Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Extreme weather year for US cost at least $145 billion
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Wednesday, January 12, 2022
At the end of December, the Marshall Fire roared through suburban areas outside of Denver, driven by intense winds across abnormally dry grasslands | N ([link removed]) OAA ([link removed])

2021 was a year full of intense natural disasters ([link removed]) . New data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that last year was the deadliest weather year in the United States since 2011 ([link removed]) , with 688 people dying in 20 different weather and climate disasters, which cost at least a combined $145 billion—the third-most-expensive year on record. At the same time, national greenhouse gas emissions jumped 6% due to surges in coal usage and 2021 was the fourth-warmest year on record ([link removed]) . Last year was the second consecutive year with 20 or more billion-dollar disasters ([link removed]) —a statistic that had never been
seen before 2020's record-breaking 22.
NOAA's interactive visualization of billion-dollar weather and climate events, adjusted for inflation | NOAA ([link removed])

For decades, scientists have said that human-caused climate change (caused by burning fossil fuels and resulting greenhouse gases) will drive increasingly extreme weather ([link removed]) : hotter air and oceans and melting sea ice alter the jet stream which brings and stalls storm fronts, makes hurricanes wetter and stronger, and worsens western droughts and wildfires. "2021 was, in essence, watching the climate projections of the past come true," said Rachel Licker ([link removed]) , a senior climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The fingerprints of climate change were all over many of the billion-dollar events that hit the US this year."

In the West, 2021 brought extreme climate events in the form of flooding in California from an atmospheric river event, widespread drought ([link removed]) , a destructive December wildfire in a suburban area ([link removed]) , and a heat wave in the Pacific Northwest that scientists say would have been virtually impossible without climate change ([link removed]) .

"What's concerning about 2021 is it's yet another year in a series of years where we have both a high frequency, high cost, and a large diversity of these extreme events that affect people's lives and livelihoods," said Adam Smith ([link removed]) , a climatologist with NOAA who led the recent report. "Over the last five years, the United States has experienced almost $750 billion of damages from these billion-dollar disasters, which is really off the charts... 2022 may not be any different."
Quick hits


** Trains will carry “waxy crude” oil through Colorado every day after Utah approves new railway
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Colorado Sun ([link removed])


** Wildlife crossings, the Wyoming way
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Montana Free Press ([link removed])


** Warming permafrost puts key Arctic pipelines, roads at ‘high risk,’ study says
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Washington Post ([link removed])


** Opinion: High energy prices are not an 'energy' crisis—it's a fossil fuel crisis
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The Hill ([link removed])


** Meet the feathered influencer of the California condor world
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High Country News ([link removed])


** Paul Gosar lost his Natural Resources seat. Will it matter?
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Wyoming formally petitions for removal of federal grizzly protections
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Casper Star-Tribune ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed])


** What national parks see the most search and rescues?
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Deseret News ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” I find his tone and I find his approach unconstructive and embarrassing. [Paul Gosar] quite frankly paints an easy target on the back of companies like myself, who are trying to advance mining projects. It’s very difficult to defend, and it’s not necessary.”

—Emily Hersh, CEO of Luna Lithium, a junior mining company, E ([link removed]) &E News ([link removed])
Picture this


** @I ([link removed]) nterior ([link removed])
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Tuesday fun fact: A group of otters is called a romp. We'll use it in a sentence:

This romp of river otters at @GrandTetonNPS will be eating fish for dinner.

Pic by Joel Brown

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