UW’s Jeffrey Lockwood featured on WNYC Radiolab

WNYC Radiolab’s latest “short” podcast features University of Wyoming professor Jeffrey Lockwood. “Killer Empathy” (run time 18 minutes 33 seconds) explores the mysterious nature of violence in both the human and animal worlds.

Jeffrey Lockwood formerly studied grasshoppers, locusts and other insects, but now teaches creative writing and philosophy at the University of Wyoming. (Ted Brummond - click to enlarge)

Lockwood, a WyoFile contributor, is a renowned entomologist, author, and is a professor of creative writing and philosophy. He tells the story of how he discovered what he believes is some level of self-awareness among a particularly fierce breed of cricket, which got him to thinking about violent behavior. Then the senseless, violent death of a mentor only made the quest for understanding more difficult.

You can download the podcast for free at iTunes, or go straight to Radiolab.org.

Read a WyoFile feature about Jeffrey Lockwood.

Read Lockwood’s essays published by WyoFile: “Six-Legged Teachers,” and “Art & Energy.”

— Contact WyoFile editor-in-chief Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Power to the People; New interactive site features Cowboy State’s electrical generation

The Wyoming State Geological Survey recently launched an interactive web site featuring electrical generation in the Cowboy State. Among the offerings is a map of electrical generation facilities and an extensive database of each facility ranging from the Happy Jack windfarm in Laramie County to the 2-megawatt capacity Old Faithful fuel-oil facility in — you guessed it — Yellowstone National Park.

SOURCE: Wyoming State Geological Survey

“We developed this website as an information portal for management and policy decisions related to Wyoming’s energy resources and electrical generation,” State Geologist Tom Drean, director of the WSGS, said in a prepared statement.

Wyoming coal powers 77 percent of all electricity generated in Wyoming, according to WSGS. But other resources show steady increases over the last two decades. Renewable wind power generation now accounts for 16 percent of Wyoming’s electric generation portfolio, hydropower 3 percent, and natural gas 3 percent. Oil accounts for 1 percent of the total power generation in Wyoming.

In 2011, Wyoming’s 53 electrical generation facilities had a combined maximum capacity of  8,744.4 megawatts, according to WSGS. The vast majority of that electricity is shipped out of state.

“This information is important to track because while oil and natural gas represents a smaller portion of generation compared to coal, the use of these fuel sources has remained constant,” Drean said. “Based on the data, we have also noticed an increase in wind power capacity in Wyoming, an increase in small hydropower projects, and that a significant amount of power is generated by companies for their use,” he said.

Also available on the website is a WSGS Summary Report on Wyoming’s Electrical Generation, with data compiled by Jim Stafford, a WSGS geohydrologist. The four-page full-color brochure covers coal, wind, hydropower, and natural gas and includes graphics on the production and capacity of each fuel source, as well as a state map on the locations of electrical generators and power lines.

“This summary serves as a snapshot on the current state of electrical generation in Wyoming, and is intended as a reference guide,” Stafford said. “The website is the main tool that we will routinely update with current and relevant information on all the energy resources that provide for Wyoming’s electrical generation, and in comparison to other states,” he said. “The primary focus of the website is the data on Wyoming’s electrical generation production and capacity,” Stafford added.

— Contact WyoFile editor-in-chief Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Grand Teton rangers rescue lost snowboarders in Granite Canyon

YellowstoneGate.com reports that rangers from Grand Teton National Park rescued two snowboarders Monday night after the pair took a wrong turn and ended up in the park’s Granite Canyon area.

A helicopter heads toward Garnet Canyon in April during a search for two lost skiers in Grand Teton National Park. (National Park Service photo by Jackie Skaggs — click to enlarge)

Snowboarders Joe Tauro, 55, from Brick, N.J. and Mike Fasciolli, 36, from Toms River, N.J. left through a ski area boundary gate at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort just before 3 p.m. Monday, according to information released from the Grand Teton National Park public affairs office.

The snowboarders told rangers at the time they planned to board in Rock Springs Bowl. But they instead mistakenly ended up in Grand Teton National Park via Granite Canyon.

Authorities said the two men were “not prepared for backcountry travel.”

Click here to read the rest of the story at YellowstoneGate.com.

Click here to read a WyoFile feature about the cost of search and rescue efforts, “What Price Rescue?”

Wyoming’s winter ozone in check, so far

It’s ozone season in Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin, but so far the region has avoided any prolonged spikes of high ozone concentrations, according to officials at the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

“We have not exceeded the 8 hour ozone standard so far this year (January 1 through Feb. 8 data). In fact, we have not recorded an 8 hour value greater than 60 ppb yet this year,” Cara Keslar, DEQ’s Ambient and Emissions Monitoring Program Manager, told WyoFile via email.

Separation facilities in the Pinedale Anticline have been consolidated to reduce emissions. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

At ground-level, ozone can cause nose, throat and eye irritation, and shortness of breath. It can be extremely dangerous — even deadly — to the elderly, children and those with respiratory problems. Last winter, ground-level ozone concentrations in the basin area spiked above the federal 8 hour standard of 75 parts per billion on 13 occasions. The highest 8 hour average ozone concentration was measured on March 2, 2011, at 124 ppb — higher than Los Angeles’ worst ozone day.

The ozone spikes are the result of pollution emissions from natural gas drilling and production activity in the Pinedale Anticline and Jonah fields. When there’s an inversion, volatile organic compounds (VOC) from natural gas facilities and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from tailpipe emissions are suspended low in the valley — along with smoke from wood-burning stoves and other background pollution. If the valley is blanketed in snow, then the VOCs and NOx are exposed to direct sunlight and light reflected from snow, causing a photochemical reaction that creates ozone.

DEQ currently provides daily forecasts to determine the probability of high ozone days. Click here to sign up for daily email updates.

So far this year there have been six days that the hourly ozone was measured at greater than 60 ppb, according to Keslar. Two of those days the hourly ozone was greater than 70 ppb.

“The highest values are occurring at the Boulder monitor, however, the Juel Springs, Daniel, and Big Piney monitors have also recorded slightly elevated ozone this year,” Keslar said. “It should be noted that these values have not gone through the data validation process yet, however, all stations have undergone independent quality assurance audits for this quarter and have passed.”

Keslar said there have been some issues with communications and power outages at some of the Sublette County monitoring stations this winter, and DEQ staff is working to rectify the problems.

Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was expected to lower the 8 hour ozone standard to 60 or 70 ppb, but the Obama administration backed off of the ruling. Sublette County is currently in “non-attainment” status for ozone, which means state regulatory officials must draft a plan that will bring the region back into compliance with federal air quality laws.

— Contact WyoFile editor-in-chief Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

BLM sets meetings for Gateway West sage grouse analysis

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning two informational meetings in February to present information and answer questions about the sage grouse habitat equivalency analysis (HEA) for the proposed Gateway West Transmission Line Project.

The HEA serves as one part of the Framework for Sage-Grouse Analysis for Interstate Transmission Lines, developed by the BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

The Gateway West Transmission Line project is jointly proposed by Idaho Power and Rocky Mountain Power. The project, if completed, would include the construction of nearly 1,100 miles of high voltage transmission lines across southern Wyoming and southern Idaho. The project applicants have applied to the BLM and U.S. Forest Service for right of way grants to construct, operate and maintain these transmission lines from the proposed Windstar substation near Glenrock, Wyo. to the proposed Hemingway substation near Melba, Idaho, approximately 20 miles southwest of Boise.

The informational meetings will be held in Wyoming and Idaho, as follows:

Cheyenne, Wyoming
Wednesday, Feb. 15
Noon – 4 p.m.
BLM Wyoming State Office
First Floor Conference Room
5353 Yellowstone Road

Boise, Idaho
Friday, Feb. 17
Noon – 4 p.m.
Red Lion Boise Hotel
Cottonwood Room
1800 Fairview Ave.

For more information, contact Walt George, BLM project manager, at 307-775-6116, or wgeorge@blm.gov.

BLM posts lease parcels for oil and gas sale

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wyoming State Office has posted its proposed list of parcels to offer up to oil and gas companies for lease in the quarterly competitive oil and gas lease sale. The list includes 153 parcels in Albany, Carbon, Lincoln, Sweetwater and Uinta counties. The parcels represent 231,846,920 acres of public land. The posting of this list initiates the 30-day public protest period.

The complete May competitive oil and gas lease sale notice can be viewed and downloaded for free at: www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/energy/Oil_and_Gas/Leasing.html. Also available at this website are the oil and gas leasing environmental assessments, including public comments, for the May oil and gas lease sale.

The oil and gas lease sale is scheduled for Tuesday, May 1, 2012, at the Holiday Inn in Cheyenne, Wyo. Doors open at 7 a.m. with the auction beginning at 8 a.m.

For more information, contact Beverly Gorny at (307) 775-6158.

Meetings set to discuss sage grouse conservation

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wyoming, the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests, and the Thunder Basin National Grassland will be holding a series of public meetings to discuss greater sage-grouse conservation measures in Wyoming.

Topics discussed will include how the new National Sage Grouse strategy will be incorporated into management practices, as well as updates on the status of BLM’s current sage grouse amendments and BLM Wyoming’s resource management plan revisions.

These meetings will also be a public forum to collect input regarding the amendment process for Land and Resource Management Plans. If you’d like to attend these meeting to hear the informational updates or to comment on proposed changes, the schedule for the meetings is below.

