Public Lands Clips: May 15, 2024

 

 

Dems Dig Into Trump's Alleged Quid Pro Quo With Oil CEOs — “Rep. Jamie Raskin on Tuesday sent letters to the executives of ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron and seven other oil and gas companies requesting information about allegations that former President Donald Trump offered to demolish fossil fuel regulations in exchange for $1 billion in campaign donations. Raskin, D-Md., sent the letters in his capacity as ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. He asked the companies to hand over ‘any information you may have’ about the alleged quid pro quo financial agreements reportedly proposed during a campaign fundraising dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump’s alleged offer was first reported by the Washington Post last week, according to the letters. The paper reported that the former president held a 20-person ‘energy roundtable’ with top oil and gas executives in April. During the gathering, Trump solicited the campaign contributions in exchange for ‘an explicit promise that, if elected, his administration would end the freeze on permits for new liquefied natural gas exports, start auctioning off more leases for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and roll back rules that reduce emissions from cars,’ Raskin said in the letter.” [Law360, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

House Democrat Presses Oil CEOs For Details Of Trump’s Fundraising Dinner At Mar-A-Lago — “KEY POINTS The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee is investigating whether former President Donald Trump proposed a ‘quid pro quo’ arrangement to oil executives at a dinner in April. The probe follows reports that Trump promised to reverse environmental policies in exchange for $1 billion in campaign donations from the oil executives. Corporations are prohibited from donating directly to presidential candidates. They can contribute to PACs and their employees’ can make private donations, but neither can do so if the donation is intended as a bribe in exchange for favorable treatment.” [CNBC, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

House Democrat Probes Trump's $1 Billion 'Quid Pro Quo' Deal With Big Oil — “A top U.S. House Democrat announced Tuesday that he is demanding answers from fossil fuel executives after Washington Post reporting revealed last week that former Republican President Donald Trump recently told industry leaders he would gut climate regulations if they raised $1 billion for his 2024 presidential campaign. Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, on Monday wrote to the heads of the American Petroleum Institute (API) and eight companies: Cheniere Energy, Chesapeake Energy, Chevron, Continental Resources, EQT Corporation, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, and Venture Global LNG. Raskin’s letters note that the executives ‘appear to have attended’ Trump’s fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago in Florida last month and ‘media reports raise significant potential ethical, campaign finance, and legal issues that would flow from the effective sale of American energy and regulatory policy to commercial interests in return for large campaign contributions.’” [Common Dreams, 5/14/24 (+)]

 

Ardent Defender Of Hunter Biden’s Business Dealings To Investigate Trump Courting Donors —“Democrats have generally painted the Mar-a-Lago meeting as scandalous, but others have asserted that the meeting was standard practice for high-profile political figures seeking donations in an effort to win a major election. Notably, the Post’s report did not indicate that Trump did not promise the assembled executives any policies that he had not pursued or enacted during his first term in office. Raskin, meanwhile, has routinely suggested that the Republican impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden regarding his potential involvement in his son’s affairs is baseless and dishonest. Along with Democratic New York Rep. Dan Goldman, Raskin also got testy with Tony Bobulinski, a former Hunter Biden associate who has alleged for years that Joe Biden was involved in his son’s business affairs, while Bobulinski sat for a closed-door interview with Congressional investigators in February. Hunter Biden and his associates raked in millions of dollars around the world during the 2010s, including the period when his father was vice president, with considerable sums of money flowing through a complex network of shell companies before being deposited in bank accounts controlled by members of the Biden family, according to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.” [The Daily Caller, 5/14/24 (-)]

 

