Latest news with #U.S.InteriorDepartment
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's push for Southwest uranium will face stiff state review
Mount Taylor viewed from Laguna Pueblo in an undated photo. As President Trump seeks to fast-track uranium mines in the Southwest, experts said a robust state review processwill stand in the way. (Photo by Jack Delano via Library of Congress website) Recent federal activity suggests the Trump administration has two long-stalled uranium mines near New Mexico's Mount Taylor on its radar. Earlier this month, a federal infrastructure agency included Roca Honda and La Jara Mesa uranium mines on a new list of 20 projects nationally that advance 'the President's directive to take immediate action to facilitate domestic production of America's vast mineral resources,' according to a statement from the council. Then last week, the U.S. Interior Department announced that a proposed uranium mine in Utah would be subject to only a 14-day federal review period, shortening what is commonly a years-long process. Source New Mexico spoke with state officials, outside experts and longtime anti-uranium advocates about what defense New Mexico will have against the federal government's efforts to restart uranium mining here for the first time in 50 years. While experts said hard-fought cultural protections are unlikely to present much of an obstacle, they expressed confidence that state regulations will hold up against federal encroachment. 'I think that the realities weigh against the administration's ignorant and uninformed policies that suggest to the public that these kinds of projects will happen overnight,' said Christopher Shuey, a public health researcher closely monitoring uranium developments here. 'They won't.' Private companies have sought to develop the La Jara Mesa and Roca Honda mines for more than a decade, though interest heated up with Trump's executive order seeking to boost domestic energy production. Soon after, Cibola National Forest leaders named both mines priority projects, and then uranium company Energy Fuels then struck a controversial deal with the Navajo Nation that would allow it to transport ore from Roca Honda across the reservation. Meanwhile, Laramide Resources indicated on its state permitting application a desire to expedite the next step of its La Jara Mesa project. DJ Ennis, program manager for the state's Mining Act Reclamation Program, confirmed to Source NM there's been a 'renewed interest' from uranium mining companies seeking to break ground in New Mexico. But even if the federal government tries to fast-track mining here, Ennis said the state will take its time and fully review both mine proposals, which it is empowered to do under the 1993 New Mexico Mining Act, and in lieu of a federal law. Trump administration expedites permitting for Utah uranium mine to a two-week process 'The feds are going to do what the feds are going to do,' Ennis told Source. 'It does affect us, in that it would be good if the state and the feds were on the same pace and page of permitting. But if that is not the case, the default then becomes the state's permitting process, and we have a robust permitting process.' At the federal level, new uranium mines are subject to environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act, which Trump's recent orders have accelerated. But that has no bearing on the state's ongoing review, Ennis said. If it came down to it, Ennis said, the state could issue daily fines and potentially even deploy state police officers to stop uranium extraction at the Roca Honda or La Jara Mesa sites if the companies did so without a state permit. So if Trump were to order a truncated federal review of the La Jara Mesa mine like he did the Velvet-Wood mine in Utah last week, and then the Forest Service issued a rushed environmental impact statement that selected its preferred alternative of extracting uranium, and then company proceeded to break ground, the state would step in and stop it, Ennis said. 'I'm not sure what that looks like, if it involves state police to enforce the order or courts,' Ennis said. 'But it is a state law that we are enforcing.' Eric Jantz, attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, said the state's permit review should offer the public some reassurance that nothing will happen immediately. He also suggested that his organization would consider suing if the federal government sought to fast-track New Mexico uranium mines. Long-stalled NM uranium mines now 'priority projects' at Cibola Forest, leader tells employees 'I suspect that if the Forest Service either ignores its obligations under NEPA because of this executive order or its own regulations, that litigation will probably ensue,' he said. That's because, Jantz said, he sees little basis for an 'energy emergency' that Trump claims is the reason to fast-track the mines. 'If there's one thing to impart, it's that this whole notion of premising expedited environmental reviews on some sort of emergency is preposterous,' he said. 