For more information on the Forest Service meetings contact the Douglas Ranger District at 307-358-4690. For information on the BLM meetings, contact Chuck Otto at (307) 775-6105.

BLM informational meetings will be held at the following locations, dates, and times:

BLM Casper Field Office Conference Room
2987 Prospector Drive, Casper, WY 82604
Monday, Jan. 30, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

BLM Buffalo Field Office Conference Room
1425 Fort Street, Buffalo, WY 82834
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

BLM Worland Field Office Conference Room
101 South 23rd, Worland, WY 82401
Wednesday, Feb. 1, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

BLM Rock Springs Field Office Conference Room
280 Highway 191 North, Rock Springs, WY 82901
Thursday, Feb. 2, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Forest Service scoping meetings will be held at the following locations, dates, and times:

National Guard Armory Meeting Room
315 North Pearson Douglas, WY 82633
Tuesday, Feb. 7, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Meeting Room
1225 Washington Blvd., Suite 2, Newcastle, WY 82701
Thursday, Feb. 9, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Campbell County Public Library
2101 South 4J Road, Gillette, WY 82718
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Follow state budget hearings via live streaming audio

The Wyoming Legislature will provide live audio streaming of the 2013-2014 Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) agency budget hearings beginning Monday January 9. The audio can be heard by using any computer with an Internet connection that has the ability to play audio files. A link to the live and archived audio from previous day’s business will be prominently displayed under “Announcements” on the Legislature’s homepage at http://legisweb.state.wy.us.

The JAC is scheduled to conduct agency budget hearings January 9-20 and then “markup” the agency budgets the week of January 23. Click here to download a PDF of the budget hearing schedule. The Legislature’s 2012 Budget Session will begin February 13.

Check out a summary of committee-sponsored bills here.

Industry safety group seeks board candidates

The Wyoming Oil and Gas Industry Safety Alliance (WOGISA) has a board vacancy to fill. If you are interested in becoming a member of the WOGISA board, submit a letter of intent with a short bio to WOGISA@vcn.com. Deadline for submission of letters is January 31. Nominees will be voted on by the general membership at the group’s quarterly meeting February 23 in Cheyenne (location TBA).

WOGISA encourages participation from all employees in the oil and gas industry. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor during the meeting on February 23.  However, nominees must be in attendance.

Mead sets seven town halls to solicit ideas on health care

Gov. Matt Mead has set seven town hall meetings to solicit ideas from citizens on health care issues, including the concept of health benefit exchanges. The town hall series will launch at the Park County Library in Cody, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. January 10. The series will continue in Gillette, Casper, Rock Springs, Jackson, Riverton and Cheyenne. But dates and times for those meetings are not yet set.

Gov. Mead’s health care policy advisor Elizabeth Hoy will take part in the meetings.

“We want citizens to come out and give us their input about health care in Wyoming and any ideas, concerns or comments they have about possible solutions including concepts of a Health Benefit Exchange,” Hoy said in a prepared statement.

For more information, contact Hoy at elizabeth.hoy@wyo.gov.

 WyoFile editor discusses fracking in radio interview

My apologies for this late post of my December 13 radio interview on Canadian Public Broadcasting about hydraulic fracturing and the EPA investigation in Pavillion. Click this link to listen to the interview, which is a little over eight minutes. Although the comment period has closed on the CBC web site, you can still comment here.

The investigation has been a long slog, and frustrating for many people involved. And ever since the EPA report was released earlier this month, there’s been a tornado of headlines. WyoFile is tracking developments and will soon post a landing page for links to the latest articles and other resources related to the Pavillion case.

In the meantime, please check out these two WyoFile reports on the EPA Pavillion case:

Find the Source in Pavillion (column)

EPA Pavillion report stokes fire over fracking (breaking news)

— Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief

Salazar wants Wyo-style sage grouse management across the West

At a press conference in Cheyenne today Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wyoming’s “core areas” sage grouse habitat management plan could be applied across the West to protect the iconic bird. He said that in 2012 the largest wind energy project in the nation will be permitted in Wyoming — a feat only possibly because of the state’s pro-active efforts to protect sage grouse habitat.

“We need to be doing that across the 11 western states,” said Salazar.

Greater sage-grouse (click to enlarge)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has until 2015 to decide whether the greater sage grouse requires a full listing under the Endangered Species Act. If the bird is listed, it would devastate agriculture, energy, recreational and myriad other activities across much of the West, and would impact about 80 percent of Wyoming.

The joint news conference today between Salazar and Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead coincided with a meeting in Cheyenne of representatives from 11 western states. Mead said the goal is to form a cooperative strategy to avoid a sage grouse listing based on habitat conservation. “We also need to recognize that by doing a good job of protecting habitat for sage grouse, we’re also protecting habitat for 80 other species,” said Mead.

Salazar added that the health of the greater sage grouse is a litmus test for the health of the western lifestyle.

Also this week, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced it would begin the process of amending all of its Resource Management Plans across the West to improve protections for sage grouse. The announcement was welcome by some in the environmental community. But with praise for the BLM’s decision also came criticism that the BLM had been dragging its feet on the issue for years.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, center, and Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, right, discuss strategies to conserve sage grouse habitat with representatives from 11 western states on Friday. (courtesy — click to enlarge)

“We are pleased that the BLM is finally recognizing that its standard operating procedures on sage grouse are failing, particularly with regard to oil and gas development,” Biodiversity Conservation Alliance wildlife biologist Erik Molvar said in a prepared statement. “The sage grouse plan amendments offer an opportunity not only to replace inadequate BLM protections, but also to close the loopholes in state Core Area policies that prevent them from protecting sage grouse in the face of industrial development.”

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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Windsor drops bid for #26-2 well near Clark

This week Windsor Energy Group notified Shoshone National Forest and Wyoming Bureau of Land Management officials that it will not proceed with its proposal to drill “Federal Well #26-2″ near Clark, effectively stopping a federal review of the proposal. A draft environmental assessment for public comment had been due in January, 2012.

Christina Denney, chairwoman of the Clark Resource Council issued a written statement:

“Clark Resource Council is very relieved that Windsor Energy has withdrawn their plans for drilling on the Shoshone National Forest.  Clearly the complex hydrology and geology of the Line Creek drainage coupled with the serious contamination already present makes this area inappropriate for oil and gas development.

However, we remain very concerned about how viable Windsor is and their ability to clean up or remediate the serious groundwater contamination from the gas well blowout and Windsor’s other development in Clark.”

Wyoming Outdoor Council;

We’ve advocated for more than five years that this proposed project would have been undesirable on the Shoshone, our country’s first national forest and one of the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s heritage landscapes.We and our members were instrumental in urging the Forest Service to take this project seriously and not to bypass thorough environmental review, as the agency had initially planned to do.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

New rules for royalty-free gas flares up for comment

The Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments has issued its proposed policy changes regarding royalty-free flaring of natural gas. Written comments are due to the agency by the close of November 29, and should be emailed to Harold Kemp, harold.kemp@wyo.gov.

Flaring — or setting natural gas ablaze — is a common practice in the production of oil and natural gas, typically reserved to a short period of time after a well is completed. Operators flare to get rid of impure streams of gas that do not meet pipeline specifications, and sometimes commercial-grade natural gas is flared in establishing initial flows from new oil wells — particularly when there are no gas-gathering pipelines available.

While the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission occasionally permits flaring for periods longer than the standard 15 days after completion of the well, it’s up to the Office of State Lands and Investments to determine whether a royalty will be applied to gas flared from wells tapping “school trust lands.” The State Land Board — made up of Wyoming’s top five elected officials — hold in trust millions of surface acres and mineral estate acres and is required to oversee those lands for dedicated beneficiaries, primarily Wyoming’s K-12 students.

In light of recent requests for extended flaring in southeast Wyoming — where there are few pipeline systems to serve the Niobrara oil exploration play — the Office of State Lands and Investments staff recommended that policy be updated to address when royalties would be applied to gas flared from wells tapping state minerals.

After meeting with oil and gas industry representatives and members of the public, the Office of State Lands and Investments issued its proposed policy update. If approved as written, royalties would be applied to state gas flared beyond 15 days after a well is completed. The director of the Office of State Lands and Investments, Ryan Lance, would be authorized to administratively approve flaring beyond 15 days if the State Land Board doesn’t meet to review the request within that time. However, the board may choose to apply royalties on those volumes of gas retroactively once it does review the request.

Here are some highlights of the proposed flaring policy:

While regulatory authorization to flare or vent gas is addressed by Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Rules and Regulations, (Chapter 3, Section 40), the Office of State Lands & Investments, as trustee for the beneficiaries of Wyoming State Land production royalties, will not sanction royalty-free disposition of State’s interest gas for a period greater than fifteen (15) days from the date of completion of a well, regardless of regulatory approval by the Oil and Gas Commission or any other body, to flare or vent for a greater period, without prior approval by the Board of Land Commissioners to do so.

… All production on State land during any period requiring flaring or venting upon reaching total well depth must be recorded by a meter installed on the flare stack and the recorded volume and composition information provided to the Office of State Lands & Investments through the current operator reporting system on the regular monthly basis cycle set for the production type.

Click here to download a PDF of the proposed policy change.

