Department of Energy grants are helping eastern Utah plan for the energy transition.
U.S. Department of Energy
The Department of Energy promised Yakama Nation $32 million for solar. It’s nearly impossible to access.
Held up by a series of bureaucratic hurdles, the funding could expire before the government lets the tribal nation touch a dime.
The New Mexico utility that wants to go all in on green hydrogen
The project, like the larger green hydrogen economy, will need to overcome skepticism from local communities and funding challenges.
Indigenous celebration of Hanford remembers the site before nuclear contamination
At the fourth annual Hanford Journey, Yakama Nation youth, elders and scientists share stories about a land that is a part of them.
How the Nez Perce are using an energy transition to save salmon
The tribe is working to replace the generating capacity of the Lower Snake River dams with solar power.
Endangered wildflower threatened by Nevada lithium mine
Tiehm’s buckwheat is found nowhere else in the world, and the planned mine would sit square in its habitat.
Is carbon capture the solution for jobs and climate action in fossil fuel country?
A project in Wyoming’s coal region brings the new technology, but critics say it carries unacceptable risks.
The untold story of the Pacific Northwest’s nuclear past
‘Atomic Days’ offers a compelling, fact-packed introduction to the most toxic place in the nation.
A community sacrificed to uranium mine pollution
A mining company and government agencies repeatedly said they’d clean up waste in Homestake, New Mexico. Instead, they’re buying out homeowners.
In Alaska, coal is dwindling as green energy is on the rise
The closure of Healy Unit 2 signals a rise in renewable energy projects around Alaska.
Will carbon capture help clean New Mexico’s power, or delay its transition?
A virtually unknown company has a $1.4 billion plan to extend the life of the state’s largest coal-fired power plant. Critics say it’s likely to be a costly distraction from a just transition.
The shift to green energy, obstructed
A whole host of factors has thrown the transition away from fossil fuels to more sustainable forms of energy off track.
Two Southwest tribes raise concerns over uranium storage
Tribal communities in Arizona and Utah face environmental problems connected to the same radioactive resource: uranium.
40 years after its closure, the Jackpile Mine’s toxic legacy continues
‘They have to look at it every day and wonder if that’s the reason why they’re dying.’
As coal plants close, Wyoming looks toward nuclear
Is a new generation of nuclear technology a ‘shiny object’ or a solution to a faltering fossil fuel economy?
How yellowcake shaped the West
The ghosts of the uranium boom continue to haunt the land, water and people.
New Mexico eyed for major nuclear waste storage facility
Critics say virtual meetings bypassed rural communities and raise concerns about the company behind the proposal.
Effort to lock Hanford’s radioactive waste in glass faces more delays
Feds aim to push back the opening of ‘glassification’ plants, while state officials say the Department of Energy has been underfunding the cleanup of America’s most poisoned site.
The fallout of uncertainty in nuclear test communities
For downwinders of bomb testing, plans for compensation to redress past harms makes for tricky politics.
There’s no easy fix for our nuclear past
At Washington’s Hanford nuclear site, failing infrastructure and make-do plans as the West prepares for a new round of radioactivity.