Mike Lee Wants Highway Corridor In Conservation Area. “Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) has filed a companion bill to Rep. Chris Stewart’s (R-Utah) much-debated legislation authorizing a transportation corridor through a national conservation area in exchange for adding 6,865 acres of desert tortoise habitat to a reserve. Lee’s S. 3297, which mirrors Stewart’s bill nearly word for word, is the latest attempt by the state’s congressional delegation to authorize the 300-foot-wide corridor across 4 miles of the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area in southwest Utah’s Washington County. The House Natural Resources Committee recently approved Stewart’s H.R. 5597, introduced in April, on a 21-14 party-line vote.” [EE News, 8/1/18 (=)]
GOP Senators Take Aim At State Permitting. “Republican senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee want to amend the Clean Water Act to clarify what states can consider when issuing water quality certifications. At issue is Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, which requires project developers certify that any discharges from their project will comply with the act, including state-established water quality standards. Many states have assumed responsibility for enforcing that section of the law. The ‘Water Quality Certification Act’ would make several changes to the law, requiring that states’ final decisions on whether to certify a project be based only on water quality reasons from the project in question, not other sources; and to require states to publish clear requirements for water quality certification requests.” [EE News, 8/1/18 (=)]
Wyoming Hunters' Appeal To Feds Delays Oil And Gas Leasing In Mule Deer Corridor. “Potential oil and gas development that would crisscross a famous mule deer migration corridor on federal land will be delayed following pushback from Wyoming hunters. The Interior Department announced Tuesday that about 5,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land would be precluded from oil and gas lease sales for the time being and additional parcels in the migration route would only be leased with a rider mandating collaboration with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.” [Casper Star Tribune, 7/31/18, (=)]
Interior Secretary And Gov. Matt Mead Work To Conserve Migration Corridor In SW Wyo. “U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and Wyoming Governor Matt Mead have announced that the Department will prioritize the conservation of a mule deer migration corridor in southwest Wyoming through both deferred lease sales and lease stipulations. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will defer nearly 5,000 surface acres from potential oil and gas developments that intersect the designated Red Desert to Hoback big game migration corridor. Additionally, a special lease notice will be attached to the remaining parcels.” [Wyoming Business report, 7/31/18 (=)]
Proper Land Use Requires Balancing Act. “The Trump administration accidentally released documents showing that they intentionally underestimated the value of national monuments while emphasizing the land’s value for logging, ranching, and energy development. Oopsie. National monuments are federally protected lands that differ from national parks in a few important ways. Whereas only Congress can create a national park, the president can create a national monument with the stroke of a pen. Many national parks were national monuments first.” [Sun Advocate, 7/31/18 (-)]
Protests Challenge State Oil & Gas Leases In Red Desert. “Several groups are asking state officials to reject oil and gas lease bids on 36 state parcels in the northern Red Desert and the Gold Triangle area because of potential impacts to historic trails and sensitive wildlife habitat. The Office of State Lands already received lease bids for the parcels that the groups say should be withdrawn. In addition to cultural and environmental values, the groups say leasing some of the parcels would complicate proposed state-federal swaps designed to benefit the state by divesting of areas that are difficult to access and profit from due to restrictions on surrounding federal property.” [WyoFile, 7/31/18 (=)]
Federal Agency To Regulate Oil Injection Wells In Idaho. “The federal government has taken over regulating underground injection wells in Idaho in a move that could boost the state’s oil and natural gas production by making it cheaper to dispose of wastewater. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday issued a final rule transferring a portion of the state’s Underground Injection Control program. The injection wells are used to return water and other fluids to the ground that come to the surface in the process of drilling for oil and gas. The Idaho Department of Water Resources in August 2017 requested the change after failed attempts by the state to get approval from the EPA to regulate what are called class II injection wells.” [Associated Press, 7/31/18 (=)]
Latest Trump Overhaul On Public Lands Would Undo Endangered Species Protections In Colorado. ‘If you’ve ever marveled at the sight of a bald eagle or a lynx or a black-footed ferret in Colorado, thank the Endangered Species Act. The 1973 law is credited with staving off the extinction of thousands of endangered and threatened species, in large part because it can require wide tracts be put off limits to development and other uses in order to preserve habitat for listed plants and animals. But the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers say the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is overdue for major reform, and they’re now eyeing changes that would eliminate existing protections for threatened species and give greater weight to business interests at the expense of species at risk.” [Colorado Independent, 7/31/18 (+)]
Utah: Office Of Outdoor Recreation Awards $4M For Local Recreation Projects. “The Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation has awarded more than $4 million in grant funding for more than 58 projects through its competitive grant program. ‘The Utah Outdoor Recreation Grant supports vital outdoor recreation projects in the state of Utah,’ Val Hale, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, said in a statement. ‘As more Utahns enjoy the state’s natural assets, it has become more important to support our local communities. We are proud to be a catalyst for these outdoor improvements.’” [Deseret News, 7/31/18 (=)]
Mary Throne (D), Wyoming Candidate For Governor: “I Will Oppose Any Efforts To Transfer Federal Lands To State Ownership.” “Wyoming faces challenges from all sides: a lagging energy sector, declining state revenues, and population loss that makes it hard to attract businesses. We need a candidate who will invest in education, protect our public lands, fight for our energy workers, and build the economy of the future.... Wyoming also faces attacks from those who don’t value our public lands. I will oppose any efforts to transfer federal lands to state ownership, and ensure that future generations have the same open spaces that I grew up with. Our public lands are our heritage and our greatest resource, and I will always fight for them and all of the interests that depend on them.” [Casper Star Tribune, 7/31/18 (+)]
Coalition To Protect America’s National Parks Comments On Proposed Changes To NEPA. “We are writing on behalf of the more than 1,600 members of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks (Coalition) to submit comments in response to the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) for an “Update to the Regulations for Implementing the Procedural Provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act” (docket: CEQ–2018–0001) published in the Federal Register on June 20, 2018 (83 Fed Reg 28591 et seq.).” [Press Release, 7/30/18, (+)]
Ryan Zinke Wants To Restore The Hetch Hetchy Valley. Why? “Like virtually all of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, Ryan Zinke is stunningly unqualified for his job as Interior Secretary. So far, his primary accomplishments have included picking an unknown company with three employees that just happens to be from his home town to repair the electrical grid in Puerto Rico and leasing every available square inch of federal lands he possibly can to oil and gas developers. He might better be described as a personal servant to the Koch Brothers.” [Clean Technica, 7/31/18 (+)]