Wyoming Legislature committee advances bill to punish rooftop solar

I sent this via email to Senators Hutchings and Driskill:

This quote comes from a Jan. 21 WyoFile article:

Supported unanimously by the Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, Senate File 16 -- New Net Metering Systems represents the third time in 18 months legislators have sought to cut the amount paid to customers who generate more solar electricity than they use.

We installed rooftop solar last spring and saw reductions in Black Hills Energy bills in the sunny months but not much difference since last October. It’s a work in progress. I still pay the going rates for natural gas heating and hot water. I also still buy coal- and gas-generated energy to prop up the solar. I buy locally and pay state sales taxes. I’ve lived in Wyoming for 30 years and done my best to make it a better place.

Is SF 16 just another way for the GOP-dominated legislature to smack down the solar power industry?

Wyomingites, especially us retirees, are finding that rooftop solar can save money when household budgets are strained by the pandemic. Why would you want to halt that? We are doing our bit to address global warming. What are you doing?

I advise that you spend more time in planning for the alternative energy future rather than bemoaning the fossil fuel past. 

Do your job. Defeat SF 16! 

Sincerely,

Michael Shay

The robin and the solar system

Between sunup and sundown on a May day, a robin built a nest on my solar system. When I say solar system, I mean to the control box that monitors the roof's solar panels. The greater system, the one that is powered by the sun, is also the source of power for my house's system. The electrician and crew spent a week installing the metal boxes and the panels. The robin watched from her perch on an elm branch. She pounced when the networks of steel and aluminum and copper were in their proper spots. Hers is a fine nest, a work of art. Robin sits in the nest and stares when I arrive on the patio to water plants or grill a burger. If I linger too long, she flees and and watches me from an elm branch. She is wary of the bipeds who built her foundation. We're known for our mischief. Any living thing can tell you.

Celebrate Earth Day! Buy a Bulgemobile!

Bruce McCall's Bulgemobiles, first seen in National Lampoon.

I was a clean-cut lad of 19 when the first Earth Day was christened on April 22, 1970. I remember it well. The magnolias, dogwoods and the Carolina coeds were all in bloom. Not that it mattered much, as my chances were better going out on the town with a bloomin' tree than a real-live coed, most of whom seemed to be focused on their hippie boyfriends. A year later, I would trade my weekly ROTC haircuts for none at all. But in the spring on 1970, I was one squared-away but clueless guy. I was unaware that such a thing as Earth Day had sprouted amidst the counterculture. The earth was a mess. Polluted American rivers, such as the Cleveland's Cuyahoga, caught fire regularly. A few years earlier, Rachel Carson's had exposed the deadly effects of pesticides in Silent Spring. Counterculture types were getting back to the earth with Whole Earth Catalog as their bible and ganja as their guide.

Here it is, 43 years later, and Earth Day has shown a surprising persistence. In some places it's treated as an official holiday, without the day off and newspaper advertising supplements. Celebrate Earth Day! Buy a Bulgemobile!

Yesterday, while perusing the library's electronic card catalog, I saw a number of Earth Day books, most geared to young readers. There were surprisingly few for adults, although there is a new bio of Rachel Carson. The library had plenty of titles on climate change and global warming, many reflecting the battle over the topics, one that has been settled on the side of real science instead of right-wing fantasies.

Governmental entities are even getting into the act when it comes to sponsoring Earth Day events. The much-maligned Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is sponsoring a bunch of Earth Day events all over the U.S. Our region (CO, MT, etc.) boasts a number of them. Alas, there are none in Wyoming, which should make WY Rep. Cynthia Lummis very happy.

My employer, the Wyoming Division of State Parks and Cultural Resources, has teamed up with the Cheyenne Parks and Recreation Department to celebrate Earth Day and National Let’s Get Outside Day at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens' Paul Smith Children’s Village on Saturday, April 20, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Activities including the making of trash robots, plant necklaces, a story time and a Story Walk, featuring the Giving Tree. Parents are encouraged to recycle old garden hoses by bringing them to the event for use at the Children’s Village. FMI: Ashley Rooney at 307-777-6560 or Ashley.rooney@wyo.gov.