House Democrats Launch Investigation Into Trump’s Alleged Offers To Oil Executives — “House Democrats have launched an investigation into a meeting between oil company executives and Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home and club last month, following reports that the former president offered to dismantle Biden’s environmental rules and requested $1bn in contributions to his presidential campaign. Democrats on the House oversight committee late on Monday evening sent letters to nine oil executives requesting information on their companies’ participation in the meeting. ‘Media reports raise significant potential ethical, campaign finance, and legal issues that would flow from the effective sale of American energy and regulatory policy to commercial interests in return for large campaign contributions,’ the Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the committee, wrote in the letters. The investigation comes after the Washington Post broke the news of the dinner meeting, where Trump spoke in front of more than 20 fossil fuel executives from companies including Chevron, Exxon and Occidental Petroleum.” [The Guardian, 5/14/24 (+)]

 

Democrats Probe Trump’s Request For Campaign Cash From Big Oil — “House Democrats are probing President Trump’s request for $1 billion in campaign cash from major oil companies. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) penned a letter to CEOs of eight energy companies and an oil lobbying group that reportedly attended a dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort with the former president last month. … A source told The Hill that the discussion was not framed as any sort of tit-for-tat agreement. But, in his letters to the energy executives, Raskin — the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee — described the incident as an ‘unvarnished quid pro quo offer.’ … A spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas lobbying group, did not say whether it would provide information to the committee, but noted that the organization meets with candidates ‘from across the political spectrum on topics important to our industry.’ A Venture Global spokesperson similarly said the firm engages with bipartisan officials and would ‘welcome a similar conversation with President Biden at any time.’” [The Hill, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

Democrats Probe Alleged ‘Corrupt Bargain’ Trump Made At Dinner With Oil Execs — “House Democrats on the Oversight Committee are investigating allegations former President Donald Trump sought help from oil executives to get $1 billion in campaign cash. Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) blasted out letters Monday to nine top oil companies in the US demanding details about the supposed dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on April 11. ‘I write to request any information you may have about quid pro quo financial agreements related to US energy policy that were reportedly proposed at a recent campaign fundraising dinner with ex-President Donald Trump,’ Raskin wrote. … He penned letters to the heads of Chevron, ExxonMobil, Continental Resources, Chesapeake Energy, Occidental Petroleum, Venture Global LNG, Cheniere Energy, EQT Corporation and the American Petroleum Institute. .. At the dinner, Trump reportedly offered to green light more leases for drilling at the Gulf of Mexico and reverse President Biden’s pause on permits for new liquefied natural gas exports. The Maryland Democrat blasted the dinner banter as an ‘unvarnished quid pro quo offer,’ despite other media reports suggesting it wasn’t quite a tit-for-tat exchange.” [New York Post, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

Trump Would Sell Your Grandkid’s Future For $1B — According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Sometimes the movies that stay with you for decades aren’t the good ones, but the ones with an unforgettable ad or an utterly inane premise. That last category includes maybe the worst movie of Robert Redford’s long and distinguished acting career, 1993′s Indecent Proposal, in which a beautiful and desperately cash-strapped young wife (Demi Moore) reluctantly agrees to a one-night affair with Redford’s immoral billionaire for a $1 million payout. It was a dreadful film, but the sequel is always worse. Last week, immoral billionaire-on-paper Donald Trump made his own indecent proposal to the barons of Big Oil who dined with him at Mar-a-Lago. The presumptive GOP presidential nominee told the energy moguls that he’s willing to get in bed with them and satisfy their wildest fantasies of crushing regulations, undoing the war on climate change, and cutting their taxes even more. … The ‘deal’ — Trump’s own language, according to a couple of people at the dinner organized by oil billionaire and Trump donor Harold Hamm, as reported by the Washington Post — would involve reversing dozens of environmental regulations handed down by President Joe Biden. Most of those are aimed at halting the advance of climate change before it wreaks further havoc on U.S. coastlines and triggers inland drought, wildfires, and extreme flooding.” [The Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/14/24 (+)]

 

