Wyofile and New West Feature

The Rocky Mountain states remain among the most dangerous in the nation for workers, according to the AFL-CIO, which tracks job-related deaths.

Wyoming’s workplace fatality rate improved from worst-in-the nation — 17 fatalities per 100,000 workers in 2007 — to fourth-worst in 2009, according to an AFL-CIO report, passing the “worst” distinction to Montana, followed by Louisiana and North Dakota, where many drilling rigs migrated during the same period.

But before Wyoming leaders and employers claim victory over such a poor past performance, safety officials are warning that workplace fatalities could spike again when drilling and construction activity returns to Wyoming.

“More than half of the 16,000-plus jobs lost in Wyoming were in natural resource development and construction, and these bear the most dangerous occupational risks,” Wyoming state occupational epidemiologist Timothy Ryan told WyoFile in a recent interview.

“My concern is that people are going to look at this and say ‘problem solved,’” Ryan continued. “Well, no. When the economy picks back up in construction and mining, and oil and gas picks up, so goes the fatality rate.”

Guest Column

Echo-Hawk’s book ought to retire the entire debate about judicial activism. It has become a conservative article of faith that judges should narrowly follow the law when deciding cases. But Echo-Hawk methodically picks apart that fiction. He shows that even sainted justices, such as John Marshall, invented a legal theory from dust about the doctrine of discovery in Johnson v. M’Intosh. “Marshall claimed that the nation had no choice in how it dealt with the tribes and that the normal rules of international law did not apply,” Echo-Hawk wrote ... “Thus, the normal rules governing the relations between the conqueror and conquered were simply ‘incapable of application’ in the United States. It was the Indians own fault.”

Marshall had a financial stake in the case that would not be permitted under today’s standards. And, Echo-Hawk points out, this was the same justice who at the end of his career became famous for Worcester v. Georgia, where he supported the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation against the state.

AP Investigation

On May 8, 2009, a U.S. District Court jury acquitted W.R. Grace and Co. along with three former executives on charges of knowingly poisoning residents in the asbestos-tainted Northwest Montana town of Libby.

Immediately following the verdict, there was talk throughout Libby of ushering in a new era, one not defined by death and suffering. Hundreds of people have died from asbestos-related complications there and perhaps thousands more have been sickened.

This new era, the hopeful residents said, would be in the spirit of healing and economic development. Libby would be a safer, healthier and happier place to live.

“We’ve got to get on with life,” Dean Herreid, a Libby resident suffering from painful asbestosis, said shortly after the verdict. “Justice was attempted.”

Trahant Reports

Last week President Barack Obama held his first town hall on Twitter. A really great idea and I plunged in with this question:

“#AskObama Indian Cntry’s unemployment rate is unacceptable. Cutting govt jobs will make this situation far worse. What steps to fix this?” @TrahantReports

A Twitter town hall is a great idea. In theory. This first round revealed three huge problems.

First, the president didn’t play the game. Twitter requires focus, honing and shaping ideas into 140 characters. This is not an easy thing to do, but its very nature it changes the conversation. Twitter captures raw essence, not routine answers. The president stuck with routine answers.

New West Feature

A retired judge and sitting hearing officer ruled this week that permits should be granted to ExxonMobil for sending oversized truckloads of specialized equipment up Highway 12 through Idaho and Montana, the Idaho Department of Transportation reported.

In his legal findings of fact, hearing officer Duff McKee said he could not find a legal basis to deny the oversized load permits. Idaho transportation officials properly followed the existing permit process, he concluded. The permits, if issued, would enable ExxonMobil to move its shipments from Lewiston, Idaho, to the Montana border.

The so-called megaloads, which can run more than 200 feet long and easily take up two highway lanes, have drawn widespread condemnation from opponents who have variously argued that they pose a safety hazard, an environmental threat and an eyesore. Manufactured in Korea, the equipment is bound for the Kearl oil sands in Alberta, Canada, a joint project between ExxonMobil and Imperial Oil. About 200 shipments are in the works.

New West Feature

The Colorado Division of Wildlife and BP America Production Company earlier this month announced an agreement to mitigate the effects of energy drilling in the Sun Juan Basin in Colorado’s southwestern corner, near Durango.