In the "health and fitness" category, local gubment is stepping up to the plate with Step Up Cheyenne. What does health and fitness have to do with the environment? You don't want to be the human equivalent of a bulgemobile, do you? My family participated in StepUp last spring and summer and it did wonders in reducing our unwanted bulges. Walking 10,000 steps a day took 20 pounds off of me, leading to a svelte appearance that caused me to consume fewer resources. This is a public-private collaboration, sponsored by businesses (Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, WinHealth Partners) in partnership with Cheyenne Parks & Rec, Cheyenne Greenway Foundation, Laramie County School District No. 1 and a host of others.

"Creating science from sewage" is one benefit of new Cheyenne zero-carbon Data Plant

Science! It's a gas -- biogas, that is. The City of Cheyenne and UW and Microsoft and Fuel Cell Energy Inc. are building a pilot project east of Cheyenne to see if methane produced from sewage treatment can provide efficient zero-carbon power. A $7.5 million Microsoft Data Plant is the test case. The plant will use 200 kilowatts of energy from the fuel cell to power 200 computers. Any excess energy will go back to the Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility to defray its electric bills. After an 18-month test period that will begin in the spring, Microsoft will give the facility back to the city and the university to use as a teaching lab. This is part of the deal, as Microsoft has to provide a "public benefit" in trade for taxpayer funding that's going to the project. Sounds like a win-win to me, a great public-private partnership. Read more about it here. 

The Western Research Institute is housed in the Bureau of Mines Building on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie. WRI CEO Don Collins was instrumental in landing the project for the state. Said Collins:

“Microsoft is developing it as the first zero-carbon Data Plant in the world, and it will be in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Even Bill Gates had a tweet about how excited he was about this project.”

When Bill Gates tweets, people pay attention. 

Collins also said that:

...CO2 that comes out of the fuel cell can be captured and used for enhanced oil recovery in the state.  Wyoming currently does not have enough CO2 for such operations, he says. A company using a fuel cell in this manner could sell its CO2 at $25-$30 per ton to oil companies and make approximately $2.25 million, Collins says. That business scenario could make it more attractive for more fuel cell use in Wyoming.

“There might really be a strategic advantage for Wyoming for all energy-intensive companies that sell CO2 to cut costs,” Collins says. “Our goal is to turn CO2 into a valuable asset rather than something that must be disposed of at a high expense.”

At a recent meeting Collins attended in San Jose, Calif., Microsoft indicated its desire to keep the Data Plant in Cheyenne “as a long-term demonstration facility,” Collins says.

Use of a demonstration facility enhances opportunities for UW and WRI to secure competitive funding from the federal government and the Wyoming Energy Conversion Technology Fund, Collins adds.

Your taxpayer dollars at work. And I'm not being snarky. This sounds like an excellent use of state and federal funds.Microsoft may eventually use this technology for its cloud computing centers that are springing up all over the U.S. The City of Cheyenne and the State of Wyoming could do worse than having Microsoft for a partner.

King Coal holds a seminar in Gillette

An Overpass Light Brigade protest in Portland, Maine.These LED-light-fueled protests are coming to an overpass or state capitol near you.

King Coal holds a seminar in Gillette on Dec. 13, "Powder River Basin Coal: Domestic Challenges and International Opportunities:"

“Coal is important as an abundant, low-cost energy source for the U.S. economy,” UW School of Energy Resources Director Mark Northam says. “The energy programs at the University of Wyoming are looking at ways that coal can continue to be used in the decades to come, because maintaining a viable coal industry is important to ensuring stable, low-cost, reliable electric power generation.”

Domestic challenges, according to Wyoming, the nation's Republican-controlled energy colony: President Brack Obama
Unstated international opportunities: China
The international challenge whose name we dare not say: Global warming

Wyoming Broadband Summit: New generation of Microsoft data centers to be tested in Cheyenne

Microsoft's Gregg McKnight was in Cheyenne today talking about a pilot project for a new kind of data center. He was a speaker at the first Wyoming Broadband Summit at Little America.

Asked McKnight: “Who would have expected Cheyenne to be the place where the next generation of data centers would arise?”

Not me. Maybe not you, or your neighbors. And possibly not McKnight, not until he visited Cheyenne a few months ago.

He was greeted warmly by officials from the University of Wyoming, Cheyenne LEADS, Board of Public Utilities and other members of the community.

“This was a dream” he said, adding that, over the course of several days, he discovered that Cheyenne “was the ideal location to do business.”

