Powder River Basin Resource Council holds "Harvest Celebration" fund-raiser Aug. 27 in Sheridan

Good food & good music for a great cause. FMI: www.powderriverbasin.org

Oregon tests "solar highways"

So Oregon, which has about half of the average annual sunlight as Wyoming, is turning one stretch of interstate into a "solar highway." You might wonder why Wyoming can't do something that Oregon can. For one thing, Wyoming produces most of its and the nation's energy the old-fashioned way, by burning coal. The coal and oil and gas lobbies would never stand for it. Second, Wyoming is running out of highway funds, so it is concentrating its road efforts more on patching the holes than on rebuilding infrastructure or trying new things. Third, Oregon's a blue state with progressive environmental policies and Wyoming isn't. Maybe Colorado, another sun-drenched Rocky Mountain state, will pick up on this idea.

From Grist:

Okay, we know YOU ride your bike everywhere. But the country’s 4 million miles of roads, and 50,000 miles of interstate highway, probably aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Isn’t there anything productive we can do with this giant car playground? Well, we can cover it with solar photovoltaic panels, so it’s at least providing some energy.

Oregon's already testing the idea, installing panel arrays along highway shoulders. Others want to embed the solar panels directly into the road surface, and have already received funding to test the idea. California wants to try it along parts of Route 101. 

 If you think about it, roads are a perfect place to put solar: They're already public land, they've already been cleared and graded, they're adjacent to infrastructure like towns and power lines, and they're super accessible for repair and upgrades. Also, they’re already sitting out in the sun all day. 

Gulf oil spill revisited on the Montana high prairie

A year after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, caused by corporate negligence, we have a similar spill on the high prairie just north of the Wyoming/Montana border.

Get the lowdown from Button Valley Bugle and 4&20 blackbirds.

While tonight's Rachel Maddow show portrayed Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer as the Hero in the White Hat standing firm against the Black Hats of Exxon-Mobil, things aren't always as they seem. Check out the blogs to see what I mean.

"Berry Prairie" taking shape on UW Biodiversity Center roof

Hymenoxys grandiflora by Susan Marsh, from Wyoming Native Plant Society web site.

This is cool (in more ways than one):

Planting is underway on a green roof being established at the University of Wyoming's Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center. Landscapers are installing a variety of native grasses, wildflowers, cacti and shrubs, among other things.

Greg Brown, director of the Biodiversity Center, that native plants are being used, ones that grow within a 20-mile radius of the campus.

WPR: Green roof installed at UW Biodiversity Center

NN11: Make Clean Energy Not War (through art)

Artwork by Susan Slavick

Minneapolis Convention Center protest by the group 10 Years and Counting, as artists try to put a face to 10 years of war. Protesters hold up a 13-figure number that represents the bill for a decade of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and various other locales.

Sept 11 - Oct 7, 2011 will mark the ten year anniversary of our nation continuously at war. 10 Years + Counting invites artists and others to take this historic moment as inspiration and use the power of creativity to illustrate the costs of war and image a more peaceful world. 

Paint it, dance it, sculpt it, write it, sing it! Imagine peace and create connections. Concerts, public art projects, garden parties, bake-offs, gallery exhibitions, street art, flash mobs, walks and runs: the possibilities are endless. 

Turn the weeks of this anniversary of devastation into an unstoppable, irrepressible explosion of imagining the possible, a new beginning.

Add your creation, gathering or event to the 10 YEARS + COUNTING calendar by going to www.10yearsandcounting.org

Ground-breaking enviro-art includes "Blood Lamp"

Blood Lamp from miket on Vimeo.

As seen on Grist: "Mike Thompson's "Blood Lamp," which is powered by a single drop of human blood, represents the dynamic outer fringes of the eco-friendly avant-garde."

On May Saturday, pondering the future of Cheyenne

Riding around Cheyenne on this beautiful May morning. Errands to run, people to deliver. The Decembrists' "The King is Dead" pumping out of the speakers and out the open windows. Doesn't get much better than this, a spring Saturday after a horrible winter.