For more information regarding this issue, read these WyoFile reports: Up In Smoke; How much state gas will be flared without royalties?, and State royalties go up in smoke with gas flares.

— Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief, can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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BLM extends review/comment period for Lander area public lands plan

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has extended the public review and comment period for the Lander Resource Management Plan (RMP) revision to January 20, 2012. The planning document will guide management of agriculture, recreation, energy and other activities on some 2.5 million acres of federal public lands spanning most of Fremont County and portions of Natrona, Sweetwater, Carbon and Hot Springs counties.

Click here to learn more about the Lander Draft RMP and Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Comments on the Lander Draft RMP and Draft EIS can be emailed to LRMP_WYMail@blm.go  or mailed to; Lander Field Office, Attn: RMP Project Manager, 1335 Main Street, Lander, WY 82520.

For more information, call Kristin Yannone, BLM Lander Draft EIS project lead, at 307-332-8400.

Great new tool for access to state lands

The Office of State Lands and Investments just launched a great new online mapping application to navigate access to state lands, which are open to the public. Here’s the url for the site; http://onanypc.com/statelandaccess

The state administers about 3.5 million acres of surface estate held in-trust and managed almost exclusively for the benefit of Wyoming schools. State lands are typically located on Sections 16 and 36 of each township, and are represented as blue squares on maps as part of a complex checkerboard of surface ownership. In addition to energy development, logging and agriculture, state lands provide myriad hunting and recreational opportunities. But access is tricky, because you MAY NOT cross private lands to access state lands without specific approval.

According to a news release today, the new interactive mapping tool on the Office of State Lands and Investments web site is intended to help determine where state lands are located, and where potential access points exist.

“Access to state lands is very important to the people of the state. These maps will hopefully provide a useful tool to guide the thoughtful and appropriate use of State trust lands,” Gov. Matt Mead said in a prepared statement. “Too often the Board of Land Commissioners is in the position of mediating disputes between sportsmen, landowners and other state lessees after the fact. These maps help provide information on the front end and hopefully this will limit these sorts of conflicts going forward.”

The Office of State Lands and Investments listed a phone number for more information; (307) 777-8510.

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Wyoming Public Media fall drive nets $290K

Congratulations to Wyoming Public Media for reaching its goal of $290,000 during its recent fall membership drive. The drive ended Friday after 61 hours of on-air fundraising, gathering support from 3,000 individual contributors and dozens of businesses, according to a press release.

“We made a combined appeal to listeners across our three networks,” WPM development director Peg Arnold said in a prepared statement. “It is something few public stations have accomplished, and it allows us to spend less time on air fundraising and more time providing excellent programming.”

WPM includes three radio stations: Wyoming Public Radio, Classical Wyoming and Jazz Wyoming. This fall’s drive excelled at fundraising on all three signals simultaneously, said Arnold.

In April, WyoFile published a feature article, “Public Broadcasting, Partisan Cuts,” about a GOP-led effort to cut federal funding for National Public Radio through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For Wyoming Public Media, the federal funding issue appeared to manifest into its strongest pledge drive ever last spring, according to Arnold, exceeding every goal set, including the number of new members, returning members and additional gifts from existing members.

You may have noticed the Wyoming Public Media banner on WyoFile’s front page (similarly, a WyoFile logo appears on WPM’s web page). The promo swap represents the beginning of some collaborative efforts to share and produce Wyoming news among the two entities. More details will become available in coming months, so stay tuned to both WPM and WyoFile.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief, at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Latest fracking news; cross-state injections and invasive mussels

There’s a lot to the business of shale oil drilling and hydraulic fracturing, and I just learned about a few more considerations being discussed here in Wyoming; cross-state injection of drilling fluids and concern about whether industrial water trucks might carry invasive aquatic life such as the zebra mussel and quagga mussel.

These were discussed at the Wyoming Water Association’s annual meeting and education seminar in Casper this week. It’s common practice for drilling and production fluids to be injected into a designated waste water zone. John Wagner, administrator of Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Water Quality Division, said there are not many permitted injection wells in southeast Wyoming to fit the bill for operators chasing the Niobrara shale oil play.

“So a lot of Wyoming hydrofrack and drilling fluids are hauled to Colorado for injection,” said Wagner.

It takes a lot of water — approximately 5 million gallons — to drill and hydraulically fracture a horizontal shale oil well in the Niobrara. And much of that water is handled by trucks. Lately, Wyoming Game and Fish officials have discussed whether industrial water trucks could potentially bring invasive aquatic species into the state.

In recent years, boaters have been asked to drain, clean and dry their boats when traveling from lake to lake and from state to state. But it’s unclear whether professional water-haulers will be asked to comply with the same practices.

“It’s something that’s been kicked around,” Wyoming G&F game warden Brady Frude said in a phone interview on Friday. “The way it’s written in statute now is any conveyance of water is subject to inspection.”

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Spill at Wyoming uranium mine triggers NRC ‘special investigation’

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission launched a “special investigation” today to determine if workers were exposed to “yellowcake” after an incident at Uranium One USA Inc.’s Irigaray and Christensen Ranch in-situ uranium mine in northeast Wyoming.

Black boxes cover wellheads at the Christensen Ranch in-situ uranium mine near the Pumpkin Buttes in the southern Powder River Basin. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

According to a NRC press release, the incident occurred on Sunday. Two workers were in the vicinity of a “dryer” containing yellowcake — yellow uranium oxide powder — when they heard an alarm and the dryer automatically shut down.

The yellowcake dryer is located inside an enclosed building.

“It appears that a seal on the dryer may have broken, causing the yellowcake powder to escape,” the NRC stated in the press release. “Current information indicates there were no major safety impacts or release to the environment as the dryer is housed inside a pressurized sealed room within a building.”

In an unrelated incident, Wyoming environmental regulators recently issued the same mine operator a notice of violation (NOV) related to a 10,000 gallon spill of brine in August.

Because of the incident on Sunday, a NRC inspector traveled to the Wyoming uranium mine on Wednesday to determine whether workers were exposed to yellowcake, and to evaluate the operator’s corrective actions already in the works.

NRC spokeswoman Lara Uselding told WyoFile that it appears the workers were wearing proper protective clothing to avoid exposure to the uranium material. To determine whether there was an exposure, air samples will be analyzed. Also, the workers underwent urinalysis testing.

“We got results back today, and uranium was non-detectable … So they had no intake of uranium,” Donna Wichers, Uranium One senior vice president of in-situ operations, told WyoFile in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Both Uselding and Wichers said that radiation from yellowcake is low enough to be a secondary human health concern compared to ingesting the uranium ore. “Because it’s a heavy metal,” said Wichers. “It would be just like if you ingested lead or any other heavy metal.”

Wichers described the entire incident as a “non-event,” and said the NRC inspector was scheduled to visit the mine anyway. She said once the NRC decided to launch a special investigation, part of the agency’s protocol is to issue a press release, “Which we tried to talk them out of,” Wichers said.

The NRC will issue a public report of the investigation within 45 days.

The Irigarary and Christensen Ranch in-situ uranium facilities ceased production in 2000 while reclamation activities continued for several years. The mine changed ownership, and after several years of state and federal permitting, the mine resumed production in January.

On September 19, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality issued a notice of violation (NOV) to Uranium One related to an August spill at the Irigaray plant in Johnson County of up to 10,000 gallons of sodium chloride brine, which is used to strip uranium-bearing ore from the production solution. The brine entered a dry ephemeral stream adjacent to the facility.

According to the NOV, Uranium One failed to meet DEQ’s timely reporting requirements related to a spill. Wichers said there was a misunderstanding about whether an email notification qualified as written notification. She said DEQ did not require any remediation of the area effected by the spill.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief, at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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Lawmakers gunning for K-12 “Energy Literacy” program

As the nation’s largest producer of coal, and a workhorse supplier of natural gas, oil, uranium and wind energy, it makes sense that Wyoming’s K-12 students should have a basic understanding of the nation’s energy supply and consumption chain, and related social issues. A handful of Wyoming lawmakers say that’s the goal of an “Energy Literacy Education Program” under consideration with Wyoming’s Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development interim committee.

Screen-shot of "Petroville, OK" a student energy literacy program in Oklahoma.

According to proponents on the committee, Wyoming students — through existing media and education programs — may not be hearing the full details of often contentious issues related to energy development and the environment. That concern may explain the make up of the panel that the committee asked to perform the initial research; Lara Ryan, executive director of the non-profit Wyoming Land Trust, Mindy Stitt, executive director of Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, and Wendy Lowe, a longtime Wyoming lobbyist for Williams Cos. and other energy companies. None are professional Wyoming educators.

They appeared before the committee in Casper on September 12, 2011. Ryan testified that the underlying message of a K-12 energy literacy program should be clear: “Energy and conservation are not at odds. Rather, they are mutually beneficial. … We can have it all,” she testified to the committee.

Stitt said that Oklahoma’s energy education program includes pro-energy advertising (click here for television commercials, click here for a selection of print ads, or here for a single ad)  in major media. She underscored the idea that any program has to be focused on training teachers how to educate students about energy.

Sen. Eli Bebout (R-Riverton) said he made an unsuccessful run at a similar energy literacy bill in 1999, and he has been a big fan of the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board program for many years. Senate President Jim Anderson (R-Glenrock), who does not serve on the Joint Minerals committee, said he supported the concept of an energy literacy program in Wyoming.