Microsoft wants to build a $7.6 million data center that will run off of methane produced by the city’s Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility. To that end, the city of Cheyenne will apply for $1.5 million from the Wyoming Business Council's Council’s Business Ready Community Grant and Loan Program. Three weeks ago, the Cheyenne City Council’s Finance Committee gave its approval to move the request forward. If approved, the grant would cover up to $1.5 million of the project’s total cost, with Microsoft providing the balance.

According to officials at the computing giant, the project would consist of the data plant, which would be connected to a fuel cell. Both would be in close proximity to the water reclamation facility, which is located on Campstool Road just south of Interstate 80.

The fuel cell would collect excess methane gas from the water reclamation facility’s biodigester and would then convert the gas into about 300 kilowatts of electricity. The data center itself would require only 200 kilowatts to run. Not sure where the remaining 100 Kw would do. Presumably it could be used for other energy needs in Cheyenne.

The plant will test Microsoft's new “siliconization” process, which utilizes silicon to move beyond the era of the microprocessor. McKnight gave a quick explanation which went way over my head. He showed a slide that illustrated this formula: “Si Systems + Fuel Cells + Modularity=Reimagine the Data Center.” Sounds cool to me. Faster technology is needed for the 200-plus cloud services Microsoft now provides. “There will be a twelve-fold increase in the amount of info that flows through the optic fiber backbone in the next five years,” McKnight said. He called the Cheyenne experiment the next step in “the evolving data center.”

The fuel cell data plant is separate from a $112 million cloud data center Microsoft has proposed to build to the west of Cheyenne, near the recently-opened National Center for Atmospheric Research supercomputing facility.

McKnight is quite happy with Cheyenne. And why wouldn't he be? The state of Wyoming has pledged $10.7 million in grants and incentives for the cloud data center project. Microsoft is making an initial $78-million investment and plans to go up to $112 million, according to Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, who also spoke at Tuesday's summit. He's a big believer in data centers. And I'm beginning to believe that he's on the right track. All of this will change Cheyenne for the better. New technology. New ideas. New people moving in. New energy mixes with old energy. Not sure what the formula is for that, but it could be a heady mix.

Onward and upward (and sometimes downward and dumbward) as Wyoming lurches into the future

American Bison at Utah's Hogle Zoo

The following comes from a University of Wyoming press release that appeared on Friday. It talks about Wyoming's and UW's commitment to the future in the form of computing power and connectivity. It's refreshing to see such forward-thinking planning on the part of a university that last summer removed a campus sculpture that dared to question global warming ("Carbon Sink"). But it's also the same university that opened a huge new visual arts building at the end of last year, and began raising funds to match a legislative appropriation for a renovated performing arts building. And remember Bill Ayers, the firebrand education reformer and one-time antiwar radical that UW tried to stop speaking on campus a few years back?

Okay, UW has a split personality, not unlike Wyoming's.

You gotta love this place for that. And sometimes, well, you gotta think of Nobel Prize winning writer William Faulkner. As the story goes, Faulkner was at a book signing in Montana when a woman said that she wished that Montana writers loved Montana like Faulkner obviously loved Mississippi. Faulkner's reply: "Madam, I hate Mississippi."

That probably left her speechless.

You don't have to love a place to write well about it. And you don't have to love a place to wish it a fruitful future.

So the new NCAR Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) was dedicated today. Go out and visit the new education center, which is open to the public on weekdays. After this week, you won't be able to visit Yellowstone, the new supercomputer, unless you have an appointment or you're running for president.

This is only one of the surprising bits in this article. DYK that the huge fiber-optic cable that laid the ground for the NWSC is called the Bison Ring (not to be confused with Wagner's Ring Cycle)? See above images for an explanation. And that another big computer has been installed at UW in Laramie with the name Mount Moran, after a peak in the Teton Range? I kind of like this trend that attaches Wyocentric names to tangles of wires and metal and electrons. Microsoft is building a new regional data center in Cheyenne. Wonder what its computer will be called? I suggest "Vedauwoo." Or possibly "Crazy Horse."

Here's the first few paragraphs of the UW release:

It began with laying hundreds of miles of fiber-optic cable, much of it buried under the ground along stretches of interstate that traverse the mountains and plains of Wyoming. Next week, the state’s evolution from primarily pulling minerals out of the ground to a sky’s-the-limit outlook for supercomputing will be complete.