I was asking myself big questions: What is that squeak coming from the left front wheel? (Note to self -- call "Click & Clack.") When should I plant my crops -- Mother's Day, May 15 or -- as the High Plains gardening gurus recommend -- Memorial Day weekend? Is "The Decembrists' "Why We Fight" about war or relationships or both, and why is the video so lame? What is Cheyenne's future, especially with the oil play boom on the horizon?

I spent most of my pondering on the last question. We've lived in Cheyenne for 20 years, with two years off in D.C. for good behavior. Lots of changes during that time. But never as many as I've seen in the past several years.

Population is rising. It's not due strictly to oil field jobs. There are new jobs in manufacturing and construction. Many service industry jobs in restaurants and retail. Those latter jobs don't pay well but we need loads of them to keep our young people gainfully employed while they decide which college town or big city they will flee to. Federal and state government employment seems to be holding steady. That will change if U.S. House Republicans get their way with their Draconian budget. We shall see...

As I drove around, I took a few shortcuts to see what's happening. I ventured out to High Plains Road on I-25 South. The interchange went in first and it's a step up from the usual concrete-and-steel overpasses. Decorative iron railings and brick and rock used in the design. It's flanked by two roundabouts with plenty of directional signs for the roundabout-phobics amongst us. There are many, judging the letters to the editor in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. The anti-roundabout crowd is really up in arms over a roundabout planned for one of the stupidest intersections known to humankind -- Pershing/Converse/19th Street. They've redesigned that three-way tangle many times but still it's one of the most dangerous intersections in town (along with Converse and Dell Range). Can't leave it the way it is. Some of the landowners, notably Frank Cole of Cole Shopping Center don't want to see changes. Stay tuned for more loony letters to the ed.

High Plains Road is the site of the new State of Wyoming Visitors Welcome Center. This will replace the old welcome center and rest stop on the west side of I-25 at College Drive. Many have wondered why the old center was built on the wrong side of the highway and is so hard to get to. It's nice, and has great views of the prairie and the Laramie Range. I sometimes hang out there and write to get some peace and quiet and inspiration.

But, as new truck stops and motels arose, it was harder and harder to access. There are no lights or dreaded roundabouts there to speed the flow of traffic. On a typical summer day, it's a madhouse of semis and RVs and lost tourists trying to find the entrance to the rest stop. Maybe this is next on the Wyoming Department of Transportation construction agenda.

The new visitors center is cool-looking and energy efficient. It's also on the east side of the highway which should make it easier to access. Here's a description from the RMH Group:

The new $16.6 million, 27,000-square-foot Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center will offer restroom facilities to travelers and will house the offices of Wyoming Travel and Tourism, which has expanded and now requires more space. The RMH Group provided energy-efficient mechanical and electrical design for this new facility. The Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center's mechanical and electrical systems are designed to limit energy demand while emphasizing the responsible use of on-site resources. Daylight harvesting will reduce electrical demand, and on-site solar photovoltaic panels and wind turbines will utilize renewable resources to generate building power. A ground-source heat-pump system, featuring horizontal "slinky" geo-exchange coils buried beneath the project site will efficiently heat and cool the building. Public portions of the center will be conditioned by an in-floor radiant system coupled with displacement cooling and ventilation, further supporting the building's low-energy use profile. Construction of the Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center is anticipated to be completed in late summer 2012.

Construction crews are clearing the site now.  From High Plains Road, you can look down on it and appreciate the view I-25 motorists will have of the facility as they cross into the state from Colorado. Man, what a cool building -- and energy efficient to boot. Let's go there and discover ways to spend all of our vacation money in Wyoming.

Also from High Plains Road, you can look to the west and see construction cranes working on a series of buildings in the business park. Not sure what's destined there. If you look a bit to the north, you can see the growing ranks of white wind turbines that are fueling a bit of the energy I use for my laptop ramblings. Coal trains head south along the railroad tracks that pass just to the east. The coal comes from Wyoming's Powder River Basin. Further to the east oil drilling sites rise up out of an ancient ocean bed.  