“By golly, I think you’re on to something,” Anderson told committee members.

Lowe reminded committee members that there’s not exactly a vacuum of energy curricula in Wyoming schools. She said many Wyoming teachers have a good understanding of energy and Wyoming’s role, and there are some energy-specific programs throughout the education system.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief, at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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Mead seeks Preble’s mouse exemption for drillers

Wyoming’s oil and gas industry should be exempt from some restrictions imposed by a potential Endangered Species Act listing of the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse here in the Cowboy State, according Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead.

Speaking at the Petroleum Association of Wyoming’s annual meeting in Casper on Wednesday, Mead said his staff is drafting a proposal that it will send to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, asking to apply the “4(d)” rule of the ESA law to oil and gas drilling. Mead said the rule is often used to allow agriculture to continue many of its normal operations under an ESA listing, but it is not often used for oil and gas activities.

“We want to be on the start of that process rather than the back end of that process,” Mead told a crowd of oil and gas industry officials.

Responding to a court order, the Fish and Wildlife Service reinstated protections for the mouse in Wyoming earlier this month.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

UW professor nominated for (another) literary award

The last time WyoFile checked in with Brad Watson, he had just been nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. It seems the critics are still loving what they’re reading from the University of Wyoming English professor, as he has now been named one of six finalists for a literary prize from St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. The winner will be announced Sept. 17.

That gives you a great chance to read (or read again) Susan Gray Gose’s profile of Watson from March. And as long as we’re on the subject of revisiting pieces from the WyoFile Writers’ Series, Wyoming’s near-Biblical plague of grasshoppers this summer is a good reminder of Gose’s June profile of UW entomologist and writer Jeffrey Lockwood.

Here’s more on Watson’s literary accolades from the UW press office:

Watson’s collection, “Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives,” is 12 stories of family strife, personal loss, physical trauma and emotional reckoning. Watson, who teaches in the UW Department of English and the MFA in Creative Writing Program, was selected from among 116 entries.

The six writers, competing for one of the richest awards in North America, are a diverse mix of authors, coming from across the United States and around the world.

The other writers and their nominated books are: Kevin Brockmeier, “The Illumination” (Pantheon); Joshua Cohen, “Witz” (Dalkey Archive Press); Jonathan Dee, “The Privileges” (Random House); Yiyun Li, “Gold Boy Emerald Girl” (Random House); and Marlene van Niekerk, “Agaat” (Tin House Books).

The prize-winning author will be announced at the opening night gala for the 2011 Brooklyn Book Festival.

Last spring, Watson was a finalist for the prestigious 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America’s largest peer juried prize for fiction. The Boston Globe named “Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives” among the year’s best fiction books.

Also during the spring semester, Watson was among 180 recipients of a prestigious fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Guggenheim Fellowships are grants for a minimum of six months and a maximum of 12. The program provides recipients with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible.

Apps for Birding

I have not tried some of these and do not offer opinions or ratings, but following is a partial list of applications of interest to birdwatchers.

The Sibley series of bird field guide books is outstanding. Sibley’s people have now issued electronic field guides for the iPhone, Android and Blackberry platforms, including 2,300 audio recordings.

Not a field guide, but a compilation of information to help people find birds, often rare birds, is BirdsEye.

BirdJam software, which I do use on my iPod Touch, organizes bird songs and calls which are purchased elsewhere and installed using the iTunes program.  BirdJam makes it easier to find the vocalizations on the iPod Touch or other iPods; but is much better on the iPod Touch or iPhone because of the larger viewing screen. BirdJam has some new products focusing on sparrows and warblers.

A comprehensive collection of 2,400 tracks from 674 bird species is available from BirdTunes.  I have not had any experience with this company.

Birdwatcher’s Diary is an app which allows downloading of sightings in the field.  I have not had any experience with such programs.

Some of this information was derived from the American Birding Association.  There are other programs out there.

Good Birding!

— RT Cox, The Sage Grouse

Judge Freudenthal rules in favor of categorical exclusions for oil and gas drilling

CHEYENNE — U.S. Federal Judge Nancy Freudenthal today struck down the Interior Department’s 2010 instructional guidance meant to curtail the use of “categorical exclusions” in permitting oil and gas drilling.

The plaintiff, industry trade group Western Energy Alliance, successfully argued that the guidance was invalid, in part, because it wasn’t created under a formal process that includes public comment. Yet the “categorical exclusion” itself is a procedural tool that allows industry to bypass — at the permitting stage — a formal National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) analysis that includes public comment.

The categorical exclusion is a provision of the 2005 Energy Policy Act. It allows the Bureau of Land Management and U.S Forest Service to issue permits to drill without site-specific environmental analysis. However, categorical exclusions are only supposed to be used within areas already included in a NEPA analysis that contemplated such activity.

Drill pipe is stacked at a rig working for BP America in its Wamsutter field in south-central Wyoming. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

Sportsmen and environmental groups argued that categorical exclusions were too broadly applied, and were folded under outdated analysis that didn’t fully contemplate the scale of development being proposed. In particular, they argued that a Resource Management Plan — which are updated every 10 or 15 years — is much too broad of a NEPA analysis to justify categorical exclusions for an activity that rapidly changes and becomes more dense.

From 2006 to 2008, the “categorical exclusion” was used to approve some 6,100 drilling permits, or 28 percent of all approved permits during that period, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

As part of a package to streamline onshore oil and gas permitting, and avoid litigation over oil and gas drilling, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in 2010 issued instructional guidance curtailing the use of categorical exclusions — which were the source of several high-profile lawsuits in the West. A new BLM report indicates that far fewer oil and gas leases are litigated today compared to the past six years.

But the oil and gas industry has big plans to drill on federal lands in the West, and they fired a preemptive strike against Salazar’s guidance without tying it to any particular drilling permit now under consideration.

“Obviously, we have members with leases. … Categorical exclusions apply in many of those cases. So she (Judge Freudenthal) found that the harm was not speculative at all. The delay, the expense and the legal consequences clearly gave a standing and did not require a particular APD (application for permit to drill) in this case,” Western Energy Alliance’s director of government and public affairs, Kathleen Sgamma, said after the ruling.

Department of Justice attorney Ted Sanford argued that no third party, or mineral lease owner, is entitled to choose among several levels of NEPA analysis. Rather, Salazar’s guidance regarding categorical exclusions was intended to clarify the intent of Section 390 of the 2005 Energy Policy Act — specifically that categorical exclusions were not intended to forgo site-specific analysis before issuing a permit to drill.

“Congressional intent was not to circumvent NEPA analysis,” said Sanford, adding that without the 2010 guidance, there existed the potential to play a regulatory shell game in which site-specific analysis never occurs.

Judge Freudenthal declined to contemplate damages the industry may have suffered due to the Interior’s guidence on categorical exclusions.

Sgamma said that since the 2010 guidance, the oil and gas industry has been neglected full use of the categorical exclusion provision.

“Sure, it’s going to slow things down,” said Sgamma. “What categorical exclusions do is eliminate a layer of NEPA … So when those types of impacts are looked at in a land use plan, then we don’t have to go in and look at them again.”

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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Lack of energy policy ‘delays’ Wyoming gasification project

A partnership between GE Energy and the University of Wyoming to build a coal-gasification research center to ensure the future viability of Wyoming coal has been “delayed” due to the lack of a federal energy policy. For the past year, utilities have told Wyoming officials that they can no longer include new coal facilities in their planning until the federal government decides exactly how it will regulate greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

The coal industry has lobbied hard against the regulation of greenhouse gases.

Now with little to no growth for coal in the U.S. market, Wyoming coal producers are focused on shipping the domestic energy resource to China.

At a funding level of $100 million, the UW-GE High Plains Coal Gasification project was a relatively modest attempt to change the dynamic and to begin to add value to Wyoming coal by reducing its carbon footprint, said Richard Garrett of the Wyoming Outdoor Council.

“It was something that former Governor Freudenthal, now a board member of Arch Coal, thought was crucial to the state’s future and our state legislature agreed,” Garrett told WyoFile via email. “I would like to see our current governor and the state legislature step back up to the plate and tell GE — and Washington D.C. — that we do things differently in Wyoming.”

Garrett added that Wyoming committed to a long-term effort in pursuing coal-gasification technology for Wyoming coal, and it ought to stick to that commitment.

“I think our congressional delegation needs to do the same thing,” Garrett added.

Here’s Gov. Matt Mead’s press release in its entirety:

GE Energy and the University of Wyoming have announced that the joint work on the High Plains Gasification-Advanced Technology Center has been delayed. The original project investment plan anticipated more progress toward certainty in the future of federal energy policy. Future investments will be paced by the development of clear federal energy policy.

Governor Mead is disappointed about GE Energy’s decision to pause development of the High Plains Gasification-Advanced Technology Center project until uncertainty around coal utilization is reduced. However, Governor Mead feels this decision and possibly other energy sector decisions to delay projects are not unexpected given the lack of a federal energy policy.

“Capital from the private sector only flows to large and ambitious projects when there is reasonable regulatory, legal and financial certainty,” Governor Mead said. “This is a real world example of the local impact of the federal government’s failure to provide a policy path forward for energy use in America. An energy policy must include the responsible use of our coal resources. Without a clear policy, investors and developers do not have certainty and cannot plan for risk, which is critical in making decisions to build modern, efficient plants.”

