NEWS ROUNDUP

Domain bill clears Wyo. Senate The Senate passed an eminent domain reform bill Thursday after removing a sticking point for landowners. House Bill 124 easily passed the Senate on a 25-4 vote. It now goes back to the House for a vote on Senate changes. On Wednesday, the Senate adopted an amendment from Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, to restrict comparisons of easement prices to the landowners' own property in determining fair market value. On Thursday, the Senate adopted a two-word amendment that essentially negates Scott's amendment. Offered by Sen. Phil Nicholas, R-Laramie, and others, the new amendment allows an appraiser to consider the price paid for other comparable easements on the same “or similar” property in calculating fair market value. Scott cautioned that the amendment was too broad and could invite lawsuits. But Senate President John Schiffer, R-Kaycee, said appraisals for easements are traditionally based on the price paid for similar land. The Senate adopted Nicholas' amendment on a 15-14 standing vote....
Lawmakers seek to revive wolf legislation Trying to bounce back from a stinging rejection in a House committee on Wednesday, lawmakers now are pushing to revive a wolf bill in the Senate. The Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee planned to meet to consider a House bill on wolf management on Friday, a day after the usual deadline for committee action. Top legislative leaders have said repeatedly in recent weeks that they believed wolf management legislation was dead. Yet the wolf bills keep pawing their way back into play. "It's the nature of the wolf," said Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, when asked why the wolf legislation continues to surface. Burns is chairman of the Senate committee scheduled to hear the House bill and was sponsor of wolf legislation that died in a House committee on Wednesday. "I think we've got to keep channels open with Fish and Wildlife Service," Burns said. "This bill passing tomorrow or not makes the difference whether we negotiate with the feds or not."...
Minnesota requires renewable fuels Minnesota put its faith in a future fueled by renewable energy yesterday as the governor signed a new law requiring utilities to generate a quarter of their power from renewable sources such as wind, water and solar energy by 2025. Considering where Minnesota stands now — about half the power produced in the state is from coal, and only 8 percent from renewable sources — the move is the most aggressive in the country, analysts say. "We have to break our addiction to fossil fuels," Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, said in signing the legislation. The new law, which sailed through the Legislature, encourages the use of wind farms, hydroelectric power and solar energy, as well as cleaner-burning fuels....
Another skier dies in avalanche Rescuers Thursday recovered the body of a 37-year-old Norwegian man who died in an avalanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon the day before. It is the fourth avalanche death in six days, and weather forecasters are warning skiers of an elevated avalanche danger through the weekend. Vegard Lund, a former University of Utah graduate student who lived in Stavanger, Norway, was close to the top of the 10,200-foot peak of Gobblers Knob when he triggered an avalanche that swept him 400 feet into a grove of trees, said Sgt. Todd Griffiths, search and rescue coordinator for the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office. The impact with trees likely killed Lund, Griffiths said. During the 2004-2005 season, eight snowboarders, skiers, snowshoers and snowmobilers died, making it the deadliest ski season in Utah history since the U.S. Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center began keeping records in 1951. The number of avalanche deaths this week easily could have been higher, said Brett Kobernik a forecaster with the Utah Avalanche Center....
Santa Ritas mining plan raises bigger concerns A proposed copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains pits tradition versus change in what could be the first skirmish in a bigger war to change the West. U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva on Saturday will hold in Tucson his first hearing as the new chairman of the House Subcommittee on Public Lands. The agenda contains a single item: Augusta Resource Corp.'s proposed Rosemont copper mine on the eastern flank of the Santa Rita Mountains. Augusta said the Rosemont mine would meet 5 percent of the nation's copper needs and create 1,050 jobs locally during its 20-year life. Though all sides will get to speak to the committee, the larger issue Grijalva will discuss with environmentalists is how he can inject more environmental concerns into the approval process for mines. At issue is the 1872 General Mining Act, which Grijalva calls "a sacred cow" because it encourages the development of mines and doesn't allow the government to deny a "legitimate" mining claim. "We're not that West of 1872," said Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat. "We are a different West. Back then, the ethic was the water and land are there to use. Now there's another ethic that says we have to balance uses with conservation."....
Pima County again tries to block Rosemont Mine For the second time in little more than a month the Pima County supervisors approved a resolution aimed at blocking development of a copper mine east of Green Valley. At Tuesday’s board meeting the supervisors unanimously approved the resolution calling on the Arizona congressional delegation to take three steps to block the mine at Rosemont east of the Santa Rita Mountains. The resolution asked congressional delegates to bar mining on National Forest Land in the Santa Rita Mountains, to withdraw from mining from all National Forest Lands in Pima County and to stop mining on all “county natural reserves where the federal government” owns the mining rights. On Jan. 16 the supervisors approved a resolution by Supervisor Ray Carroll to oppose creation of a mine by Augusta Resource Corp....