'No emergency exists, and there's no reason why the usual environmental reviews can't continue.' While experts and observers expressed confidence in the state's capacity to hold off a federal push to expedite mining, they said it remains unclear whether efforts by local Indigenous tribes and pueblos to protect Mount Taylor as a cultural and religious site will add another layer of protection. In 2007, as several mining companies moved forward with plans to extract uranium from the Mount Taylor area, five tribes made the unusual step of sharing stories about their ancestral and spiritual connections to the mountain. That rare disclosure of tribal creation myths marked an early milestone in a multi-year battle to create a 400,000-acre Traditional Cultural Property, drawing a line around Mount Taylor recognized by the state of New Mexico. Among other things, the designation aimed to give Indigenous people a voice in opposing uranium or other mining interests. After mining companies sued in 2009, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that the designation should stay intact. Since then, the pueblos have maintained opposition, with the All Pueblo Council of Governors in December issuing a resolution to state regulators that 'Mount Taylor, known by various traditional names is a sacred landscape, central to the cultural identity, traditional practices, and religious activities of numerous Pueblos and other tribal nations.' Even though the Navajo Nation agreed to let uranium eventually be transported from Roca Honda across the reservation, it has also long opposed any new mines in the Mount Taylor area, Stephen Etsitty, the Navajo Environmental Protection Agency director, said recently. Uranium transport through Navajo Nation sparks concerns in New Mexico Designation of Mount Taylor as a traditional cultural property has yet to emerge as an issue in the state permitting process, Ennis said. The designation requires federal and state parties to consult with tribes, but a collision awaits between private mining interests and cultural protections, Ennis said. 'The intersection of those two is a difficult question to answer,' he said. 'I don't know that we'll know until we get to the end of the process.' Shuey, who has advocated against the mines since 2009 as a researcher with the Southwest Research and Information Center, said the recent federal fast-tracking prompted him and colleagues to review what the TCP designation actually meant for protecting Mount Taylor. 'We've been asking this question for the last several weeks,' he said. 'My understanding is that the impact of the TCP would be more of a, 'Pay attention to this site from the standpoint of cultural resources, and make provisions to mitigate any types of impact to cultural resources' type of thing.' Even without an outright ban on mining or around the TCP, Shuey said, he expects greenlighting the mines to take years, during which time opponents will watchdog the process. 'A lot of these folks have lived through the 80 years of the uranium legacy. They've learned across generations of the impacts of mining,' he said. 'And so I think there's a lot of not only institutional memory but institutional knowhow of evaluating mining proposals and offering intelligent and compelling comments and testimonies.' He likes their odds against a Trump administration that seems to 'not be particularly interested in understanding or knowing the impacts of mining,' he said, but instead has a 'weird, visceral notion that we just need more of these minerals for a variety of purposes, and we're going to go get them.'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Equinor says US lifts stop-work order on New York offshore wind farm
(Reuters) -The Trump administration lifted a month-old stop-work order on a major offshore wind facility planned off the coast of New York, the project's developer said on Monday. Norwegian energy company Equinor said construction activities were allowed to resume on Empire Wind, a $5 billion project that is expected to one day provide power for half a million New York homes. "I would like to thank President Trump for finding a solution that saves thousands of American jobs and provides for continued investments in energy infrastructure in the U.S.," Equinor CEO Anders Opedal said in a statement in which he also thanked Norway's leadership for raising the issue with the Trump administration. Officials from the U.S. Interior Department, which issued the order last month, were not immediately available for comment. Equinor purchased the lease during Trump's first administration in 2017, and the 810 megawatt project was approved under former President Joe Biden in 2023.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hobbs says Arizona will defend its Colorado River water, wants other states to accept cuts
Arizona is doing its part and taking its hits to conserve the Colorado River, Gov. Katie Hobbs said, and it's time for upstream states to do the same. The governor assembled a roundtable of water users and officials on May 13 to present what she called a unified front among the state's interests in defending Arizona's share of the Colorado River as time runs short for reaching a deal with other states that use the water. So far, states upstream from Arizona have not offered cutbacks beyond the limits that a paltry snowpack naturally extracts from their farmers. 'It's been more than a little frustrating,' Hobbs said. 'We've come to the table with real solutions, with real proposals. We have real skin in the game,' she said, including billions of dollars in water infrastructure upgrades and in conservation agreements that keep water in the river's reservoirs. 'The upper states need to be willing to take their share as well.' Gathered at Central Arizona Project headquarters with representatives of cities, tribes, farms and hydropower interests — all reliant on the river water that flowing into the CAP's canal — Hobbs said the state seeks a compromise. Otherwise, supplies could become subject to litigation, an outcome she said she's preparing for in part by seeking a legal fund from legislators. 