-compete, outlive and consume [...]

Colossal Cataclysm of the Columbia

I admit it. I’m unduly impressed by geology and if there’s one thing Montana and the West has in abundance, it’s rocks. Some of the most interesting geology I know of lays in the channeled scablands of eastern Washington. There is a great article in the current issue of High Country News about the Glacial [...]

Coal Kills Kids

On Monday, the Montana State Land Board decided to delay a decision on leasing the state-owned parcels of coal in the Otter Creek tracts. “The board said more time is needed for the public to examine the proposed bid-letting.” The real reason was likely to let them figure out how to maximize the monetary return, [...]

Book Report: The Big Burn

Many years ago I was working for the Forest Service in the upper St. Joe River drainage in Northern Idaho. All around the valley were reminders of the largest forest fire ever to hit the United States. The black skeletons of monster white pines and cedars still stood sentinel 100 feet above thick even-aged stands [...]

Carbon hush money

Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is a recently discovered technology that will allow energy companies to reduce that large, uncomfortable bulge in your wallet. We have been burning coal for a couple of hundred years, but it seems that we have only recently realized that carbon-based fuels are dirty. They kill millions of people a [...]

Otter Disaster

To those of you who wrote to the State Land Board to let them know how you feel about leasing the Otter Creek coal tracts: Thank you and take heart, I think they may be beginning to hear tiny voices in their ears. The board decided yesterday to delay a decision on leasing the state-owned [...]

Clean Coal, Hard Cash

AP released a brief article this morning outlining the real emphasis behind the push for “Clean Coal“. Governor Brian Schweitzer, in Bismarck on Tuesday for an energy seminar said, “clean coal technology could help generate billions of dollars for his state and North Dakota.“
Therein is revealed the real purpose behind our support for “Clean Coal“. [...]