Tag: Earthworks

It is a common refrain in this Republican House of Representatives that Congress should not "pick winners and losers" in the energy marketplace. The comment is usually made while debating subsidies for alternative energy. Today, though, Congress may go against the odds to try and pick a winner by voting on a measure that would allocate $25 million to oil shale research and development.

A new report blasts the state agency charged with regulating the oil and gas industry for failing to enforce its own rules.

Just outside of Central City in Colorado's Gilpin County, the historic Perigo gold mine drains metal-laden water at an average of 70 gallons per minute into a small perennial stream known as Gamble Gulch. Below the mine for six miles, the gulch is virtually devoid of life, according to the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety. A design for a proposed project has been completed, but Colorado won’t bid it out for construction because it worries that if it does, it open itself up, in perpetuity, to a lawsuit under the Clean Water Act.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall's new streamlined Good Samaritan legislation, designed to encourage volunteer water cleanup projects, may yet become law. It is the 11th piece of Good Samaritan legislation to be introduced in Congress in the last 15 years. Udall's bill, however, is drawing more support and less opposition than the previous bills, all of which failed to gain traction on Capitol Hill.