“GE technology is ready to provide a cleaner coal solution for America and for the world.  When government policy and economic realities are aligned in the U.S., we plan to be a leader in cleaner coal technologies,” said Keith White, General Manager of GE Energy’s gasification business.  “We value our partnership with the University of Wyoming and we will reassess the environment in 18 to 24 months.”

UW President Tom Buchanan said, “The University of Wyoming (UW) stands ready to proceed with continued work to advance the HPG-ATC. In any business relationship, we acknowledge the need for all parties to be comfortable prior to moving forward.  The agreement between the State of Wyoming, GE Energy and UW contemplates significant milestones in the project development.”

The High Plains Gasification-Advanced Technology Center is a research and technology center focused on looking at coal gasification solutions for coal from the Powder River Basin and other parts of Wyoming. Wyoming produces 40% of the nation’s coal and the state provides about 10% of the nation’s energy.

“America and Wyoming have the leadership capacity, the technology prowess and the private capital availability to wisely put our energy resources to productive use but we are strangled by uncertainty created by the energy policy vacuum in Washington DC,” Governor Mead said.

 

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Wyoming post offices studied for potential closure

Like so many things in Wyoming, delivering the mail tends to require more time, covering more miles, enduring more isolation and spending more money than almost any other state.

So it’s no surprise that Wyoming has quite a few post offices on a list released today by the U.S. Postal Service detailing outposts that are being studied for potential closure. Many of these post offices serve only a few people and are located far from anything else. But then again, isn’t that true for so much of our state?

Advocates of closures could certainly make a compelling case about the skewed cost-benefit ratio of keeping these post offices open. But for those living in one of these communities, a post office is often the hub of civic affairs — a place to run into a neighbor you might only see once every couple of months, and only then when you’re both checking the mail.

There’s certainly something wonderful about being able to mail a letter from Van Tassell, Wyo. (pop. 3) to Key West, Fla. and paying the same postage as a letter from Manhattan to Brooklyn. But that one-size-fits-all approach which has made our postal system such a unifying part of American culture is also part of why it struggles to cover costs.

For plenty more on the financial woes of the USPS, check out Devin Leonard’s fantastic May 26 story in Business Week, The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse. As bad as you might think it is for the USPS financially, the reality is probably worse.

In the meantime, check the list below to see if your neighborhood post office might be on the chopping block.

Contact Ruffin Prevost at 307-213-9321 or ruffin@wyofile.com.

Flew the looking-glass

Some websites have ideas on how to prevent birds striking your windows. I know there’s no perfect answer to this problem, and won’t pretend it is entirely preventable, but there are options to consider.

- The Sage Grouse

Buford Wyoming featured on MSNBC

Does having just one resident qualify as a “population?” Don Sammons thinks so. After all, the town of Buford Wyoming on Interstate 80 between Cheyenne and Laramie is a busy place most days. And if Sammons ever decides to leave, Buford may fade into the pasture. This MSNBC video profile introduces America to one of many Wyoming small towns.

— Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Natural gas pipeline ruptured in Campbell County

A natural gas pipeline that went into service in January is temporarily shut-down after a Wednesday evening explosion in Campbell County, according to local officials who were contacted by the owner of the pipeline, TransCanada. No word yet about the cause of the rupture. Officials say there were no injuries related to the incident.

The 30-inch diameter Bison pipeline has a capacity to carry 477 million cubic feet of gas per day — enough to serve 4,770 homes for one year. It primarily moves coal-bed methane gas from the Powder River Basin  in northeast Wyoming through Montana and North Dakota to the Midwest market.

Brian Jeffries, executive director of the Wyoming Pipeline Authority, told WyoFile that the temporary shut-down of Bison shouldn’t snarl the flow of natural gas for more than a day or two while gas is rerouted through other pipelines.

“Until Bison goes back into service, that gas gets rerouted to other pipeline systems that already serve the basin,” said Jeffries.

TransCanada is facing pressure over its proposed Keystone XL “mega” pipeline that would carry oil from Canadian tar sands to the United States and cross under the Yellowstone River in Montana. Opposition to that project intensified after ExxonMobile’s Silvertip crude oil pipeline ruptured and spilled into the Yellowstone River.

Campbell County emergency management coordinator David King said TransCanada conducted safety and response training courses with local emergency responders last year before the Bison pipeline was put into service. King traveled to the location of the rupture on Wednesday evening approximately 18.5 miles northwest of Gillette and 1 mile away from a farm house. He said there didn’t appear to be any property damage, other than the pipeline itself, and there were no people nearby at the time of the incident.

“By my estimation, it was probably a 50-foot section or so that blew up and out,” said King.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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Yellowstone bear interrupts bear-safety interview

CODY — A cable TV news crew taping a segment on bear safety Friday in Yellowstone National Park got a little something extra in the bargain: a close encounter with a bear.

“That was what we refer to as an incident within an incident,” park spokesman Dan Hottle said Monday, joking that he worried some might think the encounter was staged.

A grizzly bear digs in wet dirt near Cub Creek in Yellowstone National Park in June 2010. (Ruffin Prevost/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

Hottle had taken the crew from CNN to Joffe Lake — a five-minute drive from park headquarters in Mammoth Hot Springs — where they were interviewing Yellowstone bear biologist Kerry Gunther.

The park’s public affairs office has received hundreds of media inquiries since the fatal mauling Wednesday of a hiker who apparently surprised a mother grizzly that was foraging with two six-month-old cubs.

Brian Matayoshi, 57, of Torrance, Calif., was killed while hiking with his wife, Marylyn, on the Wapiti Lake trail. It was the first fatal bear attack in Yellowstone since 1986.

So park visitors were still on high alert Friday when someone spotted a black bear at Joffe Lake, a popular fishing spot for brook trout and a convenient backdrop for Gunther to explain how to behave during a bear encounter.

“Someone shouted, ‘Bear! Bear!’” Hottle said, recalling the incident.

Hottle wanted to make sure hiker Erin Prophet saw the nearby black bear as it ambled toward the 2.5-acre pond.

“Does the hiker know?” Hottle shouted back, as a videocamera captured the unfolding drama.

As Prophet backed away from the bear, she found herself wading into the pond, wondering whether to swim for the far shore.

Dave Beecham, in a nearby kayak with his young son and his father-in-law, paddled over to help Prophet swim away from the bear.

Although the bear never charged and did not appear to be directly threatening her, Prophet told the camera crew that she was scared, and glad for the help.

A black bear prowls the banks of a pond near Roosevelt Lodge in June 2010. (Ruffin Prevost/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

“I was pretty afraid,” she said.

“When the guys in the kayak offered to pull me across, that seemed like a better plan because the bear seemed like it wanted to be down there by the edge,” Prophet said.

Beecham was visiting the park from Oregon, and later told KGW news of Portland that he felt compelled to help, but he was also “afraid the grizzly bear was going to come after us.”

Hottle said the black bear, initially misidentified as a juvenile grizzly, was not interested in Prophet, and was just trying to get to the water.

Hottle said the incident would have gone unheralded were it not for the presence of news cameras in the wake of Wednesday’s mauling.

He said Gunther had hoped to use the national platform of a CNN segment to offer common-sense advice on staying safe in bear country, but the resulting segment instead focused mostly on the kayak “rescue.” Local news outlets in Beecham’s home state of Oregon picked up the story and also played up the rescue angle.

Park officials have continued to stress how rare grizzly attacks are, and say that Yellowstone averages only approximately one bear-related injury each year. Gunther said during a press conference last week that Wednesday’s fatal mauling was a “1-in-3-million” chance encounter.

While most visitors to the area seemed unlikely to change their plans based on news of the fatal attack, it was a hot topic in tourist towns near the park.

Sales of bear spray were up sharply at a camping supply store in Cody, near the park’s East Entrance.

“People are definitely talking about it when they come in,” said Amber Bryant of Sunlight Sports. “Some people have actually changed their minds and decided not to go hiking at all.”

Bryant said that most customers, though, are heading to the backcountry as planned.

“The bears have been there long before people,” she said.

Contact Ruffin Prevost at 307-213-9321 or ruffin@wyofile.com.

DOWNLOAD a 1998 paper by Yellowstone bear biologist Kerry Gunther on the differences between grizzly bears and black bears.

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Wyoming farmers land $10.4M to protect sage grouse

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Thursday it will provide $18.2 million to three western states to conserve sage grouse habitat through the Grassland Reserve Program. Wyoming’s share will be $10.4 million.

Idaho will receive $5.5 million, and Utah will receive $2.3 million.

Greater sage-grouse (click to enlarge)

“USDA and its partners are taking a proactive approach to maintaining large and intact grazing lands that support healthy sage-grouse populations,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in prepared statement. “GRP will provide these states with another tool to conserve this at-risk species and also protect important ranch lands.”

This is on top of $17 million the state received from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) program earlier this year.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead issued this statement: “I am pleased that the federal government is backing up its words of support for our sage-grouse plan. Our plan is an effort to keep sage-grouse off the endangered species list. Because private property owners often bear the costs of species protection it is good to see funds provided to offset some of the costs associated with protecting a species.”

The chair of the Sage-Grouse Implementation Team, Bob Budd, said this is a voluntary program and that it targets the right areas. “The funding specifically would go to deal with fragmentation,” Budd said. “The US Fish and Wildlife Service identified fragmentation as the number-one threat to sage-grouse habitat in the west.”