Forbidden ground Two incidents in the last week are casting doubt on whether designated non-motorized backcountry areas are remaining the bastions of quiet solitude they’re intended to be. If nothing else, the increasing disregard for such designations by motorized recreationists—and the lack of enforcement by the federal agencies charged with their management—flies in the face of so-called “collaborative” agreements being pushed by the Bush administration, which are supposed to protect certain areas while maintaining others for motorized use. The first report was the result of a fly-over of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Mission Mountains Wilderness and the Jewel Basin Hiking Area by personnel from the Flathead National Forest. What they found was not encouraging. Despite the fact that these areas are permanently closed to snowmobiling and all other motorized use, the overflight spotted snowmobile tracks in all three areas. Sadly, this is not an isolated case where someone accidentally wandered into an area, unaware they had crossed the wilderness boundary. The same thing has been prevalent for years in the Beartooth Wilderness, where the deep snowpack and high mountains seem irresistible to snowmobile scofflaws who live to charge their howling machines up steep mountain faces as high as they can get before turning them back downhill....
Congressmen urged to protect Roan Plateau Local government officials, environmentalists and wildlife advocates urged Colorado's two Western Slope congressmen Thursday to protect the Roan Plateau from oil and gas leasing. A rugged mesa towering over the landscape from Rifle to Parachute, the Roan Plateau is home to thousands of acres of wilderness and wildlife habitat. It also is a potential bonanza of natural gas largely untapped by the wave of oil and gas drilling sweeping western Colorado. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management proposed a plan last year to limit drilling so some of the gas can be drawn out while preserving most of the plateau. But the congressmen were asked to bring pressure on federal land managers to withdraw the Roan from leasing until more protections are in place....
Shell’s oil shale project requires more test time Royal Dutch Shell needs a little more time to decide if it will proceed with a commercial oil shale project in western Colorado, a company official said Thursday during a Rifle open house. Shell Mahogany Project spokeswoman Jill Davis said earlier plans to make that decision by the end of this decade have been pushed back to shortly after 2010. “We just need a little more time to get our test projects going on the federal leases,” she said. “Those leases took a little more time than we thought.” It also will take Shell at least a year to get all the permits needed to start work on three, 160-acre leases in Rio Blanco County, received from the Bureau of Land Management last year. Shell plans to further test its in-ground mining process that uses rows of electric heaters to cook the shale oil out of the rock and pump it to the surface. Those tests will require a peak construction workforce of 560 workers, many of them to be housed in temporary quarters nearby....
Wild Stallion Shot in Tooele, $8,000 Reward The Bureau of Land Management is offering a reward for information about the shooting of a wild stallion. The shooting occurred on BLM land in Tooele County, and the horse suffered for several weeks before authorities put it out of its misery. An $8,000 reward has been put up by the BLM, the National Mustang Association and the Intermountain Horse and Burro Advisors group. The groups are very upset that someone would shoot the animal and then leave it to suffer. Gus Warr, Bureau of Land Management: "It's very disturbing. It really tears at me emotionally that someone would go out there and take it upon themselves and injure an animal, walk away and let it suffer." Sometime between late December and mid-January, someone shot a nine-year-old black stallion that had been roaming in Utah's west desert since 2001....
State distances itself from climatologist Gov. Ruth Ann Minner has directed Delaware's state climatologist to stop using his title in public statements on climate change, citing a clash of views on global warming and confusion over the position's ties to the administration. Minner, who made the directive in a letter, described the move as a way to "clarify" the role of David R. Legates, a prominent skeptic of views that human activities are warming the planet and triggering climate shifts. Minner said she has long viewed human-caused carbon emissions as a contributor to climate change. The state also joined a multistate effort in 2005 aimed at reducing power plant greenhouse gas emissions. In the letter, sent last week, Minner said Legates had provided valuable advice to the state on weather issues. She also acknowledged that the scientist had not claimed to represent the state government's position on the need to control pollutants linked to global warming. But Minner said that reports of Legates' work with private groups and privately backed publications disputing climate change had "generated some confusion." "Your views on climate change, as I understand them, are not aligned with those of my administration," Minner wrote....
U.S. says will use risk-based meat inspection plan In a move derided by meat packers and consumers, federal meat inspectors will start conducting "risk-based" inspections at 254 processing plants in April, under a plan detailed by the Agriculture Department on Thursday. The plan calls for devoting more attention to plants where the government has higher concerns over meat safety, U.S. officials said. But the USDA's Food Safety and Inspections Service will still continue daily inspection of all processing plants, said Richard Raymond, agriculture undersecretary for food safety. Raymond touted the changes as a way to boost protection against meat contamination. Under the new system, the level of inspections at a plant would be pegged to its safety record, including prior inspection and microbiological tests. The consumer group Food and Water Watch said USDA's existing data is incomplete and not precise enough to know how plants are performing. The American Meat Institute, a trade group for packers, criticized USDA for the "hasty roll-out" of the plan without testing the idea or being sure of industry and consumer support....