Rep. Jamie Raskin Seeks Information From Oil Companies On Donor Meeting With Trump — “One of former President Donald Trump’s top critics in Congress is asking major oil companies for more information about a meeting Trump had with their executives in which he allegedly promised to roll back environmental regulations if they spend $1 billion on his campaign. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, announced Tuesday that he sent letters to nine companies including ExxonMobil, Chevron and the American Petroleum Institute, the lobbying arm for oil and gas companies. … The energy industry has pumped $136.8 million into the 2024 election, with the vast majority going to Republicans and right-leaning groups, according to an analysis by Open Secrets. The leading donors are Koch Industries ($28.6 million), Crownquest Operating ($6.2 million), Occidental Petroleum ($5.2 million) and Chevron ($5 million). While spending big money is common in politics, the energy industry is far behind industries like finance and health care, according to the Open Secrets analysis, which have spent $1 billion and $168 million, respectively. The energy industry typically spends between $300 million and $400 million per year among all candidates and interest groups — far less than the $1 billion sum Trump allegedly proposed to oil executives.” [USA Today, 5/14/24 (+)]

 

House Democrats Launch Probe Of Trump’s Dinner With Oil Executives — “House Democrats are launching an investigation into Donald Trump’s meeting with oil executives last month at his Mar-a-Lago Club, where the former president asked the executives to steer $1 billion to his 2024 campaign and promised to reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental policies. The probe comes after The Washington Post on Thursday first reported the fundraising dinner, where Trump said that giving $1 billion would be a ‘deal’ because of the taxation and regulation the oil companies would avoid thanks to him, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation. In letters sent Monday evening, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee asked nine oil executives to provide detailed information on their companies’ participation in the meeting. The Democrats voiced concern that Trump’s request at the dinner may have been a quid pro quo and may have violated campaign finance laws, although experts say his conduct probably did not cross the threshold of being illegal.” [The Washington Post, 5/14/24 (+)]

 

National TV News, With The Exception Of MSNBC, Failed To Cover Trump's Scandalous Big Oil Proposition — “On May 9, The Washington Post published an exclusive story on a dinner at Mar-A-Lago in which former President Donald Trump promised to reverse President Joe Biden’s actions on climate change as he asked oil executives to raise $1 billion for his presidential campaign, assuring them that they’d be getting a ‘deal’ due to the ‘taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him.’ … Five MSNBC programs — Alex Wagner Tonight, All In with Chris Hayes, Velshi, Alex Witt Reports and Ayman — aired substantive coverage of the story. Nearly 40% of the 48 minutes aired on the network appeared on Velshi, which dedicated just over 18 minutes of coverage to Trump’s Big Oil proposition in two interviews that appeared on May 11. Host Ali Velshi and Bill McKibben, a climate activist and contributor to The New Yorker, discussed the implications of Trump’s proposed deal with Big Oil and what is at stake for the planet in the 2024 election, with McKibben noting that ‘in a very real sense this is the most important climate election ever’ while Veshi pointed out that Trump’s election bid might be ‘underwritten’ by the oil industry.” [Media Matters For America, 5/14/24 (+)]

 

Op-Ed: It’s A Climate Election Now — According to Bill McKibben, “The Washington Post’s scoop last week that, at a dinner with oil-and-gas executives at Mar-a-Lago—according to people who attended—Donald Trump offered to reverse dozens of President Biden’s climate rules and regulations in return for a billion dollars in campaign money should have shocked exactly no one. Trump’s hallmark has always been his willingness to do deals—in fact, as he explained to the executives, a billion dollars would be cheap, given the tax and regulatory breaks that he would provide them. And his fealty to the fossil-fuel industry has never been in doubt: he is, after all, the man who pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accords.” [The Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/15/24 (+)]

 