The $74 million NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC), with a primary focus of atmospheric research, is slated to open Monday, Oct. 15, with a ceremonial dedication. Located at the North Range Business Park in Cheyenne, the $30 million supercomputer, dubbed “Yellowstone,” will be used by multiple University of Wyoming researchers and their students to model detailed simulations of hydrology, carbon sequestration, planet formation, efficiency of wind turbines, and much more.

Read the whole thing at http://www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2012/10/supercomputer-opening-caps-years-of-effort.html

Casper Star-Tribune explores UW cover-up in Carbon Sink sculpture removal

Good story about the UW "Carbon Sink" stink by CST business editor Jeremy Fugleberg (story also appeared in Billings Gazette):

Emails: University of Wyoming officials sped up, touted removal of anti-coal sculpture

Laramie County marches forward into the future with new NWSC and visitor center facilities

Two building dedications take place during the next two weeks in Laramie County. They point the way toward a future that local Know Nothings and no-growthers and Agenda 21 wingnuts are trying to stop.

The first and most spectacular of these buildings is the new NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) in the North Range Business Park just north of the gigantic Wal-Mart Distribution Center and just east of the Big Wind-Power Farm on the Prairie. The building is a marvel of energy efficiency, taking advantage of Wyoming's weather to super-cool the super-computer. The facility will get at least 10 percent of its energy from wind power.

The NWSC will be open for initial public tours from noon-4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16; and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17. Thereafter, self-guided tours of the visitor center will be offered 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays. Large groups are asked to call ahead to make reservations at (307) 996-4321.

This comes from a UW press release:

The visitor center contains several display stations, which will focus on science, supercomputing and the NWSC, plus a section dedicated to younger visitors.

The science section will focus on science and research from NCAR, the University of Wyoming and the atmospheric sciences community. Some examples include climate models, wildfire simulations, wind shear studies and carbon sequestration. How these examples affect people’s everyday lives, improve safety, and help inform policy and decision making will be included.

The computational science display will provide an introduction to computational science; convey challenges and research, including limitations and explorations of new frontiers; university collaborations and programs; and the role of computational science in everyday life.

Finally, the exhibit also includes a section about the societal impact of research conducted at the NWSC. Climate, microbursts, wildfires, winds, aviation safety, solar phenomena, extreme weather and advances in forecasting are among the subjects covered.

There will be a center dedicated to younger visitors. It will have touch screens and a video of a mini-tornado simulation that kids can play with. There will be a station that measures how quickly you can swipe your hand across a sensor, and then tells you how many calculations the supercomputer can do in that amount of time.

Gizmojo, a Cheyenne company, was chosen to create and build the visitor center.

The second dedication is for the Southeast Wyoming Visitor Center. It opens for public inspection at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 12. The $13 million center is on I-25 at the new High Plains Road exit near the Wyoming/Colorado border. It's a LEED-certified building with some of its power coming from solar panels and some from aerodynamic windmills atop the rise leading up to the building. On the building's northeast side is an art installation by Laramie's Stan Dolega. Stan thinks big and works big. BTW, his sculpture is funded through the state's 1% for Art Program, in which a percentage of a public building's costs go toward exterior and/or exterior art, often (but not always) created by a Wyoming artist.

Inside the visitor center are exhibits. One if a Columbian Mammoth cast. These also are hands-on stations for kids, wildlife exhibits and video displays. You can also peer through the many windows at the snow falling outside, the traffic zooming by, and the huge McMurry Business Park sprouting up on the other side of the interstate. One will be able to see the sprawling tank farm for the storage of oil being pumped via fracking out of the Laramie County underground. Another aspect of the state's multifaceted energy economy.

Sometimes all of this new development seems a bit haphazard. You wonder if anyone in the city and county are planning for the future. Growth is good, but there should be a plan.

Sam Western explores the future of AML funding in Wyoming w/update

Sam Western, Sheridan author and correspondent for London's The Economist, spoke last night at the Roosevelt-Kennedy dinner held by the Wyoming Democratic Party.

In a bit of kismet, a column by Sam appeared this morning in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. In it, he explores the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Trust Fund (AML) legislation, how it's helped and hurt Wyoming.

