News of Note

Wyoming's oil and gas industry is responsible for one in five jobs in the state and about one-third of the state's total economic output, according to a report detailed in today's Casper Star-Tribune

Business editor Tom Mast rounds up the highlights of the report, most of which confirm that while the direct economics of the industry are predictable, the "downstream" effects are even more staggering than one might expect.

As one investigator says, "It shows vulnerabilities associated with oil and gas in that it's such a large portion of Wyoming's economy." [more]

guest commentary

What is it about Lolo Peak that stirs the emotions of so many people? Maybe it’s the beauty and comfort we find gazing from the vehicle or kitchen window, reminding us why we live and work here. Perhaps it is the memories of family hikes or winter excursions, or the fabulous close-to-home white-tail and elk hunting.

One thing's for sure: thousands of western Montana citizens are concerned that this great place on our public lands might be sliced and diced so that a handful of people can make millions on real estate. Lolo Peak is already serving a useful economic, ecological and social purpose -- in its current condition. [more]

Environment in the West

Idaho Conservation League director Rick Johnson said the group won’t lose its vigilance over Idaho watershed quality, but that working with Formation Capital to plan a mining operation has been better than being antagonists.

Formation Capital Corp. is a Canadian mining company planning a cobalt mining operation in the Upper Salmon River region. There is abundant cobalt in the area, and Formation Capital plans to mine about 1,500 tons a year using underground mining techniques.

The company and the ICL announced an agreement and “ongoing working relationship” Monday at a press conference in Boise. The deal-broker is Cecil Andrus, four-term governor of Idaho and former Secretary of the Interior. Andrus is both a director of Formation Capital and a founding member of the ICL. He told reporters that he’d studied the Idaho Cobalt Project and endorses the company’s commitment to a protection program which includes annual meetings with the ICL. “This is a historic occasion,” said Andrus. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a real working relationship with people who have no reason to be adversaries, but traditionally have been.” [more]

PICKENS' CHARGE

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is a geologist by training, but lately he’s been testing the wind. The real wind, and the political winds.

Pickens looks at the eastern edge of the Rockies and sees a massive generator – a wind corridor that could host thousands of wind turbines and satisfy a big chunk of our nation’s energy needs. [more]

From The New West Blog

Edra Blixseth has officially taken over 50 percent ownership of the elite Yellowstone Club from her estranged husband, billionaire timber baron Tim Blixseth, Forbes reports.

It's the result of a messy divorce settlement struck in early July that was delayed. [more]

guest commentary

For anyone who has been hiking in the mountains of Montana or has flown into Missoula on a clear day, the beauty of the area is often tinged with a multitude of dirt-colored bands that wrap around the mountains like topographic lines on a map. The bands are logging roads, dirt tracks that wind up seemingly every slope in some areas. I was near Nine Mile in just such a valley several weeks ago. It could have been an image from a glossy magazine ad but for the foreground of large patches of clear-cut forest and roads that spiraled endlessly around every bend.

As I hiked I couldn’t help but feel a loss. The forest was scared deeply by the cuts and roads. But while I might have once seen logging in this area as unpardonable, a sin against the beauty of the place, now my feelings of loss were met equally with a new acceptance of logging. Things have changed. I’ve gotten some perspective. Some of that perspective came about 50 miles north of Nine Mile in Plains, Montana. [more]

Sheridan - Think of Wyoming as the giant ocean that it once was, with vast stretches of water between islands and atolls. Imagine traveling by boat. The more time and money it costs to reach each island, the more isolated it becomes – unless it has something singular to offer. The plain jane atolls affording nothing but tidal pools and coconuts eventually are ignored all together.

The high cost of fuel, circa 2008, has the same isolating factors on Wyoming as the oceans of yore.

Never mind the irony about how much fuel we produce. Wyoming communities, especially the small ones, depend on cheap oil. Wyoming relies on the outside world for practically everything. The more it costs to deliver those goods, the more they're going to cost the populace. [more]

Real Estate or Industrial Site

Scott Cooney, a Missoula developer, says he has a months-old agreement with Stimson Lumber Co. to buy the company's defunct mill site in Bonner and wants it honored.

"We just want to buy it," Cooney said, adding that the old offer of $10 million for the entire site is immaterial. He would pay up to $16 million, which is what Stimson officials said would take the property and all its industrial equipment and structures off the Portland-based manufacturer's hands.

It's hard to know exactly how serious he is: Cooney said today that if Stimson doesn't honor its earlier agreement with him, he might seek legal action.

The bigger question remains what will happen on that expanse of land at the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers. [more]

Why it's getting harder to farm in the West

The price of farmland across the nation is so high its breaking records, even as commercial and residential development pressures wane. And, the biggest increases in per-acre values are right here in the Northern Rockies.

According to a report released this week from the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, nationwide farm real estate values, which measure all land and buildings on farms, grew to, on average, $2,350 per acre, a jump of 8.8 percent from January 2007 to January 2008 . The average is $190 more than it was in 2007 and a record high.

The agency attributes "strong commodity prices and farm programs, outside investments, favorable interest rates, and tax incentives" as contributing factors to the increase in farm real estate, and "Livestock prices, recreational use and urban development" continue to drive up the cost of pasture land. [more]

Forecast: No Bust Yet

High transportation costs have pushed prices up across the board and made Montana consumers feel like losers, yet the state's economy -- and those all-important employment numbers -- will continue to grow, said Tobias Madden of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis in a mid-year sum-up.

When forming the core of his analysis, Madden considers the state's two main economic forces: natural resources and the natural amenities, which drives tourism, in-migration, cross-border trade and related industries. [more]