David O. Williams

Madeleine Pickens ponies up wild-horse adoption plan

Just call it the “Pickens Pony Plan.”

Jumping into an environmental issue with the same headline-grabbing gusto of her billionaire oil-man husband, Madeleine Pickens Monday rode in like the proverbial cavalry at a public meeting in Reno, Nev., on the mounting wild-horse crisis in the western United States.

The road to a severance tax solution

Should Colorado lawmakers somehow convince oil and gas executives to voluntarily pay more severance taxes, some say that money needs to be a big part of fixing the state’s critical transportation-funding shortfall.

UPDATE: Vilar guilty on all counts in fraud trial

UPDATE: A federal jury convicted Alberto W. Vilar of all 12 counts in his securities fraud trial on Wednesday, a final fall from grace for a man who gave millions of dollars to musical and other causes but was ostracized for falling short on his pledges.

After three days of deliberations, a verdict is reportedly imminent in the New York fraud trial of Alberto Vilar, a venture capitalist and philanthropist who pumped millions of dollars into cultural programs and facilities in the Vail Valley.

New BLM oil shale regs draw fire from Salazar, environmental groups

As predicted by environmental groups in a Colorado Independent story last month, new federal regulations dictating government royalties for oil shale production on public lands in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah fall far short of fair compensation, numerous critics said Monday.

Enviros hungrily eye menu of conservation goodies under Obama administration

Besides revising or even rescinding Colorado’s controversial roadless rule, environmentalists are also targeting the Bureau of Land Management’s bitterly contested leasing for natural gas drilling on the Roan Plateau near Rifle as they make a wish list of conservation issues for the incoming Obama administration.

Western Slope pols look for energy industry to take voluntary tax hike

The oil and gas industry spent $10.8 million to bring about the Election Day defeat of Amendment 58, a measure that would have dramatically increased the severance tax the industry pays to the state for extracting resources from Colorado soil.

So it seems counter-intuitive that the industry would now voluntarily agree to pay even more severance tax, which in Colorado is currently the lowest among all major energy-producing states. But that’s exactly what key Western Slope lawmakers are hoping to accomplish in the coming months.

Colorado roadless rule deliberations coming to a head

Efforts to close perceived loopholes in Colorado’s controversial roadless rule, which outlines management plans for 4.4 million acres of largely unspoiled public lands throughout the state, will come to a head Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington as a key federal advisory group meets on the issue.

Arches National … oil and gas field?

Author and naturalist Edward Abbey didn’t even like people hanging out at Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, when he was a seasonal ranger there in the late 1950s. One wonders how he’d feel about the place being overrun by oil and gas wells.

Can ATV riders, bird watchers, skiers and snowmobilers all just get along?

The sprawling 2.5-million-acre White River National Forest in Colorado’s central and northern Rocky Mountains is home to some of the most renowned ski areas in the world, including Vail and Aspen, but other methods of recreating are likely to be the most controversial elements of a revised travel management plan released Thursday.

New poll: American voters favor immigration reform to enforcement

New polling data released by America’s Voice at a press conference in Washington Thursday suggests that comprehensive immigration reform is much more of an issue for voters than the candidates for national office made it leading up the Nov. 4 general election.