Category: WYOMING_MN

Currently, six percent of Wyoming is “abnormally dry,” according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, released on Thursday. The rest is experiencing drought, 59 percent of which is considered “severe” or “extreme.” The news is not good for wildlife—or for hunters. In response, wildlife managers are reducing this year’s allotment of statewide pronghorn tags by 8,000 and mule deer tags by 3,300.

The Environmental Protection Agency for the first time is proposing a measure that would force four Western states to reduce their harmful emissions because of the impact they’re having on air quality in neighboring states — including Colorado.

Electricity generation projects in Wyoming harnessing the power of wind are moving forward, and the industry is a fairly major player in energy production. Just like fossil fuels are abundant here, so, too, is wind as a natural resource.

In a victory for President Joe Biden, a federal appeals court Thursday refused to revisit its March decision reviving administration plans to account for potential damage from greenhouse gas emissions when creating rules for pollution-generating industries.

There’s a big piece of land in lonely northwest Colorado where the grassy plains meet the mountains, wide-antlered elk drink from icy rivers and sage-grouse pump their chests in wild mating dances each spring. Ranch hands still ride herd on thousands of cattle and sheep here, just as they started doing 150 years ago when Texas cowboys first drove cows north into the high country.

A wind energy company was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay more than $8 million in fines and restitution after at least 150 eagles were killed over the past decade at its wind farms in eight states, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

If I read too much national news these days, especially about how little our federal government is doing to pass climate legislation, it’s hard to stop myself from feeling nihilistic about our ecological outlook. We’re flailing during the most urgent window for action. But when I zoom in on local politics, I find some reasons for hope. A job posted by the town of Jackson, Wyoming, for example, recently caught my eye.

After months of trading barbs, EPA and Wyoming officials say they’ve had a breakthrough in talks over the future of one of America’s largest coal plants.
The reversal comes after a meeting between EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) in Washington, D.C., late last month that could lead to a fuel switch at the Jim Bridger power plant from coal to natural gas.

Wyoming will appeal a recent district court decision affirming Crow tribal hunting rights granted under treaties signed in the 19th century, rights recently affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Dan Lewerenz, staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, said tribal leaders were very clear about maintaining hunting rights before they agreed to move into a reservation on just a portion of lands they had occupied for centuries.

As the first winter storms rolled through this month, a King Air C90 turboprop aircraft contracted by the hydropower company Idaho Power took to the skies over southern Idaho to make it snow.