In June, Gov. Mead re-issued a Freudenthal-era executive order continuing the “core areas” plan to restrict development in prime sage grouse habitat in Wyoming. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently commended Wyoming for its “core areas” sage grouse plan and said it is an integral tool in protecting sage grouse and avoiding a listing of the bird under the Endangered Species Act. However, the FWS also warned that the effectiveness of the plan depends on the scientific accuracy of determining prime habitat locations and actual implementation of restrictions to protect the habitat.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

High Plains Initiative releases final document

The High Plains Initiative [HPI] recently released its final document, making it available on the Building the Wyoming We Want website.

The document’s release concludes a 16-month regional planning process in Platte and Goshen counties. HPI’s final document is 48 pages long. It contains six chapters: Introduction, Public Process, Values, Population and Land Use Trends, Alternative Growth Scenarios, and Conclusions.

The mission of HPI is stated as: “Thinking together about what we want this region to be like for our children and grandchildren.”

On page three, HPI committee members expressed their hope that the document would be useful in helping elected officials maintain safe and friendly communities without resorting to intrusive regulations or diminishing property rights. Growth in Platte and Goshen counties has been static for decades. The authors of the document make a case that planning is needed in light of the region’s potential growth from wind and oil development.

Planning is also important if a boom does not come: “Even if our counties continue to experience flat or declining population, our communities still face hard decisions on how to pay for aging infrastructure with a limited revenue stream,” according to the document. (Page 3).

On page 15 the HPI Executive Committee acknowledged that the public strongly valued property rights, low taxes, and minimal regulation: “Although these values were not identified in the initial [summer 2010] survey, the HPI Steering Committee addressed these concerns in their discussions and they are noted in this report.” (Page 8).

The document also noted that public input: “changed the visioning process to better fit the region.” (Page 17.)

A listing of the financial supporters of BW3 and HPI, and a list of Platte and Goshen County residents who served on the steering committee can be found on pages 44-47.

Read the full report by downloading this PDF.

— Gregory Nickerson, WyoFile writer

Wyoming’s federal drilling stats

When reporting on my latest story, Are Feds Slowing Oil and Gas Permitting?, I’d asked Wyoming Bureau of Land Management officials for their most recent oil and gas permitting and drilling figures. I got the stats a little late, but will share them with you now. An “application for permit to drill,” or APD, represents one well. Years represented are the BLM’s fiscal years.

— 2010 – 1,606 APDs approved, 1,280 wells drilled

— 2009 – 2,040 APDs approved, 1,450 wells drilled

— 2008 – 3,082 APDs approved, 2,421 wells drilled

— 2007 – 3,762 APDs approved, 2,309 wells drilled

— 2006 – 3,848 APDs approved, 2,774 wells drilled

Total APDs approved: 14,338

Total wells drilled: 10,234

So, during the past five years, the oil and gas industry has received more federal oil and gas permits in Wyoming than it has drilled (a surplus of 4,104). A federal APD is valid for 2 years. Also, many of these APDs were issued with stipulations such as seasonal restrictions for wildlife and habitat protection, which means a company may have a limited time-frame to drill the well during the year. Companies can — and often do — request an extension beyond the 2-year life of an APD.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Dog vs. Fawn: A Tense Détente

One can certainly question the newsworthiness of videos showing pets and animals, but there’s no questioning their popularity on the Internet. And if it’s pets with animals, well that’s a sure-fire bet for a popular video.

Which is why I feel compelled to share this brief video of my dog, Blue, waiting patiently to play with a disinterested fawn.

I was walking Blue around the neighborhood yesterday — the Lower South Fork of the Shoshone River near Cody — and we came upon an adult doe. Treats, commands and the shock collar have all taught Blue not to chase deer (mainly the shock collar), and he’s pretty good about it. So when the doe took off, he trotted after it until a quick “no” brought him back.

A bit further down the road, he refused to follow me after becoming fixated on something in the tall grass. Figuring it was a rabbit or vole, I hollered a bit more then headed back his way to investigate, which is when a fawn broke cover and stepped into the road, confused and distressed.

Amazingly, Blue didn’t chase or attack the fawn, but instead wanted to play with it, lying down as he often does when meeting other dogs to signal his friendly intent. I instinctively grabbed my phone-camera and shot a few seconds of video before realizing it was not a fun experience for the fawn and dragging Blue away. The fawn, whose apparent mother had may have tried to draw us away just moments before, stood frozen in the road until we were 50 yards away.

I suppose I could take a “teachable moment” here to examine wildlife management, rural subdivisions, operant conditioning, animal cruelty or any of a dozen other lofty concepts this video might evoke, but I’ll leave that to the online commenters. Instead, I offer a few brief seconds of pet-wildlife interaction for your amusement, and some much-deserved praise for my obedient dog, Blue.

Now if I can just get him to stop digging holes in the yard.

Contact WyoFile managing editor Ruffin Prevost at 307-213-9321 or ruffin@wyofile.com.

Industry decries regs as drilling nears all-time high

Whether it’s coal, uranium, oil or natural gas, Wyoming’s industry and political leaders proclaim that onerous regulations are dogging domestic energy development. Yet evidence continues to emerge suggesting otherwise.

This morning, Headwaters Economics released its statistical analysis, “Drilling Rig Activity Nears All-Time High,” demonstrating that oil and natural gas drilling in the United States has returned to pre-recession levels.

By late May 2011, there were 1,847 active rigs in the U.S., or 91 percent of the 2008 natural gas surge (2,031 rigs). That’s a major recovery from June 2009 when there were 875 active rigs nationwide.

“Oil and natural gas drilling activity has made a strong recovery since reaching a recession-induced low in late 2008,” said Julia Haggerty, the report’s author. “Market prices and advancements in drilling technology account for most of the increases in drilling activity.”

To be fair, the permitting process does take longer than it did 10-20 years ago. But companies have adjusted by planning for more lead-time, both in the coal and the natural gas industries. That’s more difficult for small Mom & Pop outfits to pull off. But that’s not the complaint. Instead, many of Wyoming’s leaders are claiming war against a regulatory regime bent on “job-killing” red-tape.

Responding to the EPA’s court-mandated move to address coal-fired power plant emissions, and an administrative move to extend a ban on uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) issued a press release today stating, “The Obama war on western jobs continues. With its vast natural resources, the western United States could be a driver for economic recovery if only the Obama Administration would lay down its arms.”

Matthew Garrington of the Checks & Balances Project said the disconnect between actual drilling and production figures and claims that the West is under siege by bureaucrats gone wild is simple politics. High energy prices, said Garrington, are held up as evidence of too much regulation when evidence shows actual production remains tied to market fundamentals.

“We have more active rigs in the U.S. than all the countries combined,” Garrington told WyoFile. “For the last four of the past five months, the U.S. has been a net-exporter of petroleum. … If we do more drilling there’s no guarantee those resources will stay in the U.S.”

A handful of Wyoming lawmakers are spending taxpayer funds to form a “Production States” group — a sort of OPEC of western states who want to use their might in energy resource production to have more say in matters of federal environmental regulation.

So what’s really going on here? Is the West’s coal, oil, natural gas and uranium mining industries really under attack? Or is the war really one of political rhetoric? In January, U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) told WyoFile, “This (Obama) administration is flat-out against coal and they’re not going to let another permit go through. In 10 years, the coal industry will be done.”

A month later, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar came to Cheyenne to announce the Bureau of Land Management would hold competitive lease sales this year for four federal coal tracts in the Powder River Basin, totaling 758 million tons. Many more lease sales will follow, he assured.

No matter the political stripe, people on both sides of the partisan divide agree there’s plenty of hyperbole that comes from politicians, so there’s at least an opportunity to agree on actual production and market forces at play. Check back on Thursday when I write in the WyoFile Energy Report about this topic in more depth.

NOTE: This blog was updated on June 21 to clarify 2008 drilling surge and uranium mining ban.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Baker Hughes resumes carbon storage test well

After completing the first 2,000 feet of the “test” phase in April, Baker Hughes, Inc., will soon resume drilling the remaining 10,000 feet of a stratigraphic test well on the Rock Springs Uplift in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, as part of a multi-partner effort to test commercial carbon dioxide storage.

Of the 10 site characterization studies partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2009, the University of Wyoming-led “Wyoming Carbon Underground Storage Project” is the first to start drilling a test well, according to UW officials.

“We are very excited to move into this stage of the project,” said Shanna Dahl, deputy director of UW’s Carbon Management Institute. “The project pace will accelerate significantly, allowing us to collect the well data necessary to continue to evaluate the Rock Springs Uplift as a potential commercial CO2 storage site.”

Detailed characterization of two deep saline aquifers in the Rock Springs Uplift for potential pilot- and commercial-scale CO? storage is expected to be completed in December 2012. Preliminary data, according to UW officials, shows the Rock Springs Uplift could store 26 billion tons of CO2 over 50 years. State and industry partners chose the Rock Springs Uplift location due to both the underground geology and because of its close proximity to “some the state’s largest sources of anthropogenic CO² emissions,” which includes Rocky Mountain Power’s Jim Bridger  coal-fired power plant just a few stone-throws away from the test well.

