Inside Energy

Wyoming, like other energy producing states, is shedding jobs in coal, oil, and gas. But the renewables industry is growing nationwide, including jobs to make parts like wind turbine blades and towers. Wyoming wants to attract wind manufacturing jobs as part of an effort to diversity its fossil fuel-based economy, but right now the state has none of these jobs. Neighboring Colorado has thousands. Inside Energy’s Leigh Paterson went to find out what’s standing in the way, starting off in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Across the country, power companies are rushing to keep pace with a changing energy landscape. Many operate on outdated business models that never accounted for people producing their own electricity or clean energy mandates. That’s prompted Arizona’s largest utility to pursue a new way of charging its customers -- one that no other utility has done before. Will Stone of KJZZ in Phoenix reports for Inside Energy.

From the podcast Outside/In: GRIDLOCKED - Something very different is going on up in Boothbay, Maine. It was an experiment which – if it works – could represent a fundamental shift in the way we think about using electricity.

The coal industry’s recent downturn is casting ripples throughout the economy in the West. In Wyoming, the unemployment rate is climbing faster than any other state in the country—and it’s not just miners who are struggling. From a hotel in Gillette, Wyoming Public Radio’s Stephanie Joyce explores the fallout from the collapsing mineral economy.

How oil and gas drilling can affect drinking water has been a source of controversy across the country, from Pavillion, Wyoming to Pennsylvania.. Residents near drilling operations in the Keystone state have filed thousands of complaints, and sometimes waited for years for answers. That’s left some isolated communities to fend for themselves in a quest for clean water. For Inside Energy, Maryam Jameel from the Center for Public Integrity reports.

There’s growing evidence that activities related to hydraulic fracturing can contaminate water supplies. A controversial draft report last year from the Environmental Protection Agency said the contamination was not widespread or systemic --- yet for a number of households whose water has been tainted, and for many more who fear it is tainted, the struggle for clean water can sap energy and take years. Maryam Jameel from the Center for Public Integrity has the first of two stories on families in Pennsylvania desperate for answers.

Waste from fracking is often radioactive but there are no federal regulations governing how and where it is dumped. States deal with it with a patchwork of regulations and recommendations. In the Ohio River Valley and the Marcellus region, companies and regulators are struggling to find safe ways to get rid of it. Glynis Board reports from Ohio Valley Resource.

Answering an energy question from Wellington Middle School, our Inside Energy team shines a light on power wasted in electricity generation. Can it be reused? Recycled? Turned into energy?

Under a new bill introduced in Congress on Thursday, coal companies would no longer be allowed to just promise to pay for future mine clean up. Inside Energy’s Leigh Paterson reports.

Researchers at Colorado State University have released the results of a nearly $2 million dollar study measuring oil and gas emissions on the state’s Western Slope. The area was recently discovered to hold the second-largest natural gas reserve in the country.