Free Republic

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Anger was mounting Monday at the federal Environmental Protection Agency over the massive spill of millions of gallons of toxic sludge from a Colorado gold mine that has already fouled three major waterways and may be three times bigger than originally reported. An 80-mile length of mustard-colored water -- laden with arsenic, lead, copper, aluminum and cadmium -- is working its way south toward New Mexico and Utah, following Wednesday's accidental release from the Gold King Mine, near Durango, when an EPA cleanup crew destabilized a dam of loose rock lodged in the mine. The crew was...

Gov. John Hickenlooper has pledged that Colorado will comply with the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, but this effort to cut so-called “CO2 pollution” could come at a dear price to the state’s coal industry. ... Colorado is among the top states in coal production and consumption. In the year 2013, 64 percent of energy produced in Colorado came from coal, 20 percent from natural gas, and around 15 percent from various renewables including hydroelectric, biomass, solar and wind. The history of Colorado’s coal mining industry stretches over the past two centuries. Not to mention, coal jobs have a multiplier effect...

The EPA announced that some of its regulators working in Colorado dumped a million gallons of orange waste water containing sediments and metals into the Animas river. In their defense the machinery they were working with was described as heavy so there’s that. Oh, and they said it was an accident. The companies responsible for Love Canal in the 1970s probably didn’t realize they could use that as an excuse. If a company had done it, there would be Congressional hearings and fines and calls to action, but a spokesman for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife said there’s nothing that...

The Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public meeting in Durango to discuss mine waste contamination of the Animas River Friday afternoon. The EPA said its workers triggered the release of a million gallons of waste while using heavy machinery to investigate pollutants at the Gold King Mine north of Silverton, Colorado. The agency plans to answer questions and share information about the waste at the board room of the County Administration Building at 1101 E. 2nd Avenue in Durango. The meeting is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. KOB's crew reported seeing the sludge cross the state line into New Mexico...

How often do we see sad stories such as this in the news? Evil industrialists carelessly create a swath of damage across our pristine natural resources through pollution and reckless destruction. Another such event took place in Colorado this week when millions of gallons of toxic, metal laden waste water were dumped into a local stream, feeding into the local river system used by swimmers and fishermen. And the culprit for this horrendous act was… the Environmental Protection Agency. A team of U.S. regulators probing contamination at a Colorado gold mine accidentally released a million gallons (3.8 million liters)...

Industry blasts suggestion as harmful to the country. A conservation group that has succeeded in dealing recent legal setbacks to western Colorado coal mines called Thursday for a phase-out of federal coal leasing to help combat climate change. “It’s time for the Interior Department to shut it down,” Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program director for WildEarth Guardians, said in a news release. The group outlined a plan for ending the federal coal program over 10 to 25 years through a moratorium on leasing publicly owned coal, retiring existing leases that aren’t producing, honestly reporting the climate impacts of the...

Days after the Boy Scouts of America lifted a blanket ban on gay leaders, a Utah group that pressed for the legalization of gay marriage in the state announced Tuesday it will sponsor a Boy Scout troop.Mark Lawrence with the group Restore Our Humanity said getting the troop approved and running might be an uphill battle in conservative Utah, where most troops are sponsored by the Mormon church. But he noted the new troop could be a model for the future."I think it's important for us to do this now," Lawrence said at a news conference. He added welcoming gay...

The sage grouse population has exploded in the last two years, growing by nearly two-thirds from more than 49,000 males in 2013 to more than 80,000 this year. ... This is encouraging news for the bird, and for the people whose lives would be turned upside down by the federal government if it still insists on listing the critter as an endangered species on the brink of extinction. The report considered the population across the bird’s 11-state habitat, with specific news on the growth in Colorado numbers ... The report falls on the heels of a gloom and doom forecast...

The renewed national scrutiny of the Confederate flag has officials again considering changing the name of Utah’s Negro Bill Canyon, though the title that some find offensive is a point of historical pride for others. Grand County Councilwoman Mary McGann said the name of the picturesque canyon in southern Utah is outdated at best. “We should evolve,” she said Wednesday.

Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz had some harsh words for EPA Chief Administrator Gina McCarthy during a hearing Wednesday regarding the agency’s handling of an employee who repeatedly sexually harassed interns. For the past couple of years, Republican lawmakers have been investigating reports of misconduct at the EPA from employees watching porn everyday while on the job to an agency employee who sexually harassed interns and was not reported to the authorities and continued to work at the agency for years. “This is a predator who was fed a steady diet of interns,” Chaffetz told McCarthy during the hearing. “The...

