Latest news with #RyanZinke
Associated Press
4 hours ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Federal government OK's expansion of Bull Mountains coal mine
Citing a 'national energy emergency,' the federal government gave a green light to a long-delayed expansion of Signal Peak Energy's Bull Mountains coal mine near Billings. The expansion of the underground mine, which exports coal to Japan and South Korea, has been repeatedly delayed by court orders finding that the federal government's environmental vetting of the project was inadequate. 'President Trump's leadership in declaring a national energy emergency is allowing us to act decisively, cut bureaucratic delays and secure America's future through energy independence and strategic exports,' Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Friday in a press release. Earlier this year the department made a favorable decision about the expansion using new 'alternative arrangements for compliance' with the National Environmental Policy Act. Previous permitting attempts were tripped up in court for not assessing impacts of greenhouse gas emissions released when burning the coal. The delays date back to 2009. 'They didn't do the proper analysis. They didn't do any climate analysis originally,' Anne Hedges, director of the Montana Environmental Information Center, said Friday. In the first Trump administration, former Interior Secretary Ryan 'Zinke did the second analysis, and it had, like, nothing in it,' Hedges said Friday of one past assessment. Zinke now represents Montana's western U.S. House district, but as Interior secretary he spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt by Trump to approve the expansion during the president's first term. The most recent rejection of the expansion occurred in 2023, when U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the environmental consequences of burning publicly owned coal were still being ignored by the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. Molloy stopped the expansion of the mine until OSMRE completed an environmental impact statement of the project that analyzed the costs of carbon and whether those costs were worth expanding the mine. In early 2024, Signal Peak announced that if it couldn't access more federal coal, it would run out by the end of 2025. The mine stayed operational by turning to state-owned coal within the footprint of its operations, a move that boosted royalties paid to the state, but required $40 million worth of new hydraulic roof supports known as longwall shields. 'After years of delay, including four rounds of federal environmental reviews and multiple public comment periods, this reauthorization … brings life into a mine that was within months of significantly curtailing operations,' said Signal Peak spokesperson Mike Dawson, in a Friday phone call. There were 251 people working at the mine in the first quarter of the year, during which Signal Peak produced 1.8 million tons of coal, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. In 2024, the Bull Mountains mine produced 7 million tons. Opponents of the mine balked at the Interior department citing a national energy crisis for approving an export coal mine expansion. 'We've been waiting on this analysis for 16 years. However, we are disturbed that this decision relies on a falsely concocted 'national energy emergency' executive order to silence the rural, working people whose land, water, and livelihoods will continue to be threatened by mining activity with minimal oversight,' said Roundup resident Pat Thiele, vice-chair of the Bull Mountain Land Alliance. Thiele's comments were issued in a press release Friday. Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, issued a press release Friday praising the Interior's decision. 'Energy security is national security. The coal mined by Signal Peak will not only protect America's energy independence, but will be a source of affordable, reliable energy for our allies, instead of forcing them to rely upon the enemies of Western Civilization to keep their lights on,' Gianforte said. ___ This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
While Public Land Advocates Celebrate House Bill Victory, Several Troubling Provisions Were Passed
An incendiary provision that would have required the sale of more than 500,000 acres of BLM land in Nevada and Utah was removed from the federal budget bill late Wednesday, however the legislation working its way through Congress will still reshape how Americans engage with their public land. The mega reconciliation bill, which cleared the House of Representatives last night by a single vote, includes cuts to land-management agency budgets, acceleration of logging and mining on public land, and the requirement that nearly every acre of eligible federal land be opened to oil and gas leasing. Also remaining in the bill is a green light for mining activity near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the most-visited wilderness area in the United States. The budget package now goes to the Senate, where it's expected to face further revisions — and further opportunities for the public to influence their senators. Led by all House Democrats and a coalition of break-away Republicans including Rep. Ryan Zinke (R — Montana), two controversial elements were stripped from the House version of the budget bill at the last minute: a requirement to sell 547,000 acres of BLM land in Utah and Nevada, and approval of the so-called Ambler Road in Alaska. The road would provide all-season access to mining claims in the pristine Brooks Range. While the public-land sale provision got most of the attention from the conservation community in the weeks since it was slipped in as a last-minute amendment, the Ambler Road withdrawal was cheered by Hunters & Anglers for the Brooks Range, a coalition of 65 groups that has resisted its construction for years. 