RENO, Nev. (AP) — A scathing independent scientific review of wild horse roundups in the West concludes the U.S. government should likely instead let nature cull the herds.
The government is watching money stampede away, with little idea what to do about it.
The cost of an Interior Department program to care for America's wild horses has doubled in the past four years: from $40 million in 2009 to $80 million in 2013. And until a long-term solution can be found, the spending is only going to increase.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday that a new draft rule on hydraulic fracturing on oil and gas wells on public lands will be issued within weeks.
"It's going to be relatively soon (but) I don't have a date specific for you," Jewell told reporters. "But, certainly a matter of weeks and not months."
Wind and solar developers have filed hundreds of proposals for projects on federal property in a renewable energy land rush that started with passage of the 2005 energy law, though only a relative few have been approved.
In a new report issued Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office said 416 applications have been filed with the Bureau of Land Management for utility-scale projects since the law's passage. Of those, 350 were for solar development on lands in Arizona, California and Nevada.
One of the biggest areas of contention between the oil industry and the Obama administration involves the length of time needed to win approval for drilling on public lands.
The two sides can't even agree on who is responsible for approval times. While Bureau of Land Management's statistics show it reviews completed applications as fast or faster than under the Bush administration, industry officials say those numbers are misleading. And they note that the total time to go through the process is still seven months or more.
The new chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is pressuring the Obama administration to develop "sound" regulation of hydraulic fracturing at wells drilled on public lands.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. said in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar he wants the department to issue a proposal that ensures public health and environmental protection. He said residents of communities near drilling "must have confidence that the water they drink and the air they breathe will be free of harmful pollutants."
RENO, Nev. (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is issuing new policy directives emphasizing "compassion and concern" for wild horses on federal lands in the West, in response to a growing public outcry over alleged abuse during roundups of thousands of mustangs in recent years.
The Bureau of Land Management announced plans to perform a new analysis on the environmental impact of oil and gas drilling on the Roan Plateau in Colorado after a judge faulted the agency for not following procedure in its first approval, The Associated Press reports.
The Interior Department will re-draft its rule to regulate hydraulic fracturing on public lands, a spokesman said Friday.
The revised draft from the Bureau of Land Management will seek to "maximize flexibility, facilitate coordination with state practices and ensure that operators on public lands implement best practices," department spokesman Blake Androff said.
Duke Energy's selection of Lynn Good for CEO makes her the company's first female CEO and makes Duke the largest energy company led by a woman, Bloomberg reports.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it discovered dangerous levels of radioactivity in the groundwater surrounding the crippled Fukushima plant, Bloomberg reports.
A draft Environmental Protection Agency report faults Washington state for failures in oversight at the contaminated Hanford Nuclear Reservation, The Associated Press reports.
A group of 21 states urged the Environmental Protection Agency against releasing rules for carbon emissions from new power plants in response to lawsuit threats, The Hill reports.
The Environmental Protection Agency said it would not finish its study of hydraulic fracturing's impact on drinking water until 2016, the Akron Beacon Journal reports.
The planned Cape Wind offshore project in Massachusetts won a $200 million commitment from Denmark's public pension fund, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., pledged to push a vote to complete the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility in Nevada if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., moves to limit filibusters, Roll Call reports.
The Army Corps of Engineers said it would not conduct a cumulative environmental review of three coal export terminals or consider overseas climate change impact in its reviews, E&E reports.