Craig community leaders hosted a meeting Thursday at Moffat County High School to provide a brief update on the situation at Colowyo Coal Mine, answer questions and facilitate public comment on the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s environmental assessment. Ray Beck, Craig mayor, opened the gathering by telling the audience about the economic significance of Colowyo mine’s 220 jobs to Craig and Northwest Colorado. “This is not the time to slow down,” Beck said, emphasizing the importance of community feedback on the development of the mine’s new environmental assessment. When the OMSRE’s recommendation to approve mining plans for...

If you thought the days of bad blood between House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and rank-and-file House lawmakers were on hold, at least for the summer, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) apparently didn’t get the memo. Tuesday night, the congressman marked his 56th birthday by filing a resolution in the House to force Boehner from the top leadership post. The “motion to vacate the chair” is the first time that a Boehner opponent has taken such a step and is a bit of payback from Meadows, a founding member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and one of 25 conservative rebels...

SALT LAKE CITY — Protesters carrying signs against abortion gathered outside a Planned Parenthood Association of Utah office Tuesday afternoon to call on government officials to strip funding from the reproductive health organization. The rally drew about 100 people and was one of 65 "Women Betrayed" protests that took place across the nation Tuesday, ignited by the release of three videos over the past few weeks showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the price of procuring fetal tissue. "The videos were horrific," said rally organizer Callie Oppedisano, a mother of three and active anti-abortion activist. "We want our Congress to know...

Nothing embodies our broken political system more than the fact that some politicians are more concerned about calling someone a liar than the actual lying. In a Sunday speech on the Senate floor full of pomp and sanctimony, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said the following referring to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): “Most egregiously, Mr. President, the Senate floor has even become a place where Senators have singled out colleagues by name to attack them in personal terms and to impugn their character—in blatant disregard of Senate rules, which plainly prohibit such conduct.” Roll Call proudly published an article disseminating Hatch’s...

WASHINGTON – Just days after publicly calling the majority leader a liar on the Senate floor, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has upped the stakes in his war on GOP brass by accusing Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., of spearheading the effort to keep taxpayer funds going to Planned Parenthood. In a statement that mentioned “gruesome videos of senior officials of Planned Parenthood discussing the selling of body parts of unborn children,” Cruz blasted McConnell for blocking an amendment by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to defund the abortion provider.

The House will not vote on a multi-year Senate highway bill that revives the now-expired Export-Import Bank, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Monday. “We’re not taking up the Senate bill,” McCarthy declared to a roomful of reporters in his office. Instead, McCarthy urged the Senate to take up a short-term House-passed bill which extends federal highway funding for five months, without renewing the Ex-Im Bank charter. He called the House bill the “best option” for Congress before money for highways, bridges and mass transit runs out on Friday. McCarthy’s declaration is a blow not only to the Senate,...

<p>Senate Republicans had a chance to stop Planned Parenthood from butchering unborn children and selling their body parts to the highest bidder. Instead, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to put up a vote -- thumbing his nose at Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz, along with every pro-lifer in the nation.</p>

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) was rebuked by his Senate colleagues on Sunday as he tried to force a vote on defunding Planned Parenthood. Lee had tried to attach an amendment eliminating all federal funds for Planned Parenthood to the vote on Congress’s must-pass highway legislation. The amendment was rejected by the chair of the Senate, who called it out of order because it was not germane to the highway bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) decided last week that he would only allow two amendments to the bill – a repeal of ObamaCare and a reauthorization of the Export-Import...

Oil and gas producers in one of the most active drilling areas in the country have had to make concessions to not disturb species such as the lesser prairie chicken and the dunes sagebrush lizard. Now industry officials in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico may have four other species to contend with: make way for the Cascade Caverns salamander, the Arizona toad, the alligator snapping turtle and the Rio Grande cooter. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday it is giving what it calls “status reviews” to the four amphibians and reptiles found in the Southwest as...

Lawyers for a San Juan County commissioner convicted of his role in a protest ride in Recapture Canyon are asking a judge to disqualify himself, citing his ties to an environmental group. ... Judge Shelby is “close friends” with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance’s legal director, Stephen Bloch, who has advocated for a stiff sentence for Lyman. Judge Shelby disclosed the relationship ... Steve Bloch, on behalf of SUWA, Steve Bloch and his wife Kara are friends of mine and have been for a long, long time. I practiced with Kara at Snow Christensen starting in 1999. My wife and...