AML legislation was first passed in 1977 and mandated that a percentage of each ton of coal was designated to clean up abandoned mines. Strip mines of the West, like those in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, were taxed at $.35 per ton while underground mines of the East were taxed at $.15 per ton. Since most of the reclaimed mines were in the East, most of the $3 billion in taxes on Wyoming coal (the largest amount from any state) should have gone elsewhere. But the law also mandated that 50 percent of the taxes collected in a state would go back to that state. So it did. But since Wyoming had so few abandoned mines to reclaim, that money went to new ag facilities at Sheridan College and new classrooms at UW, facilities that normally would be paid for by its citizens.

That darn federal gubment.

In Republican Paul Ryan's Draconian budget plan, all that coal tax money would disappear. Remember, the GOP doesn't like taxes on wealthy corporations or people. The budget failed, but not before Wyoming's entire Congressional delegation, Republicans all, voted for it. Meanwhile, the 50 percent rate of return for AML funding has dropped to 48 percent, which means Wyoming loses out on millions every year. Our Congressional delegation now is backpedaling as fast as it can to save the AML funding.

Thus, this isn't a story about the AML. It's about the the reluctance of Wyoming to accept a new reality: Revenue from minerals, such as AML money, is easy to snatch, and Congress will probably use it for whatever it pleases.

The dilemma also reveals Wyoming's one-dimensional sense of entitlement. It's our money, we yelp, and we want it back. Now.

The reality is that over the years, Wyoming has received tens of billions of non-mineral-related money from taxpayers who don't live in the Cowboy State. In the trade-off department, Wyoming has gotten an awfully good deal.

The old era is fading. What were once Wyoming plums are now low-hanging fruit for a cash-strapped Congress to pluck for other purposes.

The matter is complicated by the unwillingness of Republicans to work across the aisle to reach a compromise on issues which would benefit the state. The doctrinaire thick-headedness of Barrasso, Enzi and Lummis, only make it inevitable that Wyoming will continue to lose federal funds. Not only will they not compromise with Democrats, they also finds compromise tough with members of their own party running for vice president.

What a dilemma.

And Wyoming will be the loser.

This is a summary of an excellent article loaded with details. I recommend that you read it. I would send you to the WTE web site to read the entire column, but it's a terrible web site and Sam is nowhere to be found. If you get the paper, read it on the op-ed pages. If not, try the library.

You can read more of Sam's excellent work (journalism, essays and fiction) at www.samuelwestern.com

10/1/12 UPDATE: Sam's column is on wyofile. Go to http://wyofile.com/2012/09/feds-can-restrict-flow-of-mineral-revenue-to-wyoming/  

Launchtoberfest in Fort Collins promotes Biodiesel for Bands initiative

Launchtoberfest in Fort Collins on Oct. 6 looks like a great time and a good opportunity to find out more about this initiative to trim traveling costs for regional bands.

In the future, Wyoming travelers may yearn to be stranded at Denver's revamped airport

I happened upon Fast Company's Co.Exist (and Co-Create and Co.Design) during my perambulations around the Internet. All three are great places to waste (I mean, "spend") some time exploring new inventions and trends and ideas and foodways. Next time I'm in Copenhagen, I'm going to try to get a table at Noma for a plate of ants and blueberries, or barbecue carrots with sorrel sauce and hay ash. There is a hidden beauty to suburban sprawl -- and an array of stunning photos is offered in evidence. We are wasting our time harnessing wind at ground level -- we should be tethering high-flying wind-generating kites at 10 kilometers. Lots of them.

And airports aren't just for passing through any more. Munich's new airport offers an entire Oktoberfest experience, Hong Kong International offers an outdoor nine-hole golf course and a 350-seat IMAX theatre, Lagos's new airport will feature a duty-free shop with bargain-basement prices on kitchen appliances, and Changi International in Singapore features a Balinese-themed swimming pool. The airport was built on the site of one of Japan's most notorious World War II POW camps, the setting for James Clavell's compelling novel, "King Rat." Wonder if you can buy the book at the airport?

And here's what co.Exist had to say about Denver's soon-to-be-renovated DIA:

Architect's rendering of the new DIA

The Denver International Airport is getting more “Colorado.” It’s being expanded and transformed into a quasi city center, connected both physically and emotionally to downtown Denver and the region. A Westin hotel and conference center (with a dynamite rooftop pool and views of the Rockies) is part of the expansion program along with an outdoor public plaza for staging community events and a new fast rail line (and station) that will whisk travelers and Denver residents alike to/from downtown Denver.

