America’s car culture kills people
and wrecks communities.
Posted inMarch 2024: Fertile Ground
Jonathan Thompson
Jonathan Thompson is a contributing editor at High Country News. He is the author of Sagebrush Empire: How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront of American Public Lands. Follow him @LandDesk
Posted inArticles
The good, the bad and the ugly of the state legislative season
While Congress does nothing, Western state lawmakers pass a flurry of consequential and/or crazy — bills.
Posted inJanuary 11, 2024: The Creatures in Our Midst
The state of the West’s cannabis economy
A booming industry is reviving communities and suffering growing pangs.
Posted inArticles
Is uranium poised for a renaissance?
As prices climb, mining proposals proliferate. But it might just be hype.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2024: January 2024
12 not-so-easy steps to decarbonize the grid
Electrifying will make a difference if that power comes from clean sources.
Posted inArticles
Is Biden waging a war on energy? Or on the climate?
A year-end review of the administration’s policy on fossil fuels and public lands.
Posted inDecember 1, 2023: December 2023
The Endangered Species Act by the numbers
Half a century of wins and losses.
Posted inArticles
Pondering public lands and the energy transition conundrum
Fighting the climate crisis will require difficult choices.
Posted inArticles
Outrage, disinformation and threats rise up in Wyoming around a BLM land plan
Is there a new Sagebrush Rebellion flaring in the Cowboy State?
Posted inOctober 2, 2023: The Dark Side of the Sheepherding Industry
New legislation is creating a clean-energy project pulse
Will the manufacturing renaissance finally displace fossil fuels?
Posted inArticles
Could the 151-year-old mining law finally be reformed?
A working group calls for reforms in advance of a green metals boom.
Posted inArticles
Public lands had a roller coaster month
Rounding up the Biden administration’s ups and downs on land policy.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2023: Food Justice
Who owns the West?
Increasingly, land is shifting into the hands of billionaires.
Posted inAugust 1, 2023: In the Line of Fire
An antiquated law rules mining in the West
Can the U.S. finally vanquish one of the most enduring Lords of Yesterday?
Posted inArticles
The West sizzles — even at midnight
Climate change and the urban heat islands take their toll from Phoenix to Portland.
Posted inJuly 1, 2023: Waiting for Water
Public education in the West is running short of funds
Is the ‘grand foundation’ crumbling?
Posted inArticles
Public Lands Rule rhetoric gets wacky
Conservatives aren’t so keen on conservation.
Posted inArticles
A dizzying look back from Phoenix’s future
A sci-fi scenario from 2008 offers insight into present day news.
Posted inJune 1, 2023: Seen and Unseen
Geothermal: Hot or not?
This old, abundant, relatively clean energy source has barely been tapped.
Posted inArticles
Utah’s latest attack on the Antiquities Act
The bid to diminish national monuments threatens landscape preservation.