'In every opportunity for public comment on the proposed Ambler Industrial Road, the hunting and fishing community has stood up and spoken out against this project that risks the wild and remote qualities of the Brooks Range,' said the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a member of the coalition, in a prepared statement. The balance of the natural-resources portion of the budget bill retains many of the elements on its initial draft. They include the reinstatement of withdrawn mineral leases for metal mining in the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, opening vast areas of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, cuts to land-management agencies that are expected to impact visitation as early as this summer, an eye-popping expansion of coal mining and timber harvesting on public land, expedited permitting, and prohibition on protests of most natural-resources regulations. 'Selling our shared public lands to pay for tax cuts for the rich was and is an awful, un-American idea, and we appreciate Rep Zinke's work to keep it out of the bill,' says Lydia Weiss, senior director for government relations at The Wilderness Society. 'His colleagues never should have considered it in the first place.' Weiss says that the conservation community has had a 'destabilizing' week. 'On Monday this was the worst bill in environmental history,' she said. 'Late Wednesday night some of the worst provisions were dropped. We are relieved, and yet this remains the worst bill in environmental history.' Here's a look at the most contentious elements of the bill that the Senate will consider as early as Friday. The bill would explicitly re-establish mineral leases sought by the mining company Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of the Chilean conglomerate Antofagasta PLC. The company plans to develop an underground copper, nickel, cobalt, and platinum metals mine about nine miles southeast of Ely, the gateway community to the Boundary Waters. Developers claim the project would bring more than 750 full-time jobs to the area. Critics claim it could pollute one of the last remaining pristine waterways on the continent, which attracts some 150,000 visitors every year. The bill also rescinds Public Land Order 7917, which withdrew from mineral leasing 225,000 acres of the Superior National Forest in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters. The acres are expected to be available for sulfide-ore mining. The bill requires four oil and gas lease sales in ANWR's Coastal Plain over the next 10 years, mandating that no less than 400,000 acres be offered in each sale, and that sales be conducted in each odd year for the next decade. The bill further reissues canceled oil leases by accepting the highest bid valid from the January 2021 lease sale. All previous environmental analyses regarding oil development on Alaska's Coastal Plain are to be rescinded within 90 days of the bill's passage. The bill mandates quarterly lease sales in Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Alaska, but the budget act also mandates lease sales in 'any state where there is land available for oil and gas leasing under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920.' This includes federal land adjacent to national parks and monuments. In addition to cuts mandated by the Department of Government Efficiency and reduced annual budgets for federal land-management agencies, the bill eliminates all remaining Inflation Reduction Act funding for the National Parks Service, including an estimated $267 million for critical park staffing needs. The National Parks Conservation Association estimates work-force reductions of 33 percent since 2010, including 13 percent this year. The bill requires a 25 percent increase in timber harvest over 2024 levels on both Forest Service and BLM lands, and apparently circumvents the 2001 Roadless Rule by allowing logging to occur in some Inventoried Roadless Areas. While frivolous lawsuits have delayed and stopped many public-lands developments, the bill doubles down on eliminating public appeals. It would revise the National Environmental Policy Act to allow private project sponsors to pay an optional fee of 125 percent of the estimated cost of a NEPA analysis for expedited review. Decisions in this opt-in arrangement would be immune from judicial review. Most leasing provisions in the bill have a rider that makes those projects immune from litigation. The House version of what's called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has been transmitted to the Senate. It's unclear whether the Senate will simply ratify the House version or decide to write its own budget bill. If the latter, then the entire bill drafting process will begin in respective Senate committees. The portions of the budget that deal with public-land management, oil and gas and mineral development, and logging will go to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. That committee, like its counterpart in the House, has been charged with finding $1 billion in either savings or revenue to contribute to the overall budget. 'The House Natural Resources Committee over-performed and raised, through their policy recommendations, close to $14 billion,' observes Weiss. 'It's possible the Senate committee could try to match that or stick closer to their $1 billion contribution. All those details still have to be worked out.' Read Next: House Passes Bill That Would Deregulate Suppressors, Eliminate the $200 Tax Stamp For hunters, anglers, outdoor recreators, and other folks whose protests to the land sales caused that provision to be dropped may need to ready themselves for another campaign, depending on the budget's path through the Senate. 'We are very hopeful that the Senate reads the room,' says Weiss. 'Selling off our public lands cannot pass in the House. The more the American people learn about what the House just passed, the more certain we are that the Senate will not follow suit.'