Trump Loves VP Contender’s Energy Cred — “A North Dakota governor who’s friendly with the oil and gas industry and wants his state to become carbon neutral could be on the ballot alongside former President Donald Trump in November. … Burgum ‘probably knows more about energy than anybody I know,’ Trump said at the Saturday rally. ‘So get ready for something, OK? Just get ready.’ Burgum, who challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination but endorsed the former president in January, has reportedly emerged as one of the top contenders for Trump’s vice presidential candidate. … During a GOP primary debate last year, Burgum quipped that the climate law Democrats call the Inflation Reduction Act should be called the ‘Inflation Creation Act.’ That ‘Green New Deal spending’ is ‘something that is just subsidizing China,’ Burgum said last August. ‘If we’re going to stop buying oil from the Middle East and start buying batteries from China, we’re just trading OPEC for Sinopec,’ he said, referring to the Chinese oil and gas enterprise. Burgum told energy industry donors at a recent Florida fundraiser that Trump would halt President Joe Biden’s ‘attack’ on fossil fuels, The Washington Post reported. The former president has been courting oil and gas donors and asked executives last month to donate $1 billion to his White House campaign as industry executives are preparing policy requests with an eye toward a second Trump term, as The Post and POLITICO previously reported.” [E&E News, 5/14/24 (+)]

 

 

 

Senate

 

GOP Seeks To Undo Leasing Rule — “Senate Republicans are introducing a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn the Interior Department’s recently finalized rule raising royalty rates for oil drilling on public land. The effort is being led by Montana Sen. Steve Daines and 10 co-sponsors. Daines said in a statement the rule, Reg. 1004-AE80, could drive small oil and gas producers in his state out of business and raise energy costs for American families.” [Politico, 5/15/24 (=)]

 

Top Senators Appear Open To Interior Deputy Nominee — “The chair and ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee appear open to advancing President Joe Biden’s pick for the No. 2 job at the Interior Department. Shannon Estenoz, the current assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, would replace acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis if confirmed. Her nomination could face considerable headwinds in the Senate, where a growing number of senators are incensed by Interior’s recent decisions. ENR Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday suggested that the committee will consider Estenoz, but did not offer a timetable. ‘I had a good visit with her the first time,’ Manchin said. ‘It’s been quite a while ago, we’ll revisit all that, I haven’t gotten back into that.’ The comments were Manchin’s first on Estenoz since Biden nominated her last week. Manchin has had a rocky relationship with Biden on energy issues and the Interior Department led by Secretary Deb Haaland. He previously tanked Daniel-Davis’ nomination for a separate Senate-confirmed job, citing her stance on climate change.” [E&E News, 5/15/24 (=)]

 

House

 

House Oversight Democrat Probes Trump's Dinner With Oil Industry — “The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee is pressing oil companies for information about their April dinner with former President Donald Trump where he asked them to contribute $1 billion for his presidential campaign. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) released letters he sent to the heads of nine oil and gas companies and an industry trade group on Tuesday that raise potential ethical, campaign finance and legal concerns about the request and Trump’s reported promise to roll back President Joe Biden’s environmental regulations. The requested information is needed to ‘investigate and legislate’ presidential ethics and ‘to continue to address the major ethics crisis created by Donald Trump’s efforts to profit off the presidency,’ Raskin wrote. As the minority party in the House, the Democrats do not have the power to issue subpoenas to require the companies to respond to the request for information.” [Politico, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

House Clears Offshore Wind Measure — “The House on Tuesday cleared a Coast Guard reauthorization bill with a controversial GOP-led rider that clean energy advocates say could devastate the offshore wind industry. The bill, H.R. 7659 (118), would require that vessels used for offshore energy development — including building turbines and oil and gas rigs — be crewed entirely by Americans or workers from the country where the vessel is registered. Republicans have sought the provision for years, arguing it closes a loophole that threatens national security. But the American Clean Power Association said last year it could threaten 77,000 U.S. jobs and over $2 billion in investment, and noted most of the work on offshore wind projects is already being performed by American workers.” [Politico, 5/15/24 (=)]

 

 

 

