Results from the 2012 Colorado College State of the Rockies Conservation in the West poll find that western voters across the political spectrum – from Tea Party supporters to those who identify with the Occupy Wall Street movement and voters in-between – support upholding and strengthening protections for clean air, clean water, natural areas and wildlife and view parks and public lands as essential to their state’s economy.

The survey, completed in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, found that four in five western voters view having a strong economy and protecting land and water as compatible.

WORC seeks a full-time organizer for our Idaho Organizing Project, which aims to build a new rural-focused, multi-issue, membership-based and democratically-controlled citizens’ organization in Idaho. This organization, which would become a full-fledged WORC member group, will focus on sustainable wealth generation through Homegrown Prosperity. Details here.

On the day before a Congressional hearing on a controversial study of water contamination from natural gas drilling, impacted residents from the Pavillion, Wyoming area voiced strong support today for the study and investigation process during a telephone news conference.

• Public News Service story
• News release
• Statement by John Fenton, landowner
• Statement by Jeff Locker, landowner
• Statement by Louis Meeks, landowner
• Statement by Wilma Subra, chemist and technical advisor

A plan by Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar would undermine coal mine reclamation by moving the Office of Surface Mining into the much larger Bureau of Land Management. The proposal would combine two distinctly separate programs -- creating a big conflict of interest.

Tell Secretary Salazar that this is a bad idea.

President Barack Obama has denied a permit application for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, citing Congressional legislation preventing a "full assessment of the pipeline's impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment."

• Dakota Resource Council statement
• Dakota Rural Action news release
• Northern Plains Pipeline Landowners Group news release

News coverage of landowner reactions

• Mixed opinions on Obama decision to deny Keystone XL pipeline permit, Billings Gazette
• MT Landowner Doing a 'Happy Dance' Over Keystone XL Decision, Public News Service-MT
• Keystone XL pipeline reaction follows party line, Sioux Falls Argus Leader

CBS Evening News covers the release of a draft report linking fracking to contamination of water wells in Pavillion, Wyoming. The clip features Powder River Basin Resource Council members John Fenton and Louis Meeks.

A new short video spotlights plans to export dirty coal from the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming to Asia and the impacts to communities along the way.

BLM said that the 35.5 million tons of coal in the Bull Mountain Mine north of Billings is worth more than the 15 cents per ton that Signal Peak Energy offered.  Read more at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

WORC and Northern Plains Resource Council member, DarAnne Dunning, testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Thursday to oppose Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar’s plan to move the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) into the much larger Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

“Secretary Salazar’s proposed integration of the Office of Surface Mining into the Bureau of Land Management raises a number of red flags that caution us against this move,” Dunning told the panel of Senators in Washington, D.C. “These concerns go to the heart of the effective functioning and workability of Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act."

Read DarAnne's testimony here. Watch the full hearing here.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar wants to move the independent Office of Surface Mining into the huge federal bureaucracy of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).Tell Interior Secretary Salazar not to stash coal surface mining regulation inside the BLM. 

Despite strong support by independent ranchers, the Department of Agriculture has backed off from setting tougher rules on the way meatpackers buy livestock. The agency’s proposal no longer contains any cattle provisions, including packer-to-packer sales restrictions; requirements for buyers to buy for only one packer; and record keeping requirements. Read WORC's statement.

If Congress thinks it has found a winning issue in trashing wind and solar power ... and if the Obama Administration believes that voters will reward it for boosting coal, gas and nuclear power ... then both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are making serious miscalculations about the sentiments of mainstream Americans - including Republicans and Tea Party supporters - one year before the 2012 elections, according to a major survey by ORC International for the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute.

WORC just released an up-to-date version of its white paper providing an in-depth analysis of proposals to export Powder River Basin coal to Pacific Rim nations. The report looks at issues related to tripling of train traffic across the northern tier and Pacific Northwest states of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington. It also details the true costs of coal exports, near mining, transportation and ports, borne by neighboring citizens and businesses. Read or download the white paper.

Robert Abbey, director of the Bureau of Land Management, said BLM is seriously considering making oil and companies disclose chemicals used in oil and gas development. Take three minutes now to encourage Director Abbey to follow through.

• Wyoming regulators keep 146 fracking chemicals secret, Casper Star-Tribune.