Colorado creates new rail safety office to study critical issues in wake of deadly derailments
Colorado lawmakers May 8, the final day of the state legislative session, created an Office of Rail Safety within the Public Utilities Commission to study and implement state rail regulations…
Proposal to ban drilling on federal land near Aspen, Crested Butte inches forward as CORE Act stalls
The Thompson Divide area in Pitkin and Gunnison counties (Ecoflight photo). A long-debated proposal to protect more than 220,000 acres of national forest land on Colorado’s Western Slope is close…
Colorado lawmaker Boebert still silent on Utah oil trains as her political opponents line up to oppose controversial rail project
A Union Pacific oil train near Grand Junction and the Colorado River with the Grand Mesa in the background (David O. Williams photo). Candidates from both major political parties looking…
Utah oil loading facility ‘out of compliance’ with state air-quality regs but still seeking federal OK
The Price River near Kyune, Utah, where the proposed Uinta Basin Railway would meet the existing Union Pacific line, is pictured from an Amtrak passenger train on June 5, 2023.…
Colorado ski-town mayors eye commuter, tourist rail lines, oppose return of freight trains
Avon Mayor Amy Phillips makes it clear she doesn’t think rail service will be revived through her town at the base of Beaver Creek ski area in her lifetime —…
Western history washes up against modern reality in good, old-fashioned water war
Homestake Creek wetlands (photo by John Fielder). Mark Twain may or may not have actually said it first – “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting!” – but even…
BLM blasted for fast-tracking oil loading facility in Utah to up production stalled by rail battle
A proposal to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to expand the capacity of an oil transport facility on federal land west of Price, Utah, has caught the attention of…
Where has all the snow gone? Colorado snowpack evolving with climate change
With only a couple of months until the 2022-23 ski season kicks off (and far less time until the snow guns crank up), it’s time to start thinking about the…
Next Standing Rock? Trump revives Oregon gas pipeline with Colorado connection
The New York Times on Thursday printed an interesting opinion piece by Don Gentry, chairman of the Klamath Tribes in Oregon, and environmental author Emma Harris on a proposed natural…
Southeastern Utah now ground zero for divergent views on managing public lands
When I was in college in Denver from the mid to late 1980s, a friend and I did a road trip to Natural Bridges in southeastern Utah — the state’s…
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