Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY)

"New research questions the long-held theory that reintroduction of such a predator caused a trophic cascade, spawning renewal of vegetation and spurring biodiversity."

"A federal jury on Monday said BNSF Railway contributed to the deaths of two people who were exposed to asbestos decades ago when tainted mining material was shipped through a Montana town where thousands have been sickened."

"In the Nevada valley that is one of the most significant domestic sources of a key element for the energy transition, one company controls the groundwater needed to mine it, another is fighting for a share of it and others are lining up at the tap."

"A prediction, several years in the making, came true on Monday when an alliance of nearly a dozen conservation groups filed suit against the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management, seeking to restore protections for gray wolves in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming arguing that the  states’ aggressive hunting policies imperils the populations."

"Ten years after the weeklong confrontation, the federal government faces paralysis over how to oversee a desert ecosystem."

"The Biden administration Wednesday finalized a 20-year ban on new oil and gas drilling and mining activity on 221,898 acres of federal lands within western Colorado’s pristine Thompson Divide." "The 20-year ban on new drilling will protect a pristine region that local advocates say is renowned for its wildlife and recreation."

"Would-be voters in this coal and oil state signal they’re increasingly alarmed by climate change."

"President Joe Biden’s administration has conditionally agreed to loan more than $2 billion to the company building a controversial lithium mine in Nevada with the largest known U.S. deposit of the metal critical to making batteries for electric vehicles key to his renewable energy agenda."

"It's a big, inspiring vision of wildlife connectivity. But could it work?"