Excerpts:

The scene Landry witnessed that day was the most severe example of a phenomenon that has overtaken parts of the West this year, one that could exacerbate a slew of environmental problems there in the years to come. The Colorado Rockies, including the headwaters of the Colorado River and the Rio Grande, have experienced 11 serious dust storms this year, a record for the six years researchers have been tracking them.

Excerpts:

Looking down over the dense forests on the remote western edge of Pitkin County, Peter Aengst saw a landscape he feared could be threatened by the spread of oil and gas wells from nearby Garfield County — or one that could be kept off-limits to gas rigs forever.

Excerpts:

In one of her earliest appearances before the Senate Natural Resources Committee, Gale Norton, President George W. Bush's first interior secretary, proclaimed in 2001 the need to "explore the entire smorgasbord of different options" when it came to domestic energy production.

But what was actually on the buffet was telling: Drilling off the coast of Florida, coal extraction in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah and exploring for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Excerpts:

The U.S. Forest Service — facing opposition from state and local governments as well as environmental groups — withdrew 67,000 acres from a Colorado oil- and gas-lease sale set for Thursday.

…Criticism focused on the fact the parcels were chosen based on a 1993 plan with dated science on how drilling might affect land and wildlife.

The land is in the Grand Mesa, Uncompaghre and Gunnison national forests and is home to Canada lynx, the Gunnison sage grouse and Colorado cutthroat trout.

Excerpts:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled 77 oil and natural-gas leases on public lands amid eastern Utah's famed red rocks Wednesday and said he expects to undo or revise other last-minute Bush administration actions in the coming weeks.

...The Arizona Wilderness Coalition, Wilderness Society, Sierra Club and other groups have filed suit to overturn management policies they say have damaged the Grand Canyon-Parashant and Vermilion Cliffs national monuments in northern Arizona.