Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Forest Service withdraws permit for Uinta Basin Railway in Utah
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Thursday, January 18, 2024
Union Pacific train transporting oil. Credit: bossco, Flickr ([link removed])
On Wednesday, the U.S. Forest Service withdrew ([link removed]) a federal permit for a section of the Uinta Basin Railway project, a proposed 88-mile rail route that would transport crude oil from oil fields in eastern Utah to the Union Pacific railroad. If completed, the project would allow millions of gallons of crude oil to be transported through delicate ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains and along the Colorado River, which provides water for more than 40 million people across the West.
This is the latest development in a string of events that have halted the construction of the railway. After the Surface Transportation Board approved ([link removed]) the project in December 2021, the Forest Service approved ([link removed]) a permit in 2022 that would allow a 12-mile section of the railway to be built through Ashley National Forest in Utah. In August 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned ([link removed]) the Surface Transportation Board's approval of the project. Now, with the Forest Service's withdrawal of the permit, proponents of the railway will have to think of new ways to revive the project.
Senator Michael Bennet and Representative Joe Neguse of Colorado applauded ([link removed]) the Forest Service's decision to withdraw the permit. Bennet and Neguse have opposed the railway project since 2022, calling on groups like the Biden administration’s Council on Environmental Quality ([link removed]) and the Environmental Protection Agency ([link removed]) to fully consider the effects of the railway on Colorado’s communities, watersheds, and forests.
New report shows that national monuments are the heart of the West
A new report ([link removed]) from the The Mountain Pact—a coalition of local elected officials in over 100 Western mountain communities—shows that across the board, from county commissioners, mayors, and council members to community members and everyday voters across the West, national monuments are extremely popular. The report explains that national monuments provide conservation and economic benefits, and that Western voters want ([link removed]) elected officials to support the designation of new monuments. The report also spotlights new national monuments President Biden could designate or expand, including Chuckwalla National Monument and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument expansion in California.
Correction: Wolves would greatly benefit bighorn sheep populations in the Sierra Nevada
In yesterday's edition of Look West, one of the Quick Hits ([link removed]) implied that reining in wolves would help increase Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep populations. This was a mistake—reining in mountain lions, not wolves, would benefit bighorn sheep in this region.
** Quick hits
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Report: National monuments are the heart of the West, and communities want President Biden to designate more of them
The Mountain Pact ([link removed])
BLM releases new plan to dramatically expand Western solar
E&E News ([link removed]) | The Hill ([link removed]) | Nevada Independent ([link removed]) | Arizona Republic ([link removed])
House committee passes energy, outdoor recreation bills
E&E News ([link removed])
Bird populations are declining. Some are in your neighborhood
Washington Post ([link removed])
Colorado doubles penalties for leaking pipelines, but regulators left open a reporting loophole
Colorado Sun ([link removed])
Tribe sues to force U.S. Army to hand over remains of 2 children
Axios ([link removed])
Feds to draw up plan to return grizzly bears to Idaho, Montana
E&E News ([link removed])
Survey shows Montana’s general population has increasing tolerance of wolves
Daily Montanan ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” National monuments are important to Western communities, and protecting public lands has always been a bipartisan effort and one that all Americans can celebrate. We continue to urge President Biden to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to protect more places with cultural and scientific significance as national monuments.”
—Anna Peterson, executive director of The Mountain Pact ([link removed])
** Picture This
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@katmainpp ([link removed])
Amalik Bay, on the Katmai coast, is both a National Historic Landmark and an Archeological District listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's one of only five places in the state of Alaska to have both designations.
This beautiful coastline has nurtured human communities for thousands of years. People here hunted sea mammals, fished, and harvested the bounty of the intertidal zone. Some archeological sites here are more than 7,000 years old. Imagine that people settled in this small corner of the world more than two thousand years before the first boulders were rolled into place at Stonehenge and three thousand years before Egyptians built the largest Giza pyramids.
📸NPS/D. Kopshever
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