Climate Point: Helium mining lifts off in the Navajo Nation

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and environment news from around the Golden State and the country. In Palm Springs, Calif., I’m Mark Olalde.

Did you know that helium is mined? Really, it is.

The Arizona Republic is out with an interesting new piece that examines the growth of helium extraction in the Navajo Nation and northeastern Arizona where it "exists in some of the highest concentrations in North America, and possibly the world." On one hand, this growth represents new economic development and more stability in a volatile market. But on the other, locals and environmentalists are concerned that helium mining means extreme extractive techniques such as the oft-environmentally harmful hydraulic fracturing — fracking — are coming to their area. I recommend you take a few minutes with this interesting conundrum.

Also, a quick programming note — my time at The Desert Sun is just about up, and this is my final edition of Climate Point before I head off to investigate environmental woes elsewhere. Thanks for reading my ramblings, and you'll be back in the capable hands of my brilliant colleague Janet Wilson, so don't you change that channel. Ok, now back to lots of other important reporting ...

MUST-READ STORIES

Dirty water. In the Bayou State, Sara Sneath recently dropped a new project with the Louisiana Illuminator, a nonprofit newsroom, and WWNO/WRKF, which found that residents are at times paying for undrinkable water. The story examines thousands of boil water notices to determine which areas around the state are hit with the most per capita. "Louisiana’s drinking water infrastructure is expected to require $7 billion in additional funding over the next 20 years," she writes.

It's electric. Are you still wondering what the heck caused Texas' power grid failure that left millions without electricity for days in February? Well, USA Today just published a helpful explainer on what the power grid is, how more than 9,000 power plants fit into it, how history got us to today's piecemeal grid, and what went right and wrong outside and inside of Texas during the winter storm. Check it out here.

Take me to the river. The Arizona Republic's Ian James writes that new state data reveals how groundwater in the Copper State is still being dangerously over-pumped. "In many parts of the desert Southwest, the water that’s stored underground in aquifers soaked into the land thousands of years ago. And these ancient water reserves are being depleted as wells pump from aquifers to supply farmlands and desert cities," he reports.

POLITICAL CLIMATE

Keep the wolves away. John Flesher of AP writes that scientists are pushing for the Biden administration to return legal protections to gray wolves after the the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did away with them in the waning days of the Trump administration. Wolves — which are important predators that help balance ecosystems but are at odds with industries such as ranching — could already be hunted in several Western states, but the protections had applied to the Great Lakes region and the Pacific Northwest.

Talkin' New York. Alexander Kaufman of HuffPost is out with a new one digging into an audacious plan proposed by a Brooklyn city council member running for comptroller. The candidate is floating the idea of addressing rising utility rates by spending half-a-billion dollars to install city owned and managed solar panels across the country's largest metropolis. The idea has gained traction elsewhere, too, popping up in San Diego, Chicago and Maine. And while I'm talking about Kaufman's great reporting, I'd like to give a quick shoutout to his latest work that's journalism-adjacent — a children's book! If you've got kids, check out "Earth's Aquarium," which introduces children to fascinating underwater ecosystems.

Rolling in the deep. Oil transportation company Enbridge has defied a government order by continuing to send million gallons of oil and liquified natural gas through the highly controversial Line 5, which consists of two pipelines crossing the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac. The Detroit Free Press writes that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, revoked the company's pipeline easement because of safety violations and "unreasonable risk to the Great Lakes," but the company argued her order wasn't valid.

QUICK HITS

Farming. The Los Angeles Times reports that residents of South L.A. are turning small plots of land into community gardens, mini markets and microfarms to address food deserts.

Water. The Clarion Ledger reports that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently laid out a series of ongoing problems with Jackson's water system after water treatment plants froze this winter.

Salmon. Reuters reports that California's drought has gotten so bad that rivers are too warm for salmon smolt to survive, and the state plans to transport 17 million fish overland to the San Francisco Bay.

Litigation. Bloomberg reports that oil companies won the latest round in a series of ongoing lawsuits over climate change, as the U.S. Supreme Court handed the industry another chance to "steer litigation toward the federal court system, which is viewed as a more favorable venue than state courts for industry defendants."

Labor. For The Desert Sun, I report that the board of directors of the Imperial Irrigation District — the single largest user of Colorado River water — is fighting itself in court over the future of a project labor agreement that will be worth tens of millions of dollars in district business.

AND ANOTHER THING

A sky full of stars. And for the last story I'll be highlighting in a Climate Point newsletter, let's keep it in Southern California, where I've spent many a night camped out in the desert, tucked between a campfire and innumerable stars. I gawked at the NEOWISE comet from Joshua Tree National Park, watched Saturn and Jupiter's conjunction from a strip of the Colorado Desert, and peered at Mars from Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. 

Now, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the small town of Julian was recently named as the Golden State's second dark-sky community after Borrego Springs already earned that recognition. If you've got a chance to come out to the desert to stargaze, take it (just don't tell the long-timers that I invited you and definitely don't leave your detritus in the desert)!

That’s all from me. Don’t forget to follow along on Twitter at @MarkOlalde. For the next several days, you can also reach me at molalde@gannett.com. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here. Keep masking up, and keep reading your local news. Cheers.