Mountain West - Inside Climate News

Wyoming Considers Relaxing Its Carbon Capture Standards for Electric Utilities, Scrambling Political Alliances on Climate Change and Energy

A bill lowering the amount of CO2 a utility must capture at its power plants has drawn opposition from two groups usually diametrically opposed to each other’s priorities—environmentalists and climate change skeptics.

By Jake Bolster

A man looks out over the Colorado River near Page, Ariz. on Nov. 2, 2022. The seven states that manage the river are divided about how to account for the impacts of climate change in new plans about sharing its water. Credit: Alex Hager/KUNC

Colorado River States Have Two Different Plans for Managing Water. Here’s Why They Disagree

By Alex Hager, KUNC

In Wyoming, Sheep May Safely Graze Under Solar Panels in One of the State’s First “Agrivoltaic” Projects

By Jake Bolster

The Shoshone Hydroelectric Facility sits beneath a busy stretch of Interstate 70 on Jan. 26, 2024. The Colorado River District is poised to spend $98.5 million on rights to its water in an effort to keep the Colorado River flowing for farms and cities in Western Colorado. Credit: Alex Hager/KUNC

In $100 Million Colorado River Deal, Water and Power Collide

By Alex Hager, KUNC

The sun shines on St. George, Utah on Jan. 25. Washington County's population has quadrupled since 1990, and projections say it could double again by 2050. Credit: David Condos/KUER

How One of the Nation’s Fastest Growing Counties Plans to Find Water in the Desert

By David Condos, KUER

Wyoming, Slow To Take Federal Clean Energy Funds, Gambles State Money on Carbon Sequestration and Hydrogen Schemes to Keep Fossil Fuels Flowing

By Jake Bolster

Utah Legislature Takes Aim at Rights of Nature Movement

By Katie Surma

Environmentalists See Nevada Supreme Court Ruling Bringing State’s Water Management ‘Into the 21st Century’

By Wyatt Myskow

It Could Soon Get a Whole Lot Easier to Build Solar in the Western US

By Wyatt Myskow

A Long-Delayed BLM Resource Management Plan in Southwest Wyoming Pits Conservation Against Resource Extraction

By Jake Bolster

First Uranium Mines to Dig in the US in Eight Years Begin Operations Near Grand Canyon

By Wyatt Myskow

Colorado Town Appoints Legal Guardians to Implement the Rights of a Creek and a Watershed

By Katie Surma

Lake Powell Is Still in Trouble. Here’s What’s Good and What’s Alarming About the Current Water Level

By Dan Gearino

Pronghorn migrate in Wyoming. Credit: Joel Berger

A BLM Proposal to Protect Wildlife Corridors Could Restore the West’s ‘Veins and Arteries’

By Adam Goldstein

Feds Bet on Paying for Water Conservation to Protect the Colorado River

By Wyatt Myskow

Activists Crash Powerful Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole as Climate Protests and Responses to Them Escalate

By Keerti Gopal

Wyoming Could Gain the Most from Federal Climate Funding, But Obstacles Are Many

By Marianne Lavelle

Plaintiff Mica Kantor, 14, testifies on the second day of the trial. He shared that he felt like a "prisoner in his own home" when he contracted Covid during an outbreak of wildfire smoke and was forced to stay in his basement alone. He suffers from asthma and must stay indoors when the air quality is poor. Credit: Richard Forbes

In a Montana Courtroom, Debate Over Whether States Can Make a Difference on Climate Change, and if They Have a Responsibility to Try

By Richard Forbes

Lead plaintiff Rikki Held on her family's ranch in southeastern Montana. Behind her, a wildfire burns four miles away. In Summer 2022, this was one of 18 wildfires within 50 miles of her home.

Love of the Land and Community Inspired the Montana Youths Whose Climate Lawsuit Against the State Goes to Court This Week

By Richard Forbes

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