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High Country News

High Country News

A nonprofit independent magazine of unblinking journalism that shines a light on all of the complexities of the West.

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Oil

Posted inArticles

Polluted air threatens the health of New Mexico infants

by Nick Bowlin July 3, 2024August 8, 2024

A new study finds a link between air pollution and low birth weight.

Posted inArticles

Colorado’s oil and gas rules put taxpayers at risk, according to study

by Nick Bowlin June 28, 2024August 8, 2024

The report contradicts claims that the new rules are the ‘most robust in the country.’

Posted inArticles

Trump vs. Biden on the climate

by Jonathan Thompson May 31, 2024August 8, 2024

The next presidential election will have huge ramifications for the planet.

Posted inArticles

Can carbon capture transition California’s oil fields?

by Jake Bittle May 15, 2024August 8, 2024

In Kern County, the community searches for an economic alternative to a fossil fuel industry. Will it be any fairer than the old one?

Posted inArticles

Is Biden a public-lands protector? 

by Jonathan Thompson April 25, 2024August 8, 2024

The administration makes the biggest land-management moves in a half century.

Posted inArticles

Drilling for oil on public land is about to cost a lot more

by Nick Bowlin April 15, 2024August 8, 2024

Long-awaited Interior Department policy will raise financial assurance and royalty rates.

Posted inArticles

The good, the bad and the ugly of the state legislative season

by Jonathan Thompson February 29, 2024February 28, 2024

While Congress does nothing, Western state lawmakers pass a flurry of consequential and/or crazy — bills.

Pump jacks on a ridgeline in Wyoming.
Posted inArticles

Oil industry profits don’t pay for cleanup

by Mark Olalde and Nick Bowlin February 26, 2024February 23, 2024

A failure of regulation has allowed industry to avoid the true cost of cleaning up its unplugged wells.

This massive flare and the black smoke coming from the flare stack in New Mexico’s Permian Basin is a sign, according to Wild Earth Guardians, that the flare is not working appropriately and polluting above permitted emission limits.
Posted inArticles

New Mexico pushes back on Big Oil

by Jerry Redfern January 23, 2024February 1, 2024

New bills in the legislature could curb industry excesses.

Posted inArticles

Climate litigation to watch in 2024

by Natalia Mesa January 2, 2024January 31, 2024

These court cases could move the needle on the climate crisis.

Posted inDecember 1, 2023: December 2023

Take a toxic tour of the Great Salt Lake

by Brooke Larsen December 1, 2023January 31, 2024

Utah grapples with its future of industry around its dying inland sea.

Geologic formation in the Red Desert, Wyoming.
Posted inArticles

Outrage, disinformation and threats rise up in Wyoming around a BLM land plan

by Jonathan Thompson October 26, 2023January 24, 2024

Is there a new Sagebrush Rebellion flaring in the Cowboy State?

Posted inSeptember 1, 2023: Food Justice

The long tail of toxic emissions on the Navajo Nation

by Mark Armao August 30, 2023January 24, 2024

Communities contend with ongoing air quality issues tied to gas and oil wells.

A BNSF Railway train travels east along the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, on its way toward Denver, following the same route proposed for the Uinta Basin Railway project.
Posted inArticles

Federal court derails proposed Utah oil railroad

by Samuel Shaw August 23, 2023January 24, 2024

Failures to assess risks to Colorado River and ‘numerous NEPA violations’ in project’s impact analysis highlighted.

Pumpjacks along the Animas River north of Durango, Colorado.
Posted inArticles

Private equity gets into oil and gas

by Nick Bowlin August 9, 2023January 24, 2024

A new report warns of bankruptcies and abandoned wells on Western public land.

BLM California manages nearly 600 producing oil and gas leases covering more than 200,000 acres and 7,900 usable wells. Between 80% and 90% of all surface-disturbing activities related to oil and gas activities occur in the San Joaquin Valley on public lands administered by Central California District, Bakersfield Field Office. More than 95% of all federal drilling occurs in established fields within the Kern County area of the San Joaquin Valley.
Posted inArticles

New public-land drilling rules would overhaul the Western oil industry

by Nick Bowlin July 21, 2023January 24, 2024

The potential new rules would hike the amount companies must pay in order to drill, in addition to other changes.

Kern County oil fields along California state highway 33.
Posted inArticles

California will need $21.5 billion to clean up its oil sites. Who’s going to pay for it?

by Mark Olalde May 23, 2023January 24, 2024

As industry transitions away from fossil fuels, its profits will fall behind remediation costs.

A derailed train spilled dry ammonia near residential homes in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2015. Residents were asked to remain indoors and to close their windows and doors.
Posted inArticles

What hazardous cargo moves on Colorado railroads? It’s a ‘black box’, even to state regulators

by Samuel Shaw April 19, 2023January 24, 2024

In many Western states, 19th-century laws and deregulation allow chemical- laden trains to roll in obscurity — leaving hazmat teams guessing.

Pumpjacks and reserve tanks on Uintah and Ouray reservation land in Utah. The Ute Indian Tribe holds a small equity stake in the proposed Uinta Basin Railway project.
Posted inArticles

Utah’s proposed crude oil railway could see an accident every year

by Samuel Shaw March 23, 2023January 24, 2024

Coloradans fight the oil train project, fearing a repeat of East Palestine’s toxic derailment — but in the Colorado River.

An aerial view of tundra polygons and caribou tracks in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The reserve’s almost 23 million acres were set aside in 1923 as an emergency military oil supply.
Posted inArticles

The Biden administration just approved a huge oil project in Alaska

by Victoria Petersen March 14, 2023January 24, 2024

The Willow project threatens local lifeways and wildlife in Nuiqsut, Alaska.

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