¶ Western dude ranchers are having to buy
bigger horses for fatter guests.
"Little
horses just aren't sturdy enough to hold up in a dude operation in the
Rocky Mountains," Kipp Saile said, noting that about 15 of their 60
horses were Percheron mixes, the largest weighing 1,800 pounds.
¶ Colorado's oil and gas-drilling boom is polluting farm land (spills, drilling waste), and
oil companies hope that microbes will clean up the hydrocarbons.
The number of
spills reported by companies reached a 10-year peak of 578 last year (43
related to the September floods), contaminating an estimated 173,400
tons of topsoil, according to the COGCC data, which come from reports
companies are required to file.
While energy companies
responsible for spills recover much of the liquid hydrocarbons during
cleanups, an analysis of the data shows that roughly 45 percent stays in
soil.
¶ Never mind the propaganda about how corn-based ethanol is "patriotic."
Even the business press, like Forbes, is moving to the position that ethanol is a loss overall. (Especially when you use High Plains Aquifer water to grow the corn.)
1 comment:
We used to say on river trips, only half joking, that folks who weigh over 280 should have to buy two spots, especially on low-water rivers. But looking on the bright side, maybe this phenomenon will help keep some of those heavy horse breeds going.
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