Exciting times. There are many risks, especially with the fossil fuels Wyoming provides to the world. Global warming and poisoning of air and water. This will require governmental monitoring which is exactly why Republicans want to kill the E.P.A. No regulations mean more profits for those people who seemingly have enough profits. But that's the Republican plans. Screw the rest of you.

It's up to every one of us to see that we don't get screwed royally.

P.S.: I tried to find an image of new welcome center but failed. Anyone know where I can go to get one? I did find images of the ground-breaking but not very interesting. Seen one ground-breaking, you've seen them all. 

It's official -- Tea Party now in charge of the G.O.P.

We knew all along  that the Tea Party was steering the G.O.P. during this so-called "budget showdown." Anti-abortion zealots and climate change deniers are shutting down our government. It's as if my crazy neighbor, Tea Party Slim, was in charge of telling us all where to work and how to dress and who to vote for and which church we must attend (or else).

Go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/07/tea-party-roadblock-polls_n_846122.html

Dick Cheney's legacy -- sickly Wyomingites and water supplies that catch fire

“Gasland” was not exactly a gas – but it did make me think.

The documentary was screened this evening at the Kiwanis Community House in Cheyenne before 60-some people. It explores natural gas drilling throughout the U.S., mainly that taking place in shale oil plays like the one beneath us in southeast Wyoming.

The film’s director, Josh Fox, traveled from his rural homestead in Pennsylvania to our wide-open Rocky Mountain spaces, interviewing those who’ve been impacted by the byproducts of drilling. Weld County, Colo., was his first stop. He watched homeowners flick their Bics under kitchen faucets. Fires erupted. The air and groundwater are being polluted by fracking chemicals. People are getting sick. The Wyoming DEQ issues air pollution alerts for rural Sublette County due to the energy boom. Air quality is as bad as L.A.’s on some days.

Wyoming rancher and former oil patch welder John Fenton attended the Cheyenne screening. He’s a cowboy working his in-laws’ spread near Pavilion. He’s surrounded by gas wells and storage tanks. Clouds composed of gas and chemical byproducts sometimes envelop his house. His three-year-old son began having seizures as soon as the family moved in. His wife has recurring headaches. His mother-in-law has lost several of her five senses. She’s consulted docs throughout the West and they have no answers. The Feltons can’t drink their water. For 18 months, John made the 80-mile round trip to town to fetch his water. He now has water delivered.

These are good people whose lives have been upended by the rush to pump as much gas from shale as possible – and damn anybody who gets in the way. Sure, it’s great to develop homegrown energy. You’ll find bipartisan agreement on that. But at what cost?

John has joined a delegation traveling to D.C. several times. They have met with the Wyoming Congressional delegation. “I’d like to say that they listened and are working hard for us,” John said. “But they’re not. Their loyalties lie elsewhere.”

Remember these names: Sen. Mike Enzi, Sen. John Barrasso, Rep. Cynthia Lummis. They boast that they stand up for the citizens of Wyoming. But they don’t. Rep. Lummis, one of the richest members of Congress who can’t be bothered with the concerns of “the little people.” Sen. John Barrasso, a physician who can’t be bothered with the health problems of farmers and ranchers. Sen. Mike Enzi, entrepreneur whose loyalties lie elsewhere – with big corporations instead of with Wyomingites trying to make a living from the land.

It is shameful to contemplate the power of oil and gas companies. It’s also shameful to note, as Mr. Fox does in his film, that the catalyst for these problems was none other than Wyoming’s not-so-favorite-son, Dick Cheney. His secret energy commission drafted what became the 2005 energy bill which exempted oil and gas companies from the Clean Air Act, the Safe Water Drinking Act, EPA regulations and almost any other environmental regulations. This is known as The Halliburton Loophole.

Thanks, Dick. I hope the people of Teton County remember Mr. Cheney as they try to protect the Hoback River Basin from rampant and largely unregulated gas drilling. Dick has a home in Jackson, you see. His ritzy neighbors might not be pleased when they can’t breathe and their gold-plated water faucets start catching on fire.