Apache Investors Get First OK On $65M Deal In Drilling Suit — “A U.S. magistrate judge has given the first green light to a $65 million settlement resolving a lawsuit against oil and gas company Apache Corp. filed by investors alleging they were deceived by promises of a potentially lucrative drilling project that ultimately led to a $3 billion write-down when it went bust. U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew M. Edison issued an order Monday saying the deal is fair, reasonable and adequate. He also said it seems likely that he will be able to certify a settlement class consisting of all individuals and entities who purchased or acquired Apache common stock from Sept. 7, 2016, through March 13, 2020, as the proposed class meets all the requirements for certification. According to the order, the Plymouth County Retirement Association and the Trustees of the Teamsters Union No. 142 Pension Fund were named lead plaintiffs and attorneys from Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP and Saxena White PA were appointed lead counsel in October 2021.” [Law360, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

 

 

Arizona

 

9th Circ. Denies Tribes, Enviro Groups' Power Line Stay Bid — “The Ninth Circuit has denied an emergency request by two Native American tribes and a couple of conservation groups to stay an Arizona federal judge’s order that allows work to continue on a $10 billion power line. U.S. Circuit Judges William C. Canby and A. Wallace Tashima handed down the Monday order denying the motion for injunctive relief by Arizona’s Tohono O’odham Nation and San Carlos Apache Tribe, along with the Center for Biological Diversity and Archaeology Southwest. The order for now allows SunZia Transmission LLC to finish erecting its remaining towers. The judges said in a single paragraph that their decision relies on two previous decisions related to motions for injunctive relief pending appeal. They said the first, a November 2016 ruling by the Ninth Circuit in the election case Feldman v. Arizona Secretary of State , states, ‘The standard for evaluating an injunction pending appeal is similar to that employed by district courts in deciding whether to grant a preliminary injunction.’” [Law360, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

BLM Proposes New Fees At Arizona Sites As Visitation Grows — “The Bureau of Land Management wants to raise fees at recreation sites in northwest Arizona in the face of increased visitation that BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning warned last year has placed public lands ‘at risk of being loved to death.’ BLM on Monday unveiled five draft recreation business plans that propose increasing existing fees for activities like overnight camping, and in some cases adding new ones, at 13 sites in the northern and western parts of the state. The goal is to raise resources needed to continue providing basic services, such as trash pickup and routine maintenance of facilities, and in some cases helping pay for future projects, such as amenities to address growing numbers of visitors to these public sites. The proposed fee increases would apply to specific sites within two field offices — the Kingman Field Office in northwest Arizona and the Lake Havasu Field Office in western Arizona — as well as the Virgin River Canyon Recreation Area, the Phoenix District’s recreational shooting sites, and the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument’s Paria Canyon/Coyote Buttes Special Management Area and White Pocket.” [E&E News, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

Colorado

 

Federal Law Banning Import Of Russian Uranium Spurs Hope For A U.S. Renaissance, New Life For Western Mines — “A new federal law banning the import of Russian uranium and directing $2.7 billion toward expansion of U.S. production of uranium for nuclear power could revive a long-dormant uranium industry in western Colorado and surrounding states. ‘All things are looking very, very positive for our industry,’ said Mark Chalmers, the CEO of Lakewood-based Energy Fuels, which is ramping up uranium production at three mines in Arizona and Utah. ‘It’s just a great time for the state of Colorado and the United States of America.’ Rumblings of a uranium renaissance have bounced around western Colorado, Arizona, Utah and Wyoming since most of the West’s uranium mines were idled in 2012 by the collapse of uranium prices. … The company has uranium mining and production facilities in Arizona near the Grand Canyon, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming and has a stash of yellowcake — the powdered uranium oxide concentrate that can be converted into fuel for nuclear reactors — between 585,000 and 935,000 pounds, according to its 2023 annual report. (There is only one facility in the U.S. — in Eunice, New Mexico — that can convert yellowcake into nuclear fuel rods.)” [The Colorado Sun, 5/15/24 (=)]

 

Biden Signs Bill Banning Imports Of Russian Uranium For Nuclear Fuel — “KEY POINTS The U.S. is banning imported Russian uranium starting in mid-August, the Department of Energy announced Tuesday. Russia controls nearly half of the world’s supply of enriched uranium, and currently provides about one quarter of the U.S.’s enriched uranium, which is used to power the country’s 94 nuclear reactors. The ban also unlocks $2.72 billion in federal funding to expand the uranium industry in the U.S.” [CNBC, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