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Zinke leads push to strip public lands sale from federal budget bill
Montana U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke speaks at a press conference announcing the launch of the bipartisan Public Lands Caucus on May 7, 2025. (Courtesy photo) Calling it his 'San Juan Hill,' a reference to a Spanish-American War battle victory by Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, Montana U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke announced Wednesday he had successfully led a bipartisan charge to remove a provision to sell public lands from the federal budget bill. The provision to sell off roughly 450,000 acres of federal land in Utah and Nevada passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee in early May, but met opposition from conservation groups and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The proposed sale and exchanges of land involved areas near Las Vegas, Reno and St. George, Utah, aimed at allowing for affordable housing developments on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management Land. Zinke, a Republican and former Interior Secretary who formed the new bipartisan Public Lands Caucus the day after the provision was adopted in committee, has been a strong opponent to the sale of federal public land. 'I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands. Once the land is sold, we will never get it back. God isn't creating more land,' Zinke said in a press release on Wednesday. 'Public access, sportsmanship, grazing, tourism… our entire Montanan way of life is connected to our public lands.' The House Rules Committee removed the provision from the budget bill after opposition from several Western Republicans, including Zinke, Rep. Troy Downing, R-Montana, and Public Lands Caucus Vice Chairman Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho. The opposition to public lands sale threatened to derail President Donald Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' a sweeping 1,116-page bill that contains the administration's spending priorities. With the federal land transfer portion struck from the reconciliation package, Zinke and Downing both endorsed the 'Big Beautiful Bill,' which includes extending the Trump Administration's tax cuts from 2017, increasing funding for the border wall, Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and temporarily eliminates taxes on overtime work and tips. The bill could also cut funding from programs such as Medicaid and SNAP benefits, which states may have to fund in order to keep service levels intact. It also includes implementing work requirements for Medicaid within two years and accelerates the phase-out of clean energy tax credits enacted by former President Joe Biden. The bill, which passed an initial House vote by a single vote, still faces opposition for its price tag. The Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates it would add nearly $4 trillion to the nation's debt. Multiple conservation groups released statements praising the work done by Zinke, and thousands of constituents nationwide, to remove the public lands sale amendment from the bill. 'Tens of thousands of Montana hunters, anglers, and other outdoor enthusiasts have been flooding the Capitol switchboard, attending weekend rallies, and writing letters and postcards to Congress, asking that the public lands transfer amendment be killed,' said Mike Mershon, board chair and president of the Montana Wildlife Federation, in a statement. . 'Selling our shared public lands to pay for tax cuts for the rich was and is an awful, un-American idea, and we appreciate Rep Zinke's work to keep it out of the bill. His colleagues never should have considered it in the first place,' Lydia Weiss, senior director for government relations at The Wilderness Society, said in a statement. Montana Conservation Voters, Trout Unlimited, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, MeatEater and other groups also released statements. The success in appealing to Republican leaders to make the change marked a strong win for the new members of the Public Lands Caucus. Downing said in a statement that he was pleased the bill removed the public lands sale, and that it includes keeping the Bull Mountains Mine in Musselshell County operational. 'Our legislation delivers historic tax cuts, secures our borders, strengthens key programs for future generations, eliminates waste, fraud, and abuse, and sets the country on a path toward fiscal responsibility,' Downing said. 'Our work is not done, but Republicans will not rest until this once-in-a-generation legislation is signed by the President.'
