BOISE, Idaho -- The winter inversion season is a reminder of the daily pollution seen in valley communities across the West.

Inversions are weather patterns that occur when warm air acts like a lid, trapping colder air in valleys and causing stagnation.

When it's unable to move, air quality suffers and can even be dangerous for sensitive populations, including children and older people.

Austin Walkins, a senior conservation associate with the Idaho Conservation League, says inversions on their own aren't necessarily bad, but are intensified by certain activities.

"Pollution that comes from vehicle tailpipes, from wood stoves, from industrial facilities, normally goes up in the air, mixes and then gets blown away and dispersed," he points out. "During inversions, all of that just gets stuck in these valley communities. And so, it starts to have a really significant impact on public health."

Walkins says folks can improve air quality during inversions by limiting what they burn in wood stoves and by driving less. He suggests taking public transit if it's an option.

Walkins says he hears resistance from people who say one less car on the road won't help. But he maintains getting everybody on board is integral to protecting public health during an inversion.

"Every single bit of air pollution that we can keep out of the air benefits everyone," he stresses. "So, we encourage folks to be that leader in their community and say, you know, 'I know that everyone else is still driving, but I'm going to take the bus, and then I'm going to challenge my friends and family to take the bus.'"

Walkins commends Valley Regional Transit in the fight against tailpipe pollution with its recent purchase of eight electric buses. The low-emission transporters coming to the Treasure Valley will be the first mass transit electric buses in Idaho.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- After the first settlement of its kind in North Carolina capping limits on emissions from a biogas plant in Sampson County, environmental advocates hope the agreement sets the stage for stricter statewide regulation of the processing of animal waste from concentrated feeding operations into fuel or biogas.

Joel Porter, policy manager for CleanAIRE NC, said no federal, state or local laws currently require biogas facilities to monitor or report emissions.

"We hope that the state takes a page out of the work that we've done here, to really protect the communities where these projects will be sited," Porter urged.

The plant, run by Align Renewable Natural Gas -- a company created by Smithfield Foods and Dominion Energy -- will connect to more than a dozen hog-farm operations and generate and collect methane and other gases from large amounts of animal feces and urine for processing as an energy source.

The settlement between CleanAIRE NC, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and Align RNG requires the plant to limit sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide emissions.

Daisha Williams, environmental justice manager for CleanAIRE NC, said the company also will have to report its emissions to the state.

"So that the public can verify they're staying in compliance and not emitting over the levels they're not supposed to be emitting in," Williams explained.

Porter added additional safeguards in the settlement will help ensure local communities are not saddled with the long-term health consequences of poor air quality.

"It creates a mechanism that requires the company to monitor their methane leaks," Porter stated.

Williams noted sulfur-dioxide and hydrogen-sulfide exposure have been linked to serious health problems, and said harms can worsen when hog waste processed in covered pits for use as biogas is transferred to open lagoons and sprayed on nearby fields.

"To be able to limit those pollutants and limit exposure will hopefully help over the long term to contribute to better health outcomes," Williams asserted.

Research shows North Carolina's Black, Latino and Native American populations are most impacted by air pollution from concentrated feeding operations, which are predominantly located in low-income and minority communities.

According to one study, people of color in North Carolina are nearly twice as likely to live within three miles of an industrial hog farm compared with white residents.

CASPER, Wyo. - A strong majority of voters across party lines say they want national rules similar to those passed in Wyoming to reduce methane pollution from oil and gas production, according to a new national poll.

Jon Goldstein, senior director of regulatory and legislative affairs for the Environmental Defense Fund, the group behind the survey, said nearly two-thirds of voters support stronger methane rules if they lead to jobs in the methane mitigation industry.

"Wyoming is one of the leading states in the nation for clusters of these methane-mitigation industry jobs," he said, "factory jobs building the pieces of equipment that are used out in the oil and gas field; the inspectors that go out with infrared cameras and find and fix the leaks."

The poll comes as the Environmental Protection Agency soon is expected to release nationwide methane rules for the oil and gas industry. Industry groups have pushed back on protections that would include low-producing wells, citing costs, but the survey found seven out of 10 voters want rules that cover all wells, regardless of size.

Goldstein argued that national rules are necessary because air pollution doesn't stop at the state line. He added that technologies to capture lost natural gas have proved to be highly cost-effective.

"They're not free, but we are talking about pennies on the dollar," he said. "And with natural-gas prices going up again, it really makes sense to be capturing all of the methane we can. You know, this is natural gas, at the end of the day."

Methane is more than 80 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon, and at least 60% of methane emissions are the result of human activities. Goldstein said national protections would be a big step in addressing climate change.

"Methane is responsible for about a quarter of the warming that we're already experiencing," he said, "and particularly addressing methane from the oil and gas industry is really the 'low-hanging fruit' of ensuring that the country bends the curve on climate as quickly as possible."

DENVER -- Few people spend as much time in the wilderness and outdoors as hunters and anglers, and a new report aims to be a springboard to bring those conservationists and their knowledge into discussions of combating climate change.

The report, titled A Hunter's and Angler's Guide to Climate Change, touches on a variety of landscapes throughout the country used by sportsmen and women that face environmental threats. Among them are the country's forests and rivers.

Aaron Kindle, director of sporting advocacy at the National Wildlife Federation and the report's author, said in Colorado, heat waves, droughts, and forest fires are hurting outdoor recreation in the state.

"If your elk hunt is canceled because the unit that you were going to hunt in is burning down, that's clearly an impact on the ability to hunt," Kindle remarked. "We saw historic closures this year in Colorado. Many rivers closed because of too hot of temperatures for trout, so those are the kinds of things we're seeing, that are really meaning, our ability to hunt and fish is under threat."

Colorado had its first 200,000-acre forest fire in 2020. The report showed natural infrastructure can offer some level of protection for these areas. Wetlands, forests and floodplains in particular can prevent flooding and help purify water.

Kindle said some immediate actions hunters and anglers can take to start contributing to the fight against climate change include taking part in reforestation efforts. But a big part of finding environmental solutions is by advocating for resources on the state and federal level.

"We are a community of storytellers," Kindle reflected. "We talk about the hunt. We talk about fishing. We talk about the seasons and how they've changed. And hunters and anglers have such a crucial narrative that would help shape those pieces of legislation into a better form."

Among the federal support named in the report is the REPLANT Act, which would quadruple investments in reforestation in national forests. It also suggested relaunching the Civilian Conservation Corps, a 1930s public-works program, but with a focus on addressing climate change.