The recently passed federal budget bill extended production tax credits for clean, renewable energy. The tax credits help renewable energy compete with fossil fuel sources. Before leaving for the holidays, Congress passed a $1.15 trillion fiscal year 2016 spending bill to keep … Continued
Dakota Rural Action launched a new site to help members navigate South Dakota’s 2016 legislative session. The site includes a 2016 legislative guide, a breakdown on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’s report to the legislature, and an analysis … Continued
WORC’s latest newsletter, the Western Organizing Review, is hot off the press, featuring articles and columns on: Western states struggle with oil and gas radioactive waste The View from WORC – New WORC Chair Nancy Hartenhoff-Crooks introduces board officers Positive reception … Continued
Idaho Organization of Resource Councils members are celebrating a major victory for local food production. The Health and Welfare Committees in both chambers of Idaho’s state legislature unanimously passed rules making sales of non-hazardous homemade goods direct to consumers legal in the … Continued
Dakota Rural Action members scored a victory on Jan. 26 when the Brookings, SD, City Council approved a one-year pilot program to allow residents to raise chickens in their backyard. DRA’s Brookings Chicken Advocates have been organizing to legalize backyard chickens … Continued
This week, Dakota Resource Council members spoke out against a proposed 9,000-hog factory farm in Cass County, North Dakota, west of Fargo. DRC members are concerned about the community, economic and environmental impacts of the hog farm. But this single pig farm isn’t their only … Continued
On January 22, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its much anticipated draft rule to curb flaring and venting associated with oil and gas development on federal and tribal lands. WORC and its member groups have been pushing the … Continued
About 120 people gathered at the Northern Plains Resource Council building in Billings last Friday to dedicate a totem pole carved by members of the Lummi Nation in Washington state. The totem pole is a gift from the Lummi to members of the Northern Cheyenne in … Continued
Landowners and downstream water users were successful in gaining a review of the status of reclamation by federal and state agencies overseeing mining at Cloud Peak Energy’s Spring Creek Mine in southeastern Montana. Federal Judge Susan Watters affirmed an earlier decision … Continued
A team of scientists led by Dr. Dan Jaffe, professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry at the University of Washington, carried out a study of pollution emitted from coal trains and freight trains in the Columbia River Gorge. The study … Continued