The plant emits about 18 million tons of CO2 annually. While some criticize underground carbon storage as dangerous, it represents a multi-pronged effort by Wyoming to advance technologies that might keep coal a viable fuel in a low-carbon-policy future. The National Center for Atmospheric Research super-computing center is under construction in Cheyenne, which will provide important modeling for carbon sequestration at the Rock Springs Uplift.

The University of Wyoming and GE Energy partnered to build the $100 million High Plains Gasification-Advanced Technology Center near Cheyenne, which will help researchers developer a cheaper way to gasify Powder River Basin coal.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Lockwood’s fiction comes to life in entomologist’s testimony

The Casey Anthony murder trial isn’t big news in Wyoming, but recent testimony from an entomologist is eerily similar to an excerpt from Jeffrey Lockwood’s fiction novel (yet to be published) Dose Unto Others, which  WyoFile published last week as part of a profile on Lockwood. Lockwood, an accomplished entomologist, left the science labs at the University of Wyoming to become an award-winning writer of non-fiction. Now the UW professor teaches philosophy and creative writing.

Here’s a sample of how Lockwood’s fiction in Dose Unto Others resembles real-life testimony in the Casey Anthony murder trial:

Warning: Both accounts are graphic and, well, gruesome.

Dose Unto Others:

The room, like the rest of the hotel, was overly air-conditioned and the coolness made the place more bearable. I wasn’t enjoying the odor, but at least it faded into the background. And this allowed me to concentrate on the flies. A dozen or so metallic-green flies were buzzing around in circles, evidently frustrated by having the object of their devotion zipped into a plastic bag and hauled off. The blow flies were looking to lay their eggs on a corpse they could smell but couldn’t find. From what I’ve seen, they favor bullet holes and knife wounds. A shotgun blast is a virtual nursery. But they’ll settle for most any orifice, including the openings that nature provides.

CNN Wire staff:

The flies suggest something began to decompose inside the trunk, but do not prove that the material was a human body, said Neal Haskell, a forensic entomologist from Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana. … Based on his analysis of temperatures and the reproductive habits of the small flies found on paper towels that another scientist found were soaked in fluid from decomposition, Haskell said it appeared that whatever attracted the flies had been in the car for three to five days.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Royalty Uproar; Public meeting Friday to discuss state-owned oil and gas

There will be a public meeting Friday afternoon (June 10) in Cheyenne to discuss proposed revisions to the standard lease form for state-owned oil and natural gas — the first such revision in 20 years to clarify and update bonding, valuation and other business regarding state-owned oil and gas resources.

The public meeting will be held from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Herschler Building, in conference room 1699.

A state mineral lease auction in July 2010 netted $42 million on speculation of the Niobrara oil play in southeast Wyoming. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

The revisions were first made public last fall, and were sharply criticized by some in the oil and gas industry because of a provision to raise the maximum royalty rate. Later, the royalty provision was tabled, “After considerable discussion with industry and others,” according to a state document.  Some industry leaders had said the proposed royalty hike (2 percent) would make state mineral leases less attractive, while proponents of the measure argued that it is the state’s fiscal responsibility to get as much revenue as it reasonably can for the publicly-owned minerals.

It’s unclear whether state officials will re-insert the proposed royalty hike back into the lease form revision. Because of controversy early on in the revision process in the fall of 2010, the State Lands and Investment Board delayed action so the issue could be revisited under the new Gov. Matt Mead administration. The board recently delayed action and directed the Office of State Lands and Investments to conduct a public meeting to accept more input from stakeholders.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This post was updated on June 10 to clarify the content of the proposed lease form revision.

A coyote wanders along the edge of Indian Pond, near Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone National Park. (Ruffin Prevost/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

Out of Yellowstone film screening in Cody

The Nature Conservancy is hosting a screening in Cody on Thursday of a short film focusing on winter range in Yellowstone National Park. Here are the details:

Out of Yellowstone is a brief documentary that shares the untold and often overlooked story of the critical importance of winter range for wildlife in the Greater Yellowstone.

This visually stunning film highlights the voices of those working to save Yellowstone’s magnificent herds: ranchers, conservationists, scientists and others. Together, these sometimes unlikely partners are forging a new way for conservation to work in this rapidly developing region.

Out of Yellowstone Film Screening
June 02, 2011
5 p.m.
Cody Auditorium
Cody, Wyoming

For those of you who couldn’t make it to the screening, here’s an online version of the short film “Out of Yellowstone.”

Wyoming mined $15.5B in minerals

The total value of minerals produced in Wyoming last year was $15.5 billion — the second highest valuation ever. This week Gov. Matt Mead announced that oil, natural gas, coal, bentonite, trona and uranium all increased in value in 2010. The taxable value of oil production ticked up 34 percent from 2009 to 2010, natural gas was up 30 percent and coal was up 6 percent. The taxable valuation of uranium produced in Wyoming was up 44 percent.

Those are big numbers, especially considering the fact that Wyoming has maintained or increased production volume in most categories. It also takes the bite out of messages from some trade organizations that EPA overreach is having a chilling effect on energy production. Industry’s response? Mineral production takes years of planning and development, notes the Western Energy Alliance, meaning policies set forth today will determine the industry’s ability to produce several years from now.

Check out the WyoFile Energy Report for more perspective.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Climbing leader rescued in Colorado

Only a few days after he talked to WyoFile for the “What Price Rescue?” story about the cost of search-and-rescue in national parks, American Alpine Club executive director Phil Powers suffered a serious fall while climbing above Clear Creek Canyon near Golden, Colo. He was rescued by the Golden Fire Department and taken by helicopter to Denver’s Saint Anthony Hospital, where he was treated for multiple injuries including fractured ribs, shattered vertabrae, a collapsed lung and a broken arm.

Rescuers set up a temporary heliport on Teton Park Road to transport people and rescue dogs to Garnet Canyon during the April search for lost skiers. (National Park Service photo by Jackie Skaggs - click to enlarge)

In the WyoFile interview, Powers, who is also co-owner of Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, suggested that private insurance was one way to defray the cost of expensive rescues. He said that the American Alpine Club, one of the country’s oldest and most respected mountain climbers’ group, had recently begun offering two types of insurance to its members to cover  up to $10,000 in search-and-rescue, including helicopter transport.

Golden Fire chief John Bales said the complicated Powers’ rescue took two hours and more than 23 people including fire personnel, state troopers, Colorado Open Space Rangers and volunteers. The state highway serving the area had to be closed in both directions for two hours to facilitate the rescue. Bales calculated the cost of the operation, not including helicopter, at $2,200. Until two years ago, the Golden Fire Department would have charged Powers for the cost of rescue. But in 2009 the Golden City Council voted to no longer charge for these services because of objections from local climbers. As a result, Bales said, the fire department, which also serves surrounding Jefferson County, attempts to collect from Colorado search and rescue funds from hunting and fishing licenses.

According to Alpine Club spokesman Luke Bauer, Powers was covered in this case by his organization’s recently initiated insurance program.

— WyoFile consulting editor Rone Tempest is a former Los Angeles Times national and foreign correspondent who lives in Lander. Contact him at rone@wyofile.com

WPR reports on Wyoming’s unemployed

When the Wyoming House of Representatives declined a measure to accept some $38 million in federal funds to extend unemployment benefits in the state earlier this year, the general tone among legislators was that Wyoming’s unemployed were simply lazy and that unemployment benefits only serve to discourage them from looking for work.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck recently visited with some of Wyoming’s unemployed and under-employed workers who said finding a good paying job in Wyoming isn’t as easy as some legislators suggested. Check out Beck’s report “In Wyo., Unemployment Persists,” which aired Friday May 20 on Wyoming Public Radio’s Open Spaces program.

The report is an excellent continuation of coverage on the Wyoming House of Representative’s move to turn down federal unemployment funds under the argument that accepting federal aid is immoral. In March, WyoFile managing editor Ruffin Prevost issued a special report, “Aid Debate,” revealing that several of the legislators who had voted to block the federal unemployment funds on these grounds are recipients of federal aid through agriculture programs. Even Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, who hailed the legislature’s decision, received more than $49,000 in farm subsidies from 2007 to 2008, adding to the debate about whether some government subsidy programs are more critical than others and whether some Wyoming politicians are simply engaged in hypocrisy.

— Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief, 307-577-6069, dustin@wyofile.com.

Amazing Landslide Video

This amazing footage of a landslide on US 26-89 southwest of Jackson shows that Mother Nature  still holds sway over the flow of traffic in Wyoming.

“Because of the volume of mud, rock and water moving across US 26-89 about 24 miles southwest of Jackson, and the speed at which the material is moving, there is no practical way to stop the slide and begin work to reopen the highway until the slide stabilizes naturally,” the Wyoming Department of Transportation said in a prepared statement on Thursday.

‘Perfect Storm’ fuels Wyoming pine beetles

The state of Wyoming is in the spotlight today as part of 50 Stories, 50 States, 50 Days, an interesting blog project from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Since Earth Day, April 22, the agency and its partners are sharing 50 different stories over 50 days focusing on 50 states to tell how climate change is affecting (or may affect) wildlife across the country.

Today, Wyoming’s mountain pine beetle infestation is the daily story on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 50 States, Stories, Days blog. While you’re at the 50-stories blog, check out tales of how rising temperatures are affecting animals and ecosystems in other states.

