Arizona

BLM publishes proposed rule which ignores House committee’s resolution

Originally posted at the Wonk Room. —– The Bush administration is rushing forward with plans to mine the Grand Canyon for uranium, ignoring a command from Congress to cease such operations. Since 2003, mining interests have staked out over 800 uranium claims within five miles of Grand Canyon National Park. As Mineweb reports, “The Bureau […]

Bridging architecture and ecology at Arcosanti

    To get to Arcosanti, you must drive 70 miles north of Phoenix — one of the fastest growing (read: sprawling) areas of the country, through gorgeous saguaro-covered desert hills to a 2.5 mile dirt road in the middle of the Arizona wilderness. At the end of that road, you’ll find what has been […]

Living and learning at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability

    This is a guest post by my travel partner, Todd Dwyer, head blogger for Dell’s ReGeneration.org, where this post originally appeared. —– The folks at Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability really rolled out the red green carpet for Sarah and me when we met them on a hot Friday afternoon. Through […]

House blocks uranium mining near Grand Canyon National Park

The House Natural Resources Committee pulled a rarely-used move today to block uranium mining in one million acres of public land near the Grand Canyon, using their authority to order the Bush administration to immediately halt mining claims. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forest and Public Lands, suggested using […]

What Phoenix, the poster child for environmental ills, is doing right

Can Phoenix remake its desert-gobbling ways?In order for Phoenix to truly be a green city, it would have to be brown. Or not brown, exactly, but the sandy shade of the mountains that surround it: the jagged peaks and parched hills that enclose the Valley of the Sun. These days, though, Phoenix is a less-natural […]

Arizona Republic calls out senator for not supporting solar

With absolutely world-class solar installation, rapidly growing in-state demand, and prime location next to one of the largest renewable energy markets in the world (that would be California), building a solar industry in Arizona would seem like a no-brainer. I certainly think so. But, more importantly, 87 percent of Arizonans do, too.

The remaining 13 percent appears to include Sen. McCain, who has failed to show up for any of the votes to extend the critical 30 percent investment tax credit -- an issue that's literally make-or-break for large-scale solar in Arizona and elsewhere. Abengoa has signed a deal for a 280 MW concentrated solar power plant with Arizona Public Service, a deal that would bring about $1 billion of investment and 1,500 jobs to Arizona -- and parties on both sides have made it clear that the project's consummation is critically dependent on a long-term extension of the investment tax credit.

This Earth Day, The Arizona Republic published an excellent editorial calling the good senator out.

World Water Day, Grand Canyon film highlight water crisis

Saturday is World Water Day, a time set aside by the U.N. during which member nations are encouraged to address the worldwide water crisis. This year’s theme is the “International Year of Sanitation” (sexy!), which is aimed at “accelerat[ing] progress for 2.6 billion people worldwide who are without proper sanitation facilities.” For more on this […]

Two huge power plants offer different paths forward

In Sweetwater, Texas, a company called Tenaska has applied to build what will be the nation’s first bona fide "clean coal" plant — an IGCC plant that will capture and sequester CO2 emissions. (Said emissions will be used to pump more oil out of the Permian Basin oil fields, which will then be burned and […]

When ‘hand wringing’ isn’t enough

If you are worried about Lake Mead drying up, think that reduced snowpack due to climate change might have something to do with it, and are looking for some answers, you could do a lot worse than listen to David Berry of the Western Resource Advocates. I always do, and he's never steered me wrong. See his timely "Clean Electric Energy Strategy for Arizona" (PDF).