E&E News
22-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Republicans strip public land sales from reconciliation
House Republicans have scrapped public land sales from the latest version of their tax cut, energy and border security megabill, according to text released Wednesday evening. Several House and Senate Republicans, including Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, had complained about language that would sell or swap hundreds of thousands of acres in Utah and Nevada. Negotiators also came up with what some lawmakers are calling a compromise on the fate of Inflation Reduction Act tax incentives. The new language tightens requirements for renewables but would be more generous to nuclear. Advertisement Republicans also appeared to have rolled back a provision popular with conservatives that would have required congressional approval of major rules. House Republicans unveiled a so-called manager's amendment to the latest text of their budget reconciliation package. Leaders were hoping to release the updated text earlier Wednesday, but disagreement between moderates and conservatives delayed the process. A floor vote could happen in the coming hours. Reporter Amelia Davidson contributed.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House Republicans Kill Provision to Sell Public Lands
Republican House leaders have pulled a controversial provision from the federal budget bill that would have required the sale or transfer of some 500,000 acres of federal public land in the West. Late this afternoon, leadership of the House Rules Committee removed the provision through a mechanism called a 'manager's amendment' after being pressured by maverick House Republicans. 'This was my San Juan Hill,' said Montana Republican Ryan Zinke in a press release. 'I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands. Once the land is sold, we will never get it back. God isn't creating more land. Public access, sportsmanship, grazing, tourism… our entire Montanan way of life is connected to our public lands.' The land-sale amendment to the House Natural Resources budget has inflamed conservationists and threatened to be a motivating election issue for hunters, anglers, and outdoor recreationists. The provision was stripped after at least six Western Republicans, led by Zinke, said they wouldn't support the budget if it contained the land-sale amendment. The amendment from Nevada Republican Mark Amodei and Utah Republican Celeste Maloy, slipped into the budget at the last minute earlier this month, at first seemed to call for selling about 11,000 acres in southern Utah. Then details emerged that it also included a requirement to sell or trade another 500,000 acres in Nevada. Conservationists and public land advocates worried that if Congress established a precedent for selling federal lands with no public process or clear understanding of the acreages involved, the pattern could continue with wholesale sales of public lands elsewhere. 'I think every hunter in America was calling their [Congress] member with a note that said 10 days ago this was 11,000 acres for housing. Then it was 350,000 acres. Then 500,000 acres,' says David Willms, vice president for public lands for the National Wildlife Federation. 'They were saying maybe we shouldn't be including something in [budget] reconciliation at the eleventh hour if no one actually knows how much land is at stake, and that blindsided the public. They were telling their congressmen, 'Pull it.'' The land-sale provision threatened to derail The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, the mega-bill that contains President Trump's spending priorities and a permanent tax cut. The bill is projected to increase the national deficit by up to $4 trillion while reorienting many federal agencies missions and capabilities. While the toxic land-sale amendment is out of the budget bill, which will go to the full House for a floor vote later this week, it could be inserted back into the bill when it goes to the Senate. Utah Republican Mike Lee, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a staunch champion of selling or transferring federal land to the states, is among several senators who could revive the amendment. Congressional leaders have said they want to pass the budget by Memorial Day. Any substantive revision on the Senate side would require concurrence from the House, and that might push passage past the holiday. 'We extend our deep appreciation to Representative Ryan Zinke and Representative Mike Simpson for publicly opposing language in the House budget reconciliation bill that would sell off and sell out our public lands legacy,' said Kaden McArthur, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers director of policy and government relations, in a prepared statement. 'As the Senate considers a budget reconciliation bill, hunters and anglers across the nation must continue the groundswell of opposition to public land sales so it is understood that this issue is a line in the sand that we will not allow to be crossed.' Editor's Note: A previous Outdoor Life story referenced a report from onX stating that approximately 1.5 million acres would be sold if the budget amendment were passed. However that report was inaccurate. The true number of acres that were up for disposal was approximately 500,000.