Most of the post-film discussion focused on citizen action. As I mentioned earlier, the Niobrara Oil Play Boom is happening right now in southeast Wyoming. Not too much to ask to require better oversight of the drilling process, from beginning to end, by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. Not too much to ask our legislators to be looking out for our needs rather than those of energy companies and lobbyists. Not too much to ask for our county commissioners and city council members to be looking out for the health and welfare of Laramie County citizens.

They may need extra persuasion. Attend commission and council meetings. And there are several organizations working hard for citizen rights. They are the Powder River Basin Resource Council and the Wyoming Outdoor Council. They were the co-sponsors of the free film screening. These conservation organizations got involved in the Pavilion situation. But not much happened until the Environmental Protection Agency got involved, according to the PRBRC’s Jill Morrison.

Both the PRBRC and the Wyoming Outdoor Council seek full disclosure on chemicals and processes used in the drilling process, from beginning to end. Not too much to ask, is it?

Don't forget Cheyenne "Gasland" screening

From the Wyoming Outdoor Council:

What: Free showing of "Gasland"

When: Thursday, April 7th, at 7 p.m. Followed by questions and discussion with Gasland’s featured Pavillion, Wyoming landowners John and Catherine Fenton. Doors open at 6:45 p.m.

Where: Cheyenne, Kiwanis Community House, Lions Park, 4603 Lions Park Drive, Cheyenne

Tea Party Slim in "Urban vs. Rural Smackdown"

I was digging in my garden when Tea Party Slim walked in the backyard gate. “What you doin’,” he asked?

As I leaned on the shovel handle, I felt a twinge in my back. It was the first warm day of spring. “Digging,” I said.

Slim sat down in the porch shade. He sipped Diet Coke from a can. “Want to borrow my rototiller? Makes the job so much easier.”

I surveyed the mounds of turned earth. It was black and filled with decomposing leaves. I saw earthworms wriggling, an indication of rich soil. This is my third year of gardening in Cheyenne – this time around, anyway. 

“I like digging.” I pushed the shovel into the dirt.

Slim sipped his Diet Coke. “You Liberals think that growing-your-own is something you invented.”

Slim was testing me again. “Why do you say that?”

“You didn’t invent gardening. You didn’t invent farmer’s markets. My relatives in rural Wyoming were growing and canning tomatoes and cucumbers long before you were born. Victory gardens – you ever heard of those?”

I contemplated banging Slim on the head with the shovel. But it wouldn’t even put a dent in that thick noggin of his. “My relatives were farmers, too,” I said. “My Grandpa Shay grew up in Iowa and was growing the juiciest tomatoes this side of Iowa City into his nineties. All in his backyard garden in Loveland.”

“Were your parents farmers? Mine were – and went broke in the process.”

“Sorry to hear that,” I said – and meant it. “I know that farming isn’t easy. And no, my father was an accountant and my mother was a nurse.”

“It’s a hard life,” Slim said. “Seems to me that you Liberal gardeners and locavores and vegans are trivializing the lives of rural Americans. City slickers vs. simple country folk.”

This gave me pause. Gardening is in. Farmers’ markets are big. Even some grocery stores stock local and organic produce and grass-fed beef from Wyoming. A half-dozen farms within 100 miles provide community-supported agriculture deliveries to Cheyenne. “People are making a living from farming,” I said. “Not in a big way. Small farms. That’s good, isn’t it?”

Slim chugged the rest of his Diet Coke and tossed the can in the trash. Oops,” said, looking at me. “You probably want to recycle that, right?”

“I will recycle that can, yes. Something wrong with recycling?”

“Does recycling and green energy provide jobs? You Liberals want to shut down all the coal mining and power-generating jobs in Wyoming. Are you going to replace them with legions of people sorting cans and bottles and newspapers? I don’t think so.”

"More than a million U.S. jobs are in recycling," I said. "Recycling reduces greenhouse emissions by 30 percent, the same as taking 25 million cars off the road." 

