Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY)

Wyo. Ranchers Wanting Solar Say Utilities and State Stand in Their Way

"Tim Teichert and Jason Thornock want the sun to help them survive as ranchers in Cokeville, Wyoming. On an overcast May day, the two drove around the one-restaurant town, lamenting high electricity prices and restrictive Wyoming laws that they say have thrown an unnecessary burden onto their broad shoulders."

Source: Inside Climate News, 12/16/2025

Top Trump Official Has Financial Ties To Controversial Nevada Lithium Mine

"Karen Budd-Falen, a top official at the Department of the Interior, has financial ties to the controversial Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada — a project that the Trump administration worked to fast-track during its first term. In recent months, the administration took an equity stake in the mine and the mine’s parent company."

Source: Public Domain, 12/11/2025

Top Environment and Energy Topics To Watch in 2026

Explore our 10th annual Journalists’ Guide to Environment + Energy, as we scour the beat to identify 15 top stories to put on your radar for 2026. Our updated format for the special report provides a quick read and a broad scope — with insights on climate change and environmental justice, bird and insect declines, data centers and deep sea mining, deregulation and PFAS and much more. Get started here.

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Orphans and Zombies — Reporting on Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells Across the Country

For more than a century, oil and gas companies have been drilling — and abandoning — wells across the country, leaving hundreds of thousands to potentially leak pollutants into the air, water and soil. Climate and environment reporter Martha Pskowski looks at how funding and regulatory issues are impacting efforts to identify and plug these wells, and offers resources for drilling into their story.

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Trump BLM Cancels Major Solar Project In Latest Hit To Renewable Energy

"The Trump administration has killed a huge proposed solar power project in Nevada that would have been one of the largest in the world, indicating that the White House plans to attack not only wind power but all renewable energy."

Source: Guardian, 10/14/2025

"The Resistance Rangers Want Your Help in Protecting National Parks"

"On March 1, under a clear sky, hundreds of people flocked to Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park—not to picnic but to protest. Two weeks earlier, the National Park Service had fired roughly 1,000 employees."

Source: Sierra, 10/03/2025

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