'We need a signal that we're prepared to defend our water, and that's a strong signal,' Hobbs said. Negotiations lag: At odds over water cuts, Colorado River states still seek consensus as deadline nears As the West has warmed and dried, the river that seven states and Mexico share has shrunk. It's a reality that has already brought significant supply cuts to Arizona in particular, and that the states and federal government are trying to address with a new shortage-sharing deal that must be in place by the time the old one expires next year. U.S. Interior Department officials seek to publish a draft of a plan by summer, though it's unclear if the states will be able to agree on something by then or will simply wait to see what federal officials envision. So far, the Rocky Mountain states known collectively as the Upper Basin have declined to specify new cuts they might take, because they say they already suffer the consequences of a reduced snowpack that shortchanges their farmers every year. The federal government has paid some Lower Basin farmers and others to cut back on their demands from Lake Mead's storage bank, and the four Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming argue that their year-in, year-out hardship is unrewarded and largely invisible to water users in the Southwest. Those state also were slower to develop water that the 1922 Colorado River Compact envisioned for them, and therefore continue to use less even as an age of aridification has threatened their ability to send the Lower Basin its compact-prescribed share each year. 'We have hydrologic shortage every year across all four states,' Colorado's river commissioner, Becky Mitchell, said at a February meeting of the Upper Colorado River Commission. 'These are forced cuts based on administration (of water rights) that are not compensated.' Presented with that viewpoint, Hobbs rejected the claim that the Upper Basin is doing its part. 'That's water on paper,' the governor said. 'It's not real water. We're putting real water on the table and they're not, and they're not feeling any impact based on the system changes.' Questions linger: Trump's funding freeze muddies water outlook on the drought-stricken Colorado River Recognizing that the Lower Basin — Arizona, California and Nevada — use more of the water, those states have together proposed absorbing the first 1.5 million acre-feet of new cuts, enough water to support millions of households. But they want the Upper Basin to agree to share equally in any further cuts that might be necessary to keep the river flowing past Glen Canyon and Hoover dams in especially dry years. (Arizona's full allocation of Colorado River water, including on-river uses such as Yuma farms, is 2.8 million acre-feet. It is second to California's 4.4 million.) So far, the Upper Basin has not agreed to send more water, and the former Biden administration did not include that option in the alternatives it began analyzing before leaving office. Arizona Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke said Trump administration officials appear ready to help reach a 'collaborative agreement.' Because the previous administration's initial approach did not suggest obvious risk of new cuts for the Upper Basin, he said, it may have reduced incentives to deal. Discussions with Interior officials now suggest that they're 'more willing to tweak alternatives' in a way that can prod collaboration. 'This administration is taking more of the tack that we asked for, which is to show risk for both basins,' Buschatzke said. The two basins continue to talk, but he said he could not rate the chances of reaching a deal this summer. The Central Arizona Project has already absorbed a reduction of nearly a third of its normal entitlement to the river, partly from voluntary conservation measures and partly because the expiring shortage-sharing agreement lumped the first steep cuts on Arizona. Those mandated cuts reflect the lower priority that the state accepted decades ago in its effort to secure federal authorization for CAP. CAP Board President Terry Goddard told The Arizona Republic that what's left is critical to the region's health and the U.S. commitment to tribal water rights. He said he doubts it would be legal to further reduce canal flows to those users in the Phoenix and Tucson areas. Besides seeking conservation in other states, he said, it could be necessary to shift some of Arizona's next cuts to the Yuma area, which generally has older, superior water rights. Whether by cooperation or eventual emergency legislation, he said, it will be necessary to spread the pain. 'It's a time of shortage an everybody's going to pay the price,' Goddard said. 'We've already paid ours.' Want more water news like this? Sign up for AZ Climate, The Republic's weekly environment and climate newsletter Tribes including the Tohono O'odham, Ak-Chin and Gila River Indian Community attended the roundtable and said they have collaborated with cities and others to keep water in Lake Mead, and now it's incumbent on the United States to keep water flowing to them through the CAP canal. Ak-Chin Chairman Gabriel Lopez said the Colorado is his tribe's only reliable source for irrigating its 16,000 acres of farms. The U.S. granted the water in a 1978 settlement meant to make up for other users' depletion of the groundwater that previously supported the community, he said, and is a sacred trust. 'Tribes like us hold senior water rights,' Lopez said. 