The proposed plan would offset habitat loss caused by the impact of 68 new or expanded drilling sites that would directly affect about 190 acres. The plan also sought to conserve habitat for 20 species of plants and animals—including mule deer, raptors and groundhogs, as well as several grass species—in a study area covering about 2,700 square miles. 

The majority of the drilling project sits on private lands, with BP only owning mineral rights.  The plan allows the DOW to advise BP as to which lands would be suitable for mitigation. Then, BP will work with land owners to develop conservation easements and other methods for protecting the lands.  At the moment, the exact acreage of land conserved under the agreement hasn’t been determined.

“The agreement shows that it is possible to develop natural gas resources and preserve Colorado’s wildlife,” state Division of Wildlife Director Tom Remington said. “This is an ideal model for planning natural resource development and conservation on a landscape scale.”

New West Column

How bad is this economy? Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers wrote in The Financial Times this week that the United States is now halfway to a lost economic decade (similar to Japan’s) and that the number of working Americans has dropped from 63.1 percent to 58.4 percent. That’s a net loss of more than 10 million jobs.

Summers defines the problem brilliantly. He writes in the FT: “After bubbles burst there is no pent-up desire to invest. Instead there is a glut of capital caused by over-investment during the period of confidence – vacant houses, malls without tenants and factories without customers. At the same time consumers discover they have less wealth than they expected, less collateral to borrow against and are under more pressure than they expected from their creditors.”

Last week I wrote about how this economic crisis will impact Indian Country through the loss of government-funded jobs. Indeed, readers reacted to my commentary with two basic reactions. One group said it’s time for Native Americans to get off the dole; another asked why tribes aren’t solving this problem on their own?

New West Feature

The U.S. Forest Service has weighed in on Sen. Jon Tester’s revised wilderness bill, telling the Senate subcommittee that stalled it two years ago that significant changes have been made since Montana’s junior senator first introduced it in 2009.

The Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests on May 25 heard testimony on the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, which Tester touts as a plan for job creation and forest preservation. According to a statement from Tester’s office, Undersecretary Harris Sherman, who opposed the 2009 version, told committee members that the new bill “will allow significant mechanical and restoration work to be done (and) bring new land into our national wilderness systems. The legislation also promotes landscape scale restoration, stewardship contracts, and is supportive of integrated resource restoration.”

After being buried in committee during the last session, the bill was resubmitted on Feb. 3. Co-sponsored by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, it is supported by a coalition of timber industry and wildlife conservation groups. Key opponents include the Wild West Institute and other environmental groups, outdoor recreational organizations, and Rep. Denny Rehberg, the state’s sole representative and a Republican who is running for Tester’s Senate seat in 2012.

New West Feature

An ongoing effort to protect a shared river drainage on the Montana-Canada border from mining damage will not inhibit recreational users, hunters or logging activity, Montana’s senior senator promises.

According to a statement from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, the North Fork Watershed Protection Act would solidify an agreement between Montana and British Columbia to prohibit new mining and energy exploration in the million-acre northern Flathead River basin, which extends across the Canadian line. As part of the American contribution, federal leases for coal and oil extraction in the area would be rescinded. About 80 percent of them have already been voluntarily surrendered.

It’s a big moment for the senator, who first introduced legislation to have the Flathead listed as a “Wild and Scenic River” in 1975.

New West Column

Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics started a frenzy when it released its latest job report, showing that only 54,000 jobs were added to the economy in May.

The White House says don’t worry too much about those numbers; it only represents one month. Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, told The Associated Press that the addition of a million new jobs over the past six months shows “we have improved a long way from when the economy was in rescue mode.”

That’s true. And, I think the White House ought to get more credit for keeping the economy from falling off the cliff. But at the same time, the future prospects for job creation are bleak. Why? The Republicans are demanding a policy of major government contraction while the White House is “negotiating” for a policy for some contraction. Either way all governments are shrinking. The economy is going to lose a you-know-what load of jobs or a mega-load of jobs. Either way there are a lot of minus-signs ahead.