"And the Greenies shall inherit the earth." 

“Look, Slim, I’m just trying to grow a few tomatoes in my backyard. I have no plans for world domination.”

“Maybe you don’t, but some of your fellow travelers do.”

“They are welcome to it. I’ll be busy gardening for the next three or four months.”

Slim was quiet for awhile.  A gentle breeze carried with it the rich scents of spring. “I can go get that rototiller for you.”

I surveyed the yardage I still had to dig up. I could feel a spasm starting in my lower back. O.K.,” I said. "Bring it on over.”

Slim stood. “Modern technology is good for you,” he said with a smile.

“Things like solar panels and wind generators? Electric cars? Energy-saving light bulbs?”

“Coal-fired power plants? Internal combustion engines? Incandescent light bulbs?”

We stared at each other for what seemed like seconds.

Slim finally headed for the gate. “You’re gonna love this baby. 305cc engine, electric starter, four forward and two reverse gears, 16-inch ag tires….”

“As long as it tills the soil and saves my back,” I said.

“I’ll throw it in my Hummer and be right back,” he said as exited the gate.

Slim lives two doors down. He can push the tiller from his house to mine faster that he can drive it. But what the hell – one small step at a time.

Coming soon -- Wyoming coal-powered iPods

Did you know this:

Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway estimates that 500 pounds of coal are blown from each rail car for every 500 miles traveled?

Just one of the interesting facts in a Grist post and in a Sierra Magazine story about plans to ship Wyoming coal to China. The key element for the plan is to upgrade the Columbia River port in Longview, Wash. Environmentalists and the state government are resisting. May not be too much longer before money talks and the impasse is broken.

I'm reminded of that John Prine song, "Paradise:"

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

With a few changes of place names (apologies to Mr. Prine), here are the lyrics:

And daddy won't you take me back to Campbell County
Down by the Powder River where Paradise lay
Well I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away 

To make iPods in China.

Campbell County isn't exactly paradise. And the Powder River was appropriately named. Many who live and work and ranch and write and sculpt there like it well enough. I have friends and colleagues in Gillette who think I live in the ugly part of the state.

Mixed feelings here about coal. The more Wyoming coal sold, the more royalties the state collects. The state coffer expands and my job is secure. It may be too much to hope for a raise, as the Wyoming Legislature is notoriously tight-fisted and, with its new Tea Party members, not in the mood for a spending spree.

All this to make iPods for the children of America? My children included?

There's the rub. China makes stuff we want and -- possibly -- need. We ship them coal thousands of miles and they ship us back iPods. I look around my study and see PCs and a digital camera and my DSL modem and surge protector and phone and photo frames and who knows what else. The only thing in this room I can vouch for as totally "Made in the U.S.A." is me, aging rapidly, and my mutt Coco stretched out on the floor for her mid-morning nap. Coco has a microchip (probably made in China) embedded in her hide. If needed, we can find her electronically if she ever disappears.

The articles are worth reading. Access them through your Wyoming coal-powered PCs.

Can it happen here? It's already started...

Old King Coal not such a merry old soul

Laramie River coal plant near Wheatland 

China burns half of the world's coal production every year. It pollutes its air and kills its people, making heart disease the nation's number one killer. China's fossil-fuel habit is one of the main culprits of global warming.

Wyoming and Montana companies dig thousands of tons of coal from the ground every day. Our power plants can't burn all that coal to send power to Colorado and Texas and Utah. Other U.S. plants can't burn that much coal. Many states, Texas included, are scrubbing plans for new coal-fired plants.

To fill China's endless coal appetite, and to contribute to the further spread of cardiopulmonary illnesses, our states want to export more coal to China. There's money to be made, too. Not only for the coal companies, but for severance taxes which pay the salaries of government workers such as myself.

But Washington state is getting in the way of progress.