Cheyenne can't compete with that. However, our new airport terminal may help airlines do a much better job shuttling us to DIA for the ambience that surrounds a Thanksgiving flight to Aunt Martha's or a business trip to D.C. Heck, Wyoming travelers may soon yearn to be stranded at DIA due to a holiday blizzard.

It's interesting to note that the new DIA will connect people "physically and emotionally to downtown Denver and the region." It may soon be easier to fly than drive from Cheyenne to Denver for a football weekend or for a weekend of shopping and entertainment. While Cheyenne long ago ceded Front Range leadership to Denver, this new transportation complex could make that reality permanent. But Cheyenne can hop on this bandwagon, making sure that we're a primary feeder hub to DIA and Denver. We haven't done a very good job of that in the past. By enhancing those things that make us great, we'll be a player in the region.

That doesn't mean making Cheyenne a mini-Denver. It means making Cheyenne more Cheyenne. As Mayor Kaysen has said time and again, one of our priorities has to be the revitalization of downtown. Keep at it, Cheyenne. Make Cheyenne more Cheyenne by saving its historic central business district. Nobody makes a destination of a place that excels in strip malls or Wal-Marts. They do want to travel to a place that has character. That's what Cheyenne Frontier Days is all about -- "Live the Legend!" It's the Old West meeting the New West. The Old West is rodeo and cowboys and country-western music. The New West means a vibrant downtown with brewpubs and restaurants and rock concerts and art galleries and western clothing stores mixed with funky boutiques. The distinctive music and art that's offered at these places should come from local and regional musicians and artists and artisans. The restaurant food should come from Southern Wyoming (SoWy) and Northern Colorado (NoCo) farms and ranches. Some of it can be grown on rooftop gardens and greenhouses. What a thriving place downtown Cheyenne will be. Denverites may want to hop on a plane at DIA and fly north to Cheyenne because there's no place like it on earth. Imagine that.

Architect's rendering of new Cheyenne airport terminal.

Forget "the dirty dozen” – Wyoming Congressional delegation "the dirty trio”

This comes from Kate Wright, executive director of Wyoming Conservation Voters

Today [Feb. 7, 2012], Wyoming Conservation Voters joined the national League of Conservation Voters in releasing the 2011 National Environmental Scorecard, revealing scores for the Wyoming delegation in the first session of the 112^th Congress. 

The 2011 Scorecard reflects the most anti-environmental session of the U.S. House of Representatives in history, featuring unparalleled assaults on our nation’s bedrock environmental and public health safeguards.

The good news is that while the House voted against the environment a shocking number of times, both the U.S. Senate and the Obama administration stood fast against the vast majority of these attacks.  Indeed, not only did our cornerstone environmental protections emerge from 2011 largely unscathed, the Obama administration also made major progress through administrative actions to protect our air and water. 

 “We are disappointed in those members of the Wyoming delegation who supported the attacks on public health and environmental protections in 2011,” said Kate Wright, Executive Director of the Wyoming Conservation Voters. “It is deeply upsetting that the entirety of the Wyoming delegation, Rep. Lummis and Sens. Enzi and Barrasso, chose to put corporate polluters and other special interests ahead of the health and well-being of Wyoming families.” 

The 2011 Scorecard includes 11 Senate and a record 35 House votes on issues ranging from public health protections to clean energy to land and wildlife conservation. The House votes included in the 2011 Scorecard are simply many of the most significant votes taken in a year that saw the House voting more than 200 times on the environment and public health.

“In 2011, the House Republican leadership unleashed a truly breathtaking and unprecedented assault on the environment and public health, the breadth and depth of which have made the current U.S. House of Representatives the most anti-environmental in our nation’s history,” said LCV President Gene Karpinski. “LCV is grateful to the Obama administration for helping to ensure that the House Republican leadership did not succeed in gutting our nation’s cornerstone environmental and public health protections in 2011.”

Senator John Barrasso, 9%
Senator Mike Enzi, 9%
Representative Cynthia Lummis, 11%

For over 40 years, the National Environmental Scorecard issued by LCV has been the nationally accepted yardstick used to rate members of Congress on environmental, public health and energy issues.

