Wyoming’s biggest bet on clean coal is almost finished. The Integrated Test Center outside Gillette aims to host researchers who are finding ways to turn carbon emissions into marketable products. But what does this test center and clean coal mean for the state, the coal industry or climate change? Inside Energy’s Madelyn Beck takes us on a 360-degree view of clean coal to answer that question.
In this Inside Energy podcast special, Leigh Paterson reports on the struggle between two priorities: energy development and housing development. She takes us to Colorado’s Front Range, where drilling rigs and subdivisions are both going up in towns north of Denver. At the intersection of the these two types of development are serious concerns about health and safety.
A decade into North Dakota’s shale fracking boom, the state consistently produces one million barrels of oil per day. Now, officials here look to double production.
If Ryan Zinke is modeling himself after the Conservationist President, Teddy Roosevelt, then why is he making headlines for rolling back land protections? There’s more of an answer there than you might think. This half-hour Inside Energy special is hosted by Leigh Paterson and reported by Dan Boyce.
The decade-long shale fracking boom in North Dakota sent the population of oil patch communities soaring. They built up their public services to accommodate the newcomers, but now many of these cities are tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. They’re looking for stable funding to pay back their loans while hoping all the newcomers choose to stay.
Wyoming has the sixth highest wind capacity potential in the country, but it sits at 15th in actual production. With new transmission lines and soon-to-end federal subsidies, now could be the time for Wyoming to take a leap forward in wind investment. But several barriers block the western state’s way from becoming a leader in this renewable energy.
Oil and gas money is pouring into a local ballot fight about health and safety in Broomfield, Colorado. Inside Energy’s Leigh Paterson reports on what’s at stake.
The Department of the Interior is outlining steps aimed at increasing energy production on federal lands. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says boosting production of resources like oil and gas creates jobs and enhances the nation’s energy security. It’s another pro-industry headline for a secretary touting himself as not only an avid outdoorsman, but a follower of the conservation ideals of the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. If the manager of most of our federal lands is going find inspiration from someone, it would be hard to find a more appropriate muse. “Roosevelt is generally regarded as the father of the modern conservation movement,” said Whit Fosburgh, President and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “When he was President, he set aside somewhere around like 230 million acres of public lands for the future of people forever.”
That land area is larger than the states of Texas and Wyoming combined.
Tough talk on tariffs on imported solar panels is creating confusion and turmoil in the U.S. solar industry. Big solar projects, such as utility scale solar, are especially concerned the Trump administration will seek trade protections from cheap solar imports, helping solar panel manufacturers but potentially hurting the rest of the industry.