Author – The Durango Herald

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

Now’s the time to voice your views about our public lands’ future

Last week’s events punctuated by the Trump administration’s cavalier abandonment of a century’s worth of American conservation practice is greatly discouraging. Interior Secretar...

DATE: Dec 16, 2017 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Sen. Gardner’s vote can determine fate of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

With the onset of winter, it’s never too early to daydream of next year’s adventures. Nowhere compares with the raw, spontaneous wildness of Alaska’s primeval landscapes teeming with abundan...

DATE: Nov 18, 2017 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

New bill puts nation’s public lands in jeopardy

Last week, the House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee passed a bill to prevent presidents from creating national monuments. It would severely limit the future preservation of m...

DATE: Oct 20, 2017 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Hurricanes are a stark reminder of the costs of climate change

As we stand transfixed by the enormously powerful hurricanes churning across the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, one can’t help but think about our place in the climate-change continuum. ...

DATE: Sep 15, 2017 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Power struggle with Tri-State won’t end soon

A few weeks ago, we sent forth our champion with bated breath and hopeful expectations to plead our case before Tri-State, to please allow us to generate more electricity locally here at hom...

DATE: Aug 18, 2017 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

EPA cuts corners to ignore the law

Waiving rules to prevent methane pollution. Stripping wetlands of protection under the Clean Water Act. Throwing out restrictions against strip-mining mountaintops and dumping the spoils int...

DATE: Jul 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

West’s utilities abandon coal because it costs too much

“It’s all about the economics,” the expert said. “Technologies have improved to make other forms of energy less expensive than coal.” One might figure sure, that’s some tree-hugg...

DATE: Jun 16, 2017 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

A challenge to our national monuments: Will the Lords of Yesterday prevail?

We’re in uncharted waters. A presidential administration just launched an overarching attack on more than 11 million acres of previously protected landscapes. The Trump administr...

DATE: May 18, 2017 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green