Georgia

 

Feds Assert Water Rights To Fight Mine Near Okefenokee Swamp — “The federal government is asserting its right to water supporting the sprawling and pristine Okefenokee swamp in Georgia, a rare move that could escalate a legal fight over a proposed mine there. The Fish and Wildlife Service in recent months has said in letters to Georgia regulators that it has ‘reserved water rights’ in the 684-acre Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, which the federal government has managed since the 1930s. The agency has also warned those rights could be undermined by a proposed mine near the swamp if developers pump out too much groundwater and imperil water needed to support the swamp, which is currently among the planet’s largest hydrologically intact freshwater ecosystems and home to a slew of endangered and threatened species. That argument is significant given Georgia regulators are moving closer to finalizing permits for Twin Pines Minerals to mine for titanium near the swamp, a material used for everything from paint pigment to military equipment.” [E&E News, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

Minnesota

 

Millions Invested Into Researching Possible Manganese Mine In Small Minnesota Town — “A recent discovery could bring a new kind of mining to cabin country. Geologists are reporting a massive discovery of manganese in the town of Emily. It isn’t a treasure hunt anymore — a team of geologists says they were given a map with a giant ‘X’ that dates back to the 1950s. ‘(The potential is) Huge. It’s just huge. This is the highest grade manganese deposit in North America,’ said Rick Sandri, an executive of North Star Manganese. Manganese is a mineral that’s used to reinforce steel and make lithium-ion batteries. North Star Manganese is a newly formed company that’s already pumped in $6 million into researching the site. Sandri says there’s no doubt the manganese is down there, the question is whether it’s viable to build a mine.” [CBS News, 5/13/24 (=)]

 

Nevada

 

How Much Of Nevada’s Land Is Owned By The Feds? More Than You Might Think — “Once your tires vibrate passing over your first cattle guard out of the Las Vegas Valley, chances are you are about to stumble into what makes much of Nevada one of the last untouched Western frontiers — public land. More than 80 percent of the Silver State belongs to a federal government agency, the highest percentage of any state in the country, according to a Congressional report surveying public lands from 2020. That amounts to over 56 million acres of land distributed among agencies like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That statistic is noteworthy when comparing Nevada to states in the East like Connecticut, where 0.3 percent of the land is federally owned. Public lands aren’t really a thought in the East — less than 1 percent of the BLM’s land lies outside of the West or Alaska, according to the report.” [Las Vegas Review-Journal, 5/14/24 (~)]

 

Texas

 

A Major Deposit Of Rare Earth Elements Sits Just Outside El Paso. Will Anyone Mine It? — “In the desert expanse east of El Paso County, it’s easy to speed past a small, nondescript mountain adjacent to Interstate 10 near Sierra Blanca. However, the smooth, 1,250-foot monolith – called Round Top Mountain – holds hundreds of millions of metric tons of rare earth elements and other industrial minerals that are essential to develop the advanced electronics that power modern life, from batteries to cell phones. Whether any rare earth elements are ever extracted from Round Top is an open question. But it could play a role in the country’s race to develop a supply chain where domestic companies mine and process rare earth metals into magnets that enable a wide range of technologies. Today, China has a near-monopoly on rare earth extraction and processing. There are 17 rare earth elements, which are metals that have special magnetic and electrical properties that make them technologically useful. The metals aren’t actually rare, but they’re not highly concentrated and hard to separate from each other.” [El Paso Matters, 5/13/24 (=)]

 

Virginia

 

Mountain Valley Pipeline Owes Landowners Higher Compensation — “A group of Virginia landowners are owed double the compensation a federal court awarded for their property being used for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Fourth Circuit said Tuesday. The initial jury verdict of about $523,000—before it was cut to about $261,000 by the trial court—’can be supported by credited testimony without mixing different land use valuations, as the district court assumed,’ Judge Stephanie D. Thacker said on behalf of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.” [Bloomberg Law, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

