In 2016, the Portland, Oregon, city council unanimously approved a ban on either building new fossil fuel terminals within the city or expanding existing ones. At the time, Inside Climate News reported it was likely the first time a city had used zoning laws to restrict the use of fossil fuels, and climate activists hailed […]
Construction on the long-delayed Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline is planned for 2019, developer TransCanada said Monday. “Keystone XL has undergone years of extensive environmental review by federal and state regulators,” TransCanada spokesman Matthew John told Omaha World-Herald. “All of these evaluations show that Keystone XL can be built safely and with minimal impact to the […]
By Rosalyn R. LaPier Forty years ago the U.S. Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act so that Native Americans could practice their faith freely and that access to their sacred sites would be protected. This came after a 500-year-long history of conquest and coercive conversion to Christianity had forced Native Americans from their […]
Trucks have removed more than 1,400 tons of contaminated soil following a large oil spill on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana, The Billings Gazette reported. Cleanup is still ongoing. So far, more than 50 large dump trucks full of soil have been removed with more to come, the publication noted. An estimated 600 barrels […]
A well operated by Anadarko Minerals Inc. spilled a “substantial” amount of oil in the central region of the Fort Peck Reservation in northeast Montana, according to local media. An estimated 600 barrels of oil and 90,000 barrels of brine (production water) leaked from the well, the Glasgow Courier reported, citing officials with the reservation’s […]
By Ingrid Abramovitch Last summer, when wildfires burned out of control in Montana and other western states, Richard M. Parrish responded the best way he knows how: by creating artwork to document the devastation. Parrish, an internationally acclaimed glass artist, ascended over the parched landscape near his studio in Bozeman, Montana, in a small propeller […]
Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke wants to reshape and repurpose 10 national monuments for drilling, logging and other commercial activities, but you wont see the same recommendations for existing monuments in Montana—Zinke’s home state. Notably, if the former Congressman’s plans take shape, Montanans might even find themselves with a new, 130,000-acre national monument in their state. […]
An intense and deadly fire season continued to exhaust Western firefighters this week as drought envelops the region. Officials reported Wednesday that more than one million acres total have burned during Montana’s fire season. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock declared a state of emergency last week, calling this “one of the worst fire seasons” in the […]
By Aaron Teasdale “How much moon do we have tonight?” I yelled to my friend Greg, trying to make myself heard over the sounds of wind and surging water. The sun was sinking toward the mountains all too quickly and our float-in campsite lay somewhere down the river’s bends in darkening forest. Greg shrugged. He […]