'We expect these sacred and good-faith obligation agreements to be honored.' Phoenix and Tucson officials noted that they have dramatically reduced per-capita use over decades and in recent years struck deals to keep some of their water in Lake Mead — a case that other cities around the watershed can also make. A representative from the Arizona Power Authority said low water kept Hoover Dam from generating a third of its contracted power last year, driving up prices for replacement power. An attorney for Pinal County farm groups said their conversion to groundwater as a replacement for previous CAP cuts will be in jeopardy if there's no baseflow in the canal to help move the groundwater to where it's needed. The economic development group Valley Partnership said it's the certainty surrounding CAP water that has allowed Phoenix and its ascendant semiconductor industry to thrive. Hobbs agreed, and said computer chip manufacturing in the area makes Arizona's water security a national priority. 'Our growing economy is not just important to Arizona, but it is important to the nation's economy, to national security, to moving manufacturing back to America,' Hobbs said. 'This conversation isn't just about Arizona. It's about our country.' Brandon Loomis covers environmental and climate issues for The Arizona Republic and Reach him at Environmental coverage on and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Sign up for AZ Climate, our weekly environment newsletter, and follow The Republic environmental reporting team at and @azcenvironment on Facebook and Instagram. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gov. Katie Hobbs says other Colorado River states must cut water use
The Independent
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
A former Trump official backs World Heritage status for the vast Okefenokee Swamp
President Donald Trump's former agriculture secretary is urging the administration to support adding a vast, federally protected wildlife refuge in the Okefenokee Swamp to a list of globally treasured natural and cultural sites recognized by the United Nations. The swamp near the Georgia-Florida state line was nominated under President Joe Biden, whose priorities Trump has worked swiftly to dismantle during his first 100 days since returning to the White House. Now the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is being touted by Sonny Perdue, a former two-term Georgia governor who led the Department of Agriculture during Trump's first term. So far, only 26 places in the United States have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites. The U.S. Interior Department put the refuge up for consideration in December. In an April 17 letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Purdue wrote that seeking the rare distinction poses 'an extraordinary opportunity to preserve a national treasure while also delivering incredible economic benefits to the state of Georgia.' He noted it's been endorsed by Republicans and Democrats. 'This designation is not a partisan issue,' Perdue wrote in his letter, which was first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "By supporting this effort, we can ensure the Okefenokee's legacy as a natural wonder while fostering growth and prosperity for the communities surrounding it." The Okefenokee is the largest national wildlife refuge east of the Mississippi River, sprawling across more than 400,000 acres (161,800 hectares) in southeast Georgia. Supporters say making it a World Heritage site would boost its profile as one of the world's last intact blackwater swamps, which get their dark tea-colored waters from decaying vegetation. The Okefenokee is home to abundant alligators, stilt-legged wood storks, endangered woodpeckers and more than 400 other animal species. The Interior Department 'remains committed to supporting the pursuit of World Heritage Site recognition for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge,' said a statement emailed Wednesday by Alyse Sharpe, an department spokesperson. Designation as a World Heritage site wouldn't impose any added restrictions or regulations for the Okefenokee. Nor would it directly affect a company's plan to mine minerals just outside the Okefenokee refuge. Twin Pines Minerals has been awaiting final permits from Georgia environmental regulators for more than a year. The company says it can extract minerals without doing harm, but scientists and other opponents have warned that mining near the swamp's bowl-like rim could cause irreparable damage. Since the 1970s, the World Heritage list has recognized more than 1,200 sites worldwide for having 'outstanding universal value' to all of humanity. U.S. sites on the list include national parks like the Grand Canyon in Arizona and treasured manmade landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty. The U.S. government had listed the Okefenokee refuge as a 'tentative' nominee since 1982. It started moving in earnest in 2023 as the nonprofit Okefenokee Swamp Park, which operates boat tours and other concessions within the refuge, signed an agreement to work on an application with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge. Okefenokee Swamp Park raised $600,000 to pay for the nearly 300-page application packet, said Kim Bednarek, the nonprofit's executive director. The bid for World Heritage status still needs U.S. government support. Bendarek said pending steps include an Okefenokee site visit by experts evaluating the nomination for UNESCO's World Heritage Committee. She said a final vote isn't expected before the summer of 2026. 'The fact that it happened under the Biden administration is not pivotal,' Bendarek said. 'What's pivotal is this is an outstanding place of beauty and diversity that the United States can be proud of. We do expect and hope for the full support of the Trump administration.'
