Author – The Durango Herald

Change confronts rural electric co-ops

The comedian Lily Tomlin used to have a favorite shtick where she played Ernestine, the snorting, smirking phone operator. She would end her bit with the line, “We don’t care, we...

DATE: Dec 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Election moves energy policy to the forefront

With the midterm elections behind us, it’s worth pondering what the outcome means for the environment next year. One can expect significant action in Colorado and New Mexico in t...

DATE: Nov 18, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Energy dominance comes to national forests

The Trump administration unabashedly promotes energy dominance above all else on America’s public lands. But even knowing that, it’s hard not to be astonished by the latest onslaught to prio...

DATE: Oct 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Fires and droughts should set off alarm bells

Our beloved Animas River has taken a shellacking the past few years, the most recent insults a combination of record low flows and wildfire induced mudslides. The Animas might be the blaring...

DATE: Sep 15, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

The Village at Wolf Creek staggers onward

Are we doomed to the zombie Village at Wolf Creek endlessly stalking the San Juan Mountains? No matter how many times apparently dead, it seemingly staggers back to life, lurchin...

DATE: Aug 18, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

New leadership at EPA, same rollbacks

By the time Scott Pruitt resigned as the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, he was the poster child for bungling personal entitlement. As Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa put...

DATE: Jul 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

For 50 years, Wild and Scenic Rivers Act preserves waterways

Fifty years ago, Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. It was a counterpoint to the West’s flurry of dam-building in the 1950s and 1960s that saw dams erected across ma...

DATE: Jun 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

San Juan Wilderness Act strategically protects mountains’ beauty

With spring full bore upon us, it’s hard not to cast an envious eye toward the high country and start daydreaming about alpine wildflower hikes. One favorite destination for many is Ice Lake...

DATE: May 19, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

LPEA board vote hinges on vision for power supply

This year’s La Plata Electric Association board election is a pivotal referendum on the future of our electric supply. Are co-op members happy with the status quo, being joined a...

DATE: Apr 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Interior Department hears resistance to energy leases

Five years versus five days. That succinctly describes the different weights accorded to constituents raising objections to expanded oil and gas leasing in landscapes with special circumstan...

DATE: Mar 17, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

La Plata Electric Association grapples with era of change

It’s a challenging time for La Plata Electric Association. The electric utility world is undergoing a classic technology disruption, where rapid advances threaten to upend decades-old busine...

DATE: Feb 18, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

To plan, or not to plan – land use in La Plata County

It might be easy to chuckle at the silliness of the conspiracy theorists convinced the United Nations is scheming with La Plata County to forcibly relocate rural folks into urban housing cen...

DATE: Jan 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green