Working to keep the West special

 

Public Opinion

In poll, many link weather extremes to climate change , New York Times, April 17, 2012. A recent poll shows that a large majority of Americans ( graphic ) believe that last year's sweltering summer and this year's warm winter as well as other weather disasters were probably made worse by global warming.

U.S. voters favor regulating carbon dioxide: survey , Reuters, April 26, 2012. Three out of four American voters support regulating carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas pollutant and a majority think global warming should be a priority for the president and Congress.

National Climate Policies

New U.S. fracking emission rules unclear on climate impacts , Scientific American, April 19, 2012. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the first-ever regulations to limit air pollution from natural gas wells that employ hydraulic fracturing. The new required technology, which is not mandatory until 2015, has the co-benefit of reducing potent, heat-trapping methane gas -- potentially by up to 1.7 million tons. The new rules are similar to those already in place in Colorado and Wyoming.  EPA Air-pollution rules for drilling mirror Colorado regulations , Denver Post, April 18, 2012 and Wyoming shrugs at first EPA air pollution rules for gas drilling , Casper Star-Tribune, April 19, 2012.  

Clean Energy
 
United States reclaims top spot in clean energy investment from China in 2011 , Denver Post, April 11, 2012. Fueled by a 42 percent increase to $48 billion, the United States edged China for the top spot in clean energy investment in 2011. Total global investment increased 6.5 percent over 2010, to $263 billion last year.

California leads green tech funding, reduces greenhouse emissions , Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2012. Helping to both drive economic recovery and cut emissions, investments in California green tech companies rose 24 percent between 2010 and 2011 to $3.5 billion, including 62 percent of all venture capital funding in the U.S. in 2011 in the solar power industry. 

Fuel to burn: Now what? , New York Times, April 10, 2012. As part of a comprehensive look at the United States' energy outlook , the New York Times examines the recent explosion of natural gas production and what it means for future emissions and renewable energy generation.

Water

Utah criticized for ignoring climate change in water planning , Salt Lake Tribune, April 5, 2012. A recent report by the Natural Resources Defense Council on how well states are planning for climate-change impacts on water resources ranks Utah and Montana in the lowest tier, most of the rest of the Mountain West ranked just one tier higher, and Colorado getting a higher ranking.

Transportation

Greenest states to own an electric car , CNN Money, April 26, 2012. Depending on where you live and how electricity is produced there, electric vehicles can produce very different levels of emissions. About 45 percent of Americans now live where electric cars are cleaner than the most fuel-efficient hybrids.

$4 gas reinforces trend toward lower U.S. fuel consumption , Washington Post, April 17, 2012. With gas prices hovering near $4 a gallon, American drivers have slashed their consumption of gasoline to its lowest levels in a decade, a result of both driving less and using more fuel-efficient cars.

Wildlife

Bears keep threatened status until at least 2014 , Billings Gazette, April 20, 2012. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will wait until at least 2014 to revisit its attempt to remove protections for Yellowstone grizzly bears. In the interim, wildlife officials will attempt to gather new information that could be used to reverse a court ruling that found that grizzly bears face a continued, climate change-driven threat from the loss of whitebark pine trees, a key food source for some bears.

News about Climate Disruption

The West this year experienced a classic La Niňa-dominated winter, with more snowfall in the northern part of the region and less in the southern . In western Colorado, where our mountains are the major source of water for the Colorado River, March was the fourth driest and sixth warmest March on record (going back to 1895). The statewide snowpack, which historically peaks on April 12, hits its peak this year exactly one month early, with net melting after March 12. On that date, the average snowpack across the entire Upper Colorado River basin was 76% of normal for that date, but by April 12 had fallen to 35% of the average for that date. The latest forecast is for this year's inflow to Lake Powell, the conventional measure of the hydrological condition of the Colorado River Basin , to be about 63% of normal.

Ecosystems  

Warm spring may mean drought and wildfires in West , National Geographic, April 25, 2012. As of April 10th, 61 percent of the lower 48 states were experiencing abnormally dry or drought conditions, and in the West, Lake Powell and Lake Mead were at only 64 percent capacity following a decade-long drought and a winter with less than 70 percent of the average snowfall across much of the basin. The precarious situation leaves the region primed for a dangerous wildfire season, which has already begun, and has states hurrying to prepare. Parched Western states rush to prepare for a dangerous fire season that's already under way , Associated Press, April 12, 2012.