Washington Post
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Multiple Post honors at the 2025 Poynter Journalism Prizes
We are happy to share that The Post has earned a win and multiple finalists at the 2025 Poynter Journalism Prizes. The investigative series 'Indian Boarding Schools' has won the Dori J. Maynard Justice Award, which recognizes reporting that shines a light on ignorance, racism and other systemic obstacles. This is the second year in a row that a Post investigative series has won the Maynard Award. Sari Horwitz learned about the largely hidden era of Indian boarding schools years ago while reporting on criminal justice on tribal lands. Dana Hedgpeth, a member of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian tribe in North Carolina had spent several months in 2023 gathering survivors' accounts of mistreatment at the schools. Their mutual interest became the impetus for an 18-month investigation that ultimately involved the work of 60 Post journalists. The result was a revelatory and visually arresting series that harnessed deep, primary-source investigative reporting and novel storytelling to present the fullest public accounting yet of the impact of the U.S. government's boarding school program. The winning work was co-authored by Emmanuel Martinez, Scott Higham, Salwan Georges, Joyce Sohyun Lee, Andrew Ba Tran, Nilo Tabrizy, Jahi Chikwendiu and Toluse Olorunnipa. The investigation documented that 3,104 students died at the schools between 1828 and 1970 — more than three times the number the U.S. Interior Department reported in its own investigation. Children died from disease, from malnutrition and, in some cases, as a result of mistreatment or abuse. In June, two weeks after The Post published its story on sexual abuse at schools run by the Catholic Church, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued its first formal apology for the church's role in inflicting a 'history of trauma' on Native Americans. And in October, President Joe Biden apologized to Native Americans for the U.S. government's role in creating and operating the boarding schools. Biden described the schools as 'a sin on our souls' and highlighted a survivor who was in The Post. In announcing the award, Poynter said: 'The Selection Board had high praise for this work, citing it among the contest's best. This 18-month investigation gives the fullest public accounting of the impact of the U.S. government's boarding school program, including extensive reporting on rampant abuse by Catholic priests, sisters and others in charge of Indian children. The judges called it a series that stays with you forever – haunting, beautifully done, searing, probing, important, with stunning findings and writing.' A separate entry from The Post, the 'Abused by the Badge' series, was recognized as a finalist for the Maynard Award. This series was also a finalist for the Batten Medal, which recognizes exceptional journalism that makes a difference to the lives of people and their communities. Amongst the findings of this groundbreaking, two-year investigation, The Post identified at least 1,800 police officers who were charged with crimes involving child sexual abuse from 2005 through 2022. Reporters demonstrated how authorities have enabled predators by botching background checks and investigations, giving generous plea deals to officers who admitted to raping and groping minors, and failing to stop abusive school police. These two finalist entries were authored by Jessica Contrera, Jenn Abelson, John D. Harden, Carolyn Van Houten, Hayden Godfrey, Nate Jones, Alice Li and Tucker Harris. 'Capital Letters,' an ongoing series from The Post's local desk, headed by Lisa Lednicer, was also a finalist for the Roy Peter Clark Prize for Excellence in Short Writing, which honors compelling journalistic writing of less than 800 words. These ongoing series of pieces are character-driven, scene-based narratives of no longer than 750 words. They aim to capture what it's like to live in the District, Virginia and Maryland at this moment in history. The entry included just a small selection of this work, with a stories about a D.C. homeless shelter by Justin Wm. Moyer, a horticulturist at the U.S. Botanic Garden by Clarence Williams and a trumpeter who carries on a longstanding Memorial Day tradition by Michael Laris. Please join us in congratulating all our winners and finalists, whose work from across 2024 is thoroughly deserving of these recognitions.