The full 2011 National Environmental Scorecard can be found at www.lcv.org/scorecard 

Casper developer Steve Grimshaw recycles everything (including the kitchen sink) for new project

Casper developer Steve Grimshaw says that he just wants to be a "responsible builder." To that end, he hired contractor Pete Peterson to recycle whatever he could from the old KC Apartments that were being demolished to make way for the new Sunshine Apartments near downtown. Peterson was able to recycle 83 percent of the building. That included concrete that was crushed to go into the foundations of the new building. Also claw-foot bathtubs, cabinets, door locks and faucet handles. Also salvaged were old cement slabs (shown above) stamped with the date "1917" that will pave the new public arts space that is part of the project. A coalition of Casper organizations recently received a National Endowment for the Arts grant for the arts space. Photo by Dan Cepeda, Casper Star-Tribune. Read entire article at http://trib.com/news/local/casper/developer-recycles-notorious-casper-apartment/article_e504182e-4cd8-55b8-bf54-6d72b0b292a1.html#ixzz1h5EsEb00

Wyoming Outdoor Council's Frontline investigates smog problems in the oil and gas fields

From the WOC Frontline:

Clean air in Wyoming has perhaps been taken for granted over the years. But, as unbelievable as it may seem, in the second decade of the 21st century, Wyoming is facing a smog problem. Click here to read the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s winter issue of Frontline.

Laramie River station one of the nation's dirtiest power plants

The EPA may not be working very effectively when it comes to protecting our air and water. But it will be totally toothless if the all-Republican Wyoming Congressional delegation gets its way.

From WPR:

Wyoming is home to one of the nation’s dirtiest power plants, according to a new study by the Environmental Integrity Project. The report examined emissions reports from power plants around the country and found that Basin Electric’s Laramie River station is one of the top 10 emitters of arsenic, chromium, nickel and selenium. Those are all toxic heavy metals.

FMI: http://wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/wyoming-home-one-one-countrys-filthiest-power-plants#.TuJLpe5c63Y.email

Powder River Basin Resource Council holds "Harvest Celebration" fund-raiser Aug. 27 in Sheridan

Good food & good music for a great cause. FMI: www.powderriverbasin.org

Oregon tests "solar highways"

So Oregon, which has about half of the average annual sunlight as Wyoming, is turning one stretch of interstate into a "solar highway." You might wonder why Wyoming can't do something that Oregon can. For one thing, Wyoming produces most of its and the nation's energy the old-fashioned way, by burning coal. The coal and oil and gas lobbies would never stand for it. Second, Wyoming is running out of highway funds, so it is concentrating its road efforts more on patching the holes than on rebuilding infrastructure or trying new things. Third, Oregon's a blue state with progressive environmental policies and Wyoming isn't. Maybe Colorado, another sun-drenched Rocky Mountain state, will pick up on this idea.

From Grist:

Okay, we know YOU ride your bike everywhere. But the country’s 4 million miles of roads, and 50,000 miles of interstate highway, probably aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Isn’t there anything productive we can do with this giant car playground? Well, we can cover it with solar photovoltaic panels, so it’s at least providing some energy.

Oregon's already testing the idea, installing panel arrays along highway shoulders. Others want to embed the solar panels directly into the road surface, and have already received funding to test the idea. California wants to try it along parts of Route 101. 

 If you think about it, roads are a perfect place to put solar: They're already public land, they've already been cleared and graded, they're adjacent to infrastructure like towns and power lines, and they're super accessible for repair and upgrades. Also, they’re already sitting out in the sun all day. 

Gulf oil spill revisited on the Montana high prairie

A year after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, caused by corporate negligence, we have a similar spill on the high prairie just north of the Wyoming/Montana border.

Get the lowdown from Button Valley Bugle and 4&20 blackbirds.

While tonight's Rachel Maddow show portrayed Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer as the Hero in the White Hat standing firm against the Black Hats of Exxon-Mobil, things aren't always as they seem. Check out the blogs to see what I mean.

"Berry Prairie" taking shape on UW Biodiversity Center roof

Hymenoxys grandiflora by Susan Marsh, from Wyoming Native Plant Society web site.

This is cool (in more ways than one):

Planting is underway on a green roof being established at the University of Wyoming's Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center. Landscapers are installing a variety of native grasses, wildflowers, cacti and shrubs, among other things.

Greg Brown, director of the Biodiversity Center, that native plants are being used, ones that grow within a 20-mile radius of the campus.

WPR: Green roof installed at UW Biodiversity Center