A 'perfect storm' of conditions has fueled Wyoming's mountain pine beetle infestation. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife photo - click to enlarge)

Lodgepole pine forests in parts of Wyoming and other areas of the Intermountain West are being infested by the native mountain pine beetle – a voracious bug smaller than your little fingernail that is thriving in a warming climate.

Triggered by a “perfect storm” of extended droughts, warm winters, and old, dense forests, mountain pine beetle populations have exploded across a landscape of lodgepole pine trees throughout Colorado and southeastern Wyoming.

The mountain pine beetle is a true predator on many western pine trees because to successfully reproduce, the beetles must kill host trees. They typically kill trees already weakened by disease or old age, but even a healthy tree’s defensive mechanisms can be exhausted when beetle numbers are at epidemic levels. The beetle attacks pines in late summer, dispersing a chemical signal that attracts other beetles to mass-attack the tree. When the beetles bore through the bark of the tree, they introduce blue-stain fungus, which can work quickly to kill the tree.

State adds air quality monitoring station

Shortly after WyoFile published a special report, Pristine to Polluted, on May 17, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality announced the installation and operation of a new air quality monitoring station as part of its overall monitoring efforts.

DEQ now has 13 stations that sample air quality in western Wyoming.

The new station is located south of Rock Springs in the Hiawatha Gas Field, and will provide data to help DEQ assess ambient air quality — information that is currently lacking as regulatory agencies attempt to meet current and future air quality challenges amid large scale development of natural gas.

This camera is part of Wyoming DEQ's air quality monitoring network in western Wyoming. (Courtesy - click to enlarge)

One interesting aspect of the monitoring station is the fact that it is powered by wind and solar — a necessity due to the challenge of connecting to the grid.

“This is our first monitoring station that is not run on line power,” said Cara Keslar, DEQ Air Quality Division monitoring section supervisor. “One of the biggest challenges in siting long-term monitoring stations are the siting agreements and power supply. This technology could open new possibilities for monitoring in remote locations.”

The monitoring station will measure ozone, temperature, wind speed, wind direction, precipitation, relative humidity, and solar radiation, according to DEQ. The station will also include scene monitoring for possible use in visibility studies.

According to Keslar, this monitoring station cost around $190,000, with EPA funding about 74 percent of the project. Annual maintenance of the site is expected to cost about $30,000.

Real-time monitored data, including meteorological data, can be found at www.wyvisnet.com. Here’s a breakdown of Wyoming DEQ’s air quality monitoring network in the western portion of the state:

— 10 continuous gaseous/particulate monitoring stations (displayed on wyvisnet)
— 3 camera-only stations (displayed on wyvisnet)
— 3 other particulate monitoring locations (Jackson, Pinedale, and Rock Springs) that collect data on EPA’s 1-in-3 day national schedule (not displayed on wyvisnet)
— 1 meteorological tower at Farson (not displayed on wyvisnet)

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Radio interview with WyoFile’s Samuel Western

Ted Vigil, right, has lived and farmed all his life in Worland. He still helps his son, Danny Vigil, left, in raising sugar beets and other crops around the area. (Ruffin Prevost/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

If you’ve enjoyed reading Samuel Western’s recent three-part series, Hispanic Wyoming, then you’ll want to listen to his interview from Friday, May 13 on Open Spaces, Wyoming Public Radio’s original program about local issues and policy matters.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Molly Messick interviewed Western and Ed Munoz, who directs the University of Wyoming’s Chicano Studies Program. The discussion covers the state’s changing demographic trends, and how advances in agriculture — from mechanized farming to herbicides — have affected employment patterns around Wyoming.

Click here to listen to the  interview, which runs about 10 minutes.

In his series, Western takes WyoFile readers deep beyond the U.S. Census data that show how Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority group in the country.

A Shift From Agriculture ran on April 26 and The Jobs Machine of Campbell County appeared May 3. ‘A Good Place to Live’ is the third and final part of his series looking at changing immigration trends in the Cowboy State.

— Ruffin Prevost, WyoFile managing editor

Sylvan Pass Slides Delay East Entrance Reopening

The same week WyoFile brought you an insider’s view of spring in Yellowstone National Park, including details of the heaviest snowfall in more than a decade, an avalanche has temporarily closed Sylvan Pass, between the park’s east entrance and Fishing Bridge. No one was injured, but a park truck was partially buried and damaged in the slide.

— Ruffin Prevost, WyoFile managing editor

The National Park Service issued this news release May 12:

Yellowstone National Park road crews and avalanche experts are working to clear Sylvan Pass of more than 20 feet of snow and assess the continuing danger of wet snow slides that have kept the road closed since May 11.

Yellowstone National Park road crews and avalanche experts are working to clear Sylvan Pass of more than 20 feet of snow from a May 11 slide that injured no one but partially buried a park vehicle. (courtesy photo - click to enlarge)

Four significant slides in the pass – one resulting in a debris field 70 yards wide and 20-30 feet deep across the road – have occurred in the past 36 hours. Consecutive days of mild spring temperatures continue to deteriorate high-elevation snowpack conditions and are expected to delay the reopening of Sylvan Pass for an indeterminate time until the safety of motorists can be assured.

The park is currently redirecting heavy road clearing equipment to support reopening operations, and avalanche crews searched the slide area today with probes and canine rescue teams to ensure no motorists were caught in the slide. An unoccupied government vehicle sustained damage when it was partially buried in a major slide as a ranger was conducting an assessment of the area on foot May 11. The ranger was uninjured in the incident. Explosives were used today by park officials to try and bring down some of the heavy, wet snow. Thirteen of 18 of the detonations were successful in releasing large amounts of snow.

This snow slide activity is expected to continue until the weather pattern returns to freezing night time temperatures. The current forecast for the Sylvan Pass area is for daytime temperatures in the 50s over the next two to three days, which will continue to warm the heavy snowpack and make it increasingly unstable. Overnight lows in the past 48 hours have dipped just enough below freezing to create a thin layer of ice, but that crust melts quickly by midday.

A blanket of heavy melting snow in the park’s interior has also contributed to the roof collapse of the RV repair facility at Fishing Bridge and caused roof damage to roof of the Grant Village Visitor Education Center. No injuries were reported in either incident, and repair work is underway.

Yellowstone’s North and West Entrances opened April 15, the East Entrance opened prior to the slide closure on May 6, and the South Entrance opens tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. Some areas of the park such as Mammoth Hot Springs have already been experiencing the arrival of green grass and warm spring sun. Other areas remain wrapped in deep snow and chillier temperatures. Snow and ice still present in road turnouts and on thermal area boardwalks will make walking difficult or impossible for several more weeks.

May in Yellowstone means it is not uncommon for visitors to have both winter coats and shorts packed in the same travel bag.

Cloud Peak wins 350 million ton federal coal lease

Cloud Peak Energy Inc. was the successful bidder for a federal coal tract containing 350 million tons in the southern Powder River Basin, according to the Wyoming Bureau of Land Management.

Antelope Coal LLC, a subsidiary of Cloud Peak Energy, submitted a bid of $297.7 million, or about 85 cents per ton, for the “West Antelope II North Coal Tract.” The tract is just inside Campbell County’s southern border, and adjacent to the western and northern boundary of the Antelope coal mine.

Coal haul trucks wait to be loaded at the Belle Ayr mine south of Gillette. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

It’s not the highest per-ton bid for Powder River Basin coal in Wyoming, but at 85 cents Cloud Peak Energy’s bid is a vote of confidence in the future of Wyoming coal. Back in the 1990s, Powder River Basin coal sold for less than $5 per ton at times, and mine operators paid about 15 cents per ton for federal coal tracts. Today’s “fair market value” of 75 cents-plus per ton is evidence that prices are not expected to slide much below $10 or stay there for long if they do take a dip.

However, the cost of mining continues to rise as mines dig deeper and further away from their original load-out facilities, which means if spot prices drag long-term contracts below $10 per ton,  mining companies might want to sit on production until prices bounce back. Meanwhile, Powder River Basin coal producers continue to eye the Asian thermal market, which analysts expect will pay more than $130 per ton, depending on heating value.

Cloud Peak Energy owns and operates the Antelope, Cordero and Spring Creek mines in the Powder River Basin.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

LSO adds redistricting page

This year Wyoming legislators will redraw the boundaries of areas from which representatives are elected to the legislature, and the process should be an open one that encourages input from the public. So kudos to the Legislative Service Office for launching a new redistricting website. District boundaries are supposed to be drawn to fairly represent all constituents, but the process also presents an opportunity to favor one voting block over another — a time-honored battle between Republicans and Democrats.

Check out the new website, and let your legislative representatives know you want a level playing field for all of Wyoming’s interests.

Here’s a list of upcoming public meetings which will help determine Wyoming’s voting districts:

- Rock Springs May 25 morning
- Pinedale May 25 evening
- Casper June 14 morning
- Wright June 14 evening
- Laramie June 28 morning
- Cheyenne June 28 evening
- Powell July 12 morning
- Worland July 12 evening
- Lander July 13 morning
- Rawlins July 13 evening
- Torrington August 15 evening

For more information, go to the redistricting webpage.

— Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief, 307-577-6069

Bin Laden Death Focuses Our Press

A secondary benefit of the termination of bin Laden is this: it has stimulated the press into conducting serious inquiries about weighty issues instead of  continuing to pander to the self-promoting bombastic utterances of The Donald.

— RT Cox, “The Sage Grouse”