This blog was co-authored by Joe Halso of Sierra Club and Miles Muller & Max Baumhefner of NRDC. Xcel Energy will deploy approximately 20,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at residential, commercial, and public sites across Colorado, under a $110 million plan formally approved by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission this week. The plan is the first full-scale
This year, California saw unprecedented rolling power outages as the state continues to deal with the extreme impacts of climate change, prompting energy planners there and across the Interior West to give extra scrutiny to electricity demand and reliability. So why and how did the outages happen? And how can we ensure the energy needs of communities in California and the Interior West are best met going forward?
This article was co-authored by Laura Belanger, WRA’s senior water resources engineer and policy advisor, and Charlotte Roehm, WRA’s deputy director for water planning. It originally appeared in Colorado Municipalities Magazine on October 5, 2020. By mid-summer, 100% of Colorado was experiencing drought with 60% of the state experiencing “severe” to “exceptional” drought. Projections indicate our
Whether they’re on the Front Range or the West Slope, Coloradans know that water is essential for life; they value healthy rivers and streams. This election, as a 20-year drought intensified and climate change-fueled wildfires swept across communities on both the Front Range and the West Slope, the need to protect our water future was
Western Resource Advocates and its Water for Arizona Coalition partners were honored this summer to receive the Arizona Capitol Times 2020 Leader of the Year Award in the Environment Category. The annual awards ceremony recognizes individuals and organizations that “have contributed greatly to the growth of our state. These groups, companies and individuals hunker down each day to find ways to improve the quality of life of Arizonans.”
In a new report, Conservation Colorado and Western Resource Advocates lay out a path for Colorado to protect and conserve 30% of its lands and waters by 2030.
With a backdrop of wildfires raging across the West, Western Resource Advocates convened a discussion on Aug. 25 at the Utah Outdoor Recreation Summit about the impacts of climate change on Utah’s $12.3 billion outdoor industry.
WRA offers part-time internships in the fall and spring semesters, as well as full-time internships in the summer. These range from legal internships, working side by side with our attorneys, to policy internships with our Clean Energy, Healthy Rivers and Western Lands program staff, to internships with our communications team. Interning with WRA provides a great opportunity to gain valuable employment skills and learn about the exciting world of environmental policy, all while getting paid!
Western Resource Advocates stands in solidarity with those speaking out against systemic racism, oppression, and police violence, and we echo their calls for action. Black lives matter, and the continued killing of Black and Brown Americans at the hands of police who act with impunity is horrifying, it is criminal, and it must be urgently
azcentral.Kim Mitchell is the senior water policy adviser at Western Resource Advocates and former hydrologist at the Arizona Department of Water Resources. Christopher Kuzdas is the Arizona water program manager for the Environmental Defense Fund. Both are members of the Water for Arizona Coalition. Forty years ago on June 12, Arizona enacted the Groundwater Management Act (GMA), a
As our nation confronts the COVID-19 pandemic, we are more aware than ever of the importance of having healthy air to breathe and clean water to drink and wash our hands. Yet in recent weeks the Trump administration has rolled back protections for clean air and water, right when we need them the most. In
The Trump administration’s recent rollback of fuel-economy standards set under President Obama would increase air pollution that causes respiratory illness and force drivers to pay more at the pump, all at a time when Americans are struggling with health and economic hardship.
