Top Headlines#1
Wyoming Supreme Court Upholds Coal Plant Permit
The Powder River Basin Resource Council and Sierra Club challenged an air quality permit the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality issued for the plant in 2007, even though operators say they’ve installed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of pollution control equipment.
Top Headlines#2
EPA: No Plans for Own Carbon Trading Program
The Obama administration has no plans to set up a “cap-and-trade” program for greenhouse gases under existing law if Congress doesn’t pass legislation doing so, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in remarks at the National Press Club in Washington.
Top Headlines#3
Energy Groups Relieved Sage Grouse will
Not be Listed
Friday’s announcement by the Interior Department that it won’t list the bird as an endangered or threatened species has energy industries operating in the West breathing a little easier. The oil and gas, wind and solar industries will still face scrutiny in sage grouse habitat but much less so than if the bird had made the list.
Top Headlines#4
Wind Energy Bills Signed by Freudenthal
Wyoming will have more authority over the siting and development of wind farms and the state will begin taxing the energy source under bills that Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed into law Friday. The $1-per-megawatt-hour tax on wind energy generated in the state goes into effect in 2012.
Top Headlines#5
Interior Expands “Common-Sense” Efforts to Conserve Sage Grouse Habitat in the West
The federal government will start to protect the sage grouse as a “candidate” species under the Endangered Species Act. The Interior said the compromise decision embraces the latest science indicating that sage grouse need help to avoid extinction in the face of energy development, grazing and house-building.
Top Headlines#6
250-Megawatt Interconnection in Wyoming Sought by Wind Energy America
The company is seeking the interconnection from Black Hills Power, Inc., for the project in Weston County, which should be capable of generating 600 million kilowatt units of power each year, or emough equivalent electricty of roughly 60,000 homes.