The Cowboy State and The Treasure State want to ship their coal directly to Asia through a port in Cowlitz County, Washington (a.k.a. The Gateway to Mt. St. Helens). Officials in the county have approved an upgrade to its Columbia River port, but environmental groups say not so fast (from the Casper Star-Tribune). 

On Tuesday, the Washington Department of Ecology petitioned to intervene in the appeal filed by Earthjustice. Ecology spokeswoman Kim Schmanke said the agency wants a seat at the table because it may be asked to approve other permits for the project.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer plans to travel to Washington state next week to seek support for the project. He said he's going to tell state officials it's irrational for them to oppose a port to export Montana coal when utilities that serve Washington state burn Montana coal.Freudenthal said Thursday that he would not expect Schweitzer to accomplish anything but making the trip. 

Freudenthal doubts Washington state officials will receive advice from someone from another state any more than Wyoming officials do when they get similar visits from an outsider. 

The immediate problem, Freudenthal said, is how to get the port exporting Wyoming coal. The larger issue is the need to figure out carbon capture and sequestration in order to receive support from the "rational" environmental groups, he said.

Meanwhile, Gov.-elect Matt Mead is working on a letter of support to send with Schweitzer next week, Mead spokeswoman Susan Anderson said Thursday. Mead takes office Monday. 

Freudenthal said people need to realize that the coal industry is "at risk" whether they agree that climate change is real or not. "This is about coal production, market share and jobs," Freudenthal said.

We're going to see more of these conflicts as we attempt to switch from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources that don't melt the ice caps and lead to the flooding of port cities from Seattle to San Diego. Red states want to ship their coal to China but the coastal blue states won't let them. No alternative but to send it to Houston and then on to the Panama Canal and then on to China. But that route would add time and miles and make the whole enterprise less cost-effective. The states could send the coal to Vancouver, B.C., which shipped about 26 million tons of coal to China this year. But how would that look, red-state Wyoming shipping its coal from Socialist Canada?

Even George Will is getting into the act. In a column this week, he could barely contain his glee that millions of tons of global-warming-contributing coal could be shipped out of a port adjacent to the Green Capital of the U.S. and maybe the world -- Portland, Oregon.

Cowlitz County in Washington state is across the Columbia River from Portland, Ore., which promotes mass transit and urban density and is a green reproach to the rest of us. Recently, Cowlitz did something that might make Portland wonder whether shrinking its carbon footprint matters.

I wonder why conservatives take such delight in destroying the planet? The fundies are all convinced that the end is coming anyway so why fight it? Doesn't matter to them if it's flood or fire. But George Will isn't in this Know Nothing camp. He's smarter than that. While he will no longer be with us when Washington Post columnists commute by gondola, one wonders why he doesn't care for the future of his family or your family or my family.

George Will makes his living by being the conservative curmudgeon in the bow tie. He's also a language scold and a know-it-all baseball fan. That's his platform and to turn Green (or even hint at it) at this late date will cost him.

He provides several quotes from James Fallows' recent cover story about coal in The Atlantic. In "Dirty Coal, Clean Future," Fallows makes the case that we can only get out of this hydrocarbon dilemma by trusting in China's new technologies to burn coal cleaner. The only way out is through. I just read the synopsis, but it seems as if Fallows would give a green light to the shipping of coal from Washington state. And the more we can ship, the better.

I'll read the article and respond. Meanwhile, here's a few parting words from George Will:

If the future belongs to electric cars, those in China may run on energy stored beneath Wyoming and Montana. 

And so run the hopes of the Govs of Wyoming and Montana. 

Washington Monthly: On the edge of the next real estate boom -- and Utah shows the way

So many things to like in this Washington Monthly piece about the The Next Real Estate Boom. Western cities such as Salt Lake City, Denver and Portland are leading the way towards close-in walkable communities. But it's not about big chunks of federal money dropped on big projects. It's about private-sector funding and streetcars and affordable houses and zoning law changes and energy-saving construction. Local collaborative efforts. Democrats and Republicans and Independents and Libertarians and Greenies and Tea Partiers working together for the common good.

Dogs and cats, living together...

Just go read it.