IDAHO

Forest Service testing new aerial fire retardant

BOISE — U.S. officials are testing a new wildfire retardant after two decades of buying millions of gallons annually from one supplier, but watchdogs say the expensive strategy is overly fixated on aerial attacks at the expense of hiring more fire-line digging ground crews.

The Forest Service used more than 50 million gallons of retardant for the first time in 2020 as increasingly destructive wildfires plague the West. It exceeded 50 million gallons again last year to fight some of the largest and longest-duration wildfires in history in California and other states. The fire retardant cost those two years reached nearly $200 million.

Over the previous 10 years, the agency used 30 million gallons annually.

The Forest Service said tests started last summer are continuing this summer with a magnesium-chloride-based retardant from Fortress.

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Fortress contends its retardants are effective and better for the environment than products offered by Perimeter Solutions, which says its ammonium-phosphate-based retardants are superior.

The main ingredient in Fortress products is extracted from the Great Salt Lake in Utah, a method the company says is more environmentally friendly and less greenhouse-gas producing than mining and processing phosphate.

Perimeter Solutions, which has facilities and equipment throughout the West, has dominated the market for more than two decades and produces world’s most used fire retardant.

Two Forest Service watchdog groups contend both types of retardant harm the environment, and that the agency should be spending less on retardant and more on firefighters.

MONTANA

First oil sales on public land under Biden bring $22 million

BILLINGS — Energy companies bid more than $22 million to secure drilling rights on about 110 square miles of public lands in the western U.S. on June 30, during the first onshore oil and natural gas lease sales since President Joe Biden took office.

Leases on about 90 square miles went unsold in the U.S. Bureau Land Management online auctions that included parcels of federal lands in seven states.

Oil and gas produced from the leases will be subject to a royalty rate of 18.75%. That’s up from 12.5% and the first royalty increase since the 1920s.

About 200 square miles of federal lands had been offered for lease in eight western states. Most of those sold were in Wyoming, where companies paid more than $13 million for parcels totaling about 105 square miles.

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The auctions came as federal officials try to balance efforts to fight climate change against pressure to bring down high gas prices.

Critics of the leasing program pointed to unsold parcels in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and Nevada as further evidence oil companies have enough leases and drilling permits already stockpiled to last them for years.

But with several prior lease sales still tied up in court challenges from environmentalists, some companies had concerns going into the sale that they might not be able to drill on leases they acquired, said Ryan McConnaughey, vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming.

Oil production increased in the U.S. in recent months, but it’s still well below pre-pandemic levels. Companies have been hesitant to expand drilling too quickly because of uncertainty over how long high prices will continue.

NEW MEXICO

State inks land leases for massive wind project

ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico’s public land commissioner on June 27 signed nearly a dozen leases that will clear the way for a major renewable energy developer to erect wind turbines across 230 square miles of state trust land.

Officials are billing Pattern Energy’s planned development in Lincoln, Torrance and San Miguel counties as the largest wind energy project in the western hemisphere.

The company at the end of 2021 brought online four wind farms in central New Mexico totaling more than a gigawatt of capacity for utility customers in California. The new leases will be part of the larger SunZia project, which will ultimately have a capacity of 3,000 megawatts to power homes in more populated markets in the West.

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New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard said that together, the 11 leases signed on June 27 mark the largest leasing of state trust land for renewable energy development in the state’s history.

Pattern Energy has said it plans to invest $6 billion in upcoming wind energy and related infrastructure projects in the state over the next decade.

The company had a total winning bid of nearly $9.3 million for the parcels. State officials said they expect revenue from the planned project to bring in at least $196 million over its lifetime to benefit public schools and other state institutions.

WYOMING

Grand Teton may add visitors amid partial Yellowstone closure

JACKSON — There is a mix of good and not-so-good news for visitors to Grand Teton National Park, as well as to the Jackson area.

After being closed for about 11 weeks to accommodate runway construction, among other things, Jackson Hole Airport was open again on June 28, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported.

Nearby Grand Teton National Park could see increased visitors as a result, said a public affairs specialist for the park, who speculated that visitors could also increase due to the temporary, flood-related closure of Yellowstone National Park.

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Statistics available online show that recreational visits to Grand Teton in May fell by about a third to 235,020 from the same month last year.

Now for the not-so-good news.

Teton County’s community-level assessment for COVID-19 has again climbed into the high zone, triggering a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that all people wear facial coverings indoors to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

For Grand Teton, this also means masks are again required to be worn in indoor spaces within the park.

NEVADA

World War II-era boat emerges from shrinking Lake Mead

LAS VEGAS — A sunken boat dating back to World War II is the latest object to emerge from a shrinking reservoir that straddles Nevada and Arizona.

The Higgins landing craft that has long been 185 feet below the surface is now nearly halfway out of the water at Lake Mead.

The boat lies less than a mile from Lake Mead Marina and Hemingway Harbor.

It was used to survey the Colorado River decades ago, sold to the marina and then sunk, according to dive tours company Las Vegas Scuba.

Built by Higgins Industries in New Orleans, around 1,500 “Higgins boats” were deployed at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

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The boat is just the latest in a series of objects unearthed by declining water levels in Lake Mead, the largest human-made reservoir in the U.S., held back by the Hoover Dam. In May, two sets of human remains were found in the span of a week.

Experts say climate change and drought have led to the lake dropping to its lowest level since it was full about 20 years ago.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton said last month that the agency would take action to protect the system if the seven states in the Colorado River basin don’t quickly come up with a way to cut the use of up to 4 million acre-feet of water — more than Arizona and Nevada’s share combined.

Farmers use a majority of the river’s supply.

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