Judges Side With Family In Mountain Valley Pipeline Compensation Case, Reversing Earlier Decision — “A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court on Tuesday restored a jury award of more than $520,000 to compensate a Roanoke County family after some of their land was seized for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, reversing a district judge’s decision last year that had cut the award almost in half. In their published opinion, judges Stephanie Thacker, Roger Gregory and James Wynn Jr. of the Richmond-based 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with the Terry family that evidence presented at a 2022 trial supported a jury awarding the higher amount. The case centered on just how much the family should be paid based on the value of their 560 acres of Bent Mountain land and how much value they would lose from easements impacting 8.37 acres used in the construction of the controversial natural gas pipeline. Joe Sherman, a Norfolk attorney representing the property owners — named in the case as Frank Terry Jr., John Coles Terry III and Elizabeth Lee Terry, aka Elizabeth Lee Reynolds — said in a statement to Cardinal News that ‘common sense is critical to protecting our common interests and the court of appeals affirmed that common sense is not obsolete in our modern system of justice.’” [Cardinal News, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

Virginia Officials Urge FERC To Delay Mountain Valley Opening — “Elected officials in Virginia are joining the chorus of environmental groups and landowners who are urging federal regulators to delay the opening of the Mountain Valley pipeline. In a letter Monday, the Board of Supervisors in Virginia’s Montgomery County asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission not to grant a request to put the 303-mile natural gas pipeline into service until ‘all the safety testing and subsequent remediation has been completed.’ Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC — a joint venture of energy companies — has asked FERC to issue the authorization by May 23. The pipeline has faced heightened scrutiny since a pipe segment burst in Virginia on May 1 during hydrotesting, a process that uses water to identify potential leaks. The project’s developer also still needs to complete safety tasks outlined in a consent agreement struck last year with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). Virginia Rep. Morgan Griffith (R) said Tuesday that the agreement should be enforced and FERC shouldn’t grant Mountain Valley’s April request to place the project in service.” [E&E News, 5/15/24 (=)]

 

Montgomery County Board Raises Concerns About MVP — “The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors is joining a growing chorus of concerns about the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s request to begin operations by June 1. ‘We believe placing the project in operation is premature before all safety standards for the Mountain Valley Pipeline have been met,’ Biggs wrote. Similar concerns have been voiced in recent weeks by 18 members of the General Assembly, the Pipeline Safety Trust watchdog group and other organizations, and in written comments from more than 50 individuals. Mountain Valley spokesperson Natalie Cox said Tuesday that many of the comments ‘misinterpret or misrepresent’ the company’s April 22 request. The submission was made to begin a regulatory review and ‘to provide transparency to landowners and other stakeholders regarding the project’s construction status and ongoing and future restoration and monitoring activities,’ Cox wrote in an email.” [The Roanoke Times, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

 

 

Western Water

 

AP | Proposed Settlement Would Secure Colorado River Water For 3 Tribes — “A proposed water rights settlement for three Native American tribes that carries a price tag larger than any such agreement enacted by Congress took a significant step forward late Monday with introduction in the Navajo Nation Council. The Navajo Nation has one of the largest single outstanding claims in the Colorado River basin and will vote soon on the measure in a special session. It’s the first of many approvals — ending with Congress — that’s needed to finalize the deal. Climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and demands on the river like those that have allowed Phoenix, Las Vegas and other desert cities to thrive pushed the tribes into settlement talks. The Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribes are hoping to close the deal quickly under a Democratic administration in Arizona and with Joe Biden as president. A landmark 1922 agreement divided the Colorado River basin water among seven Western states but left out tribes. The tribes are seeking water from a mix of sources: the Colorado River, the Little Colorado River, aquifers and washes on tribal lands in northeastern Arizona.” [E&E News, 5/14/24 (=)]

 

 

 

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