** Federal scientists hold the line against regulatory rollbacks
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Monday, March 30, 2020
The Garden Wall Weather Station adjacent to Glacier National Park. Photo: U.S. Geological Survey ([link removed])
The unsung heroes of efforts to defend environmental regulations from the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda are the dedicated scientists ([link removed]) working in federal agencies. Scientific data that is embedded in technical analyses associated with agency rule makings is critical for underpinning the legal arguments to defend against rollbacks to environmental rules.
According to dozens of interviews conducted by the New York Times ([link removed]) , many current and former federal employees say it's a sense of civic and professional duty that drives them to ensure that science plays a role to inform agency decision and protect public health and safety. That includes Elizabeth Southerland, a former employee at the Environmental Protection Agency who resigned in 2017, who said ([link removed]) , "In previous administrations, we did not always agree with the policies, but when we did new rules, we spent years reviewing the data, the science, the economics, as the law says to do. But what these guys have done is come in and repeal and replace, without relying on data and science and facts.”
Disregard for scientific data has been a key factor for the Trump Administration's dismal record defending its decisions in court. According to data collected by the Institute for Policy Integrity ([link removed]) , the courts have ruled against regulatory rollbacks initiated by this administration 69 times, only ruling in favor five times.
** Mining company with Bernhardt ties moves closer to opening road through national park in Alaska
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Trilogy Metals, Inc. hired Interior Secretary David Bernhardt's former law firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP to lobby for the construction of a 211-mile road ([link removed]) through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve to mine for copper, gold, zinc and molybdenum. The Bureau of Land Management published its final review ([link removed]) of the road last Friday, acknowledging in its analysis that the road could expose Native Alaskans in a remote area to disease, fragment caribou migration corridors, and damage Arctic tundra. The BLM will make a decision on the project after its environmental analysis has been made publicly available for 30 days.
Quick hits
** Wyoming governor approves oil and gas tax relief for industry amid price fall
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Casper Star-Tribune ([link removed])
** Federal scientists hold the line against regulatory rollbacks
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New York Times ([link removed])
** Mining company with Bernhardt ties proposes road through Alaska national park
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Bloomberg Environment ([link removed])
** Utah mayor postpones vote on mining project until public can safely participate in person
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Deseret News ([link removed])
** Glacier, Arches & Canyonlands National Parks join growing list of parks making decision to close amid coronavirus
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Associated Press ([link removed])
** Opinion: Reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone has brought science and tourism to the park
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New York Times ([link removed])
** Study shows national monuments boost rural economies
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Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])
** Opinion: Multiple use principle must be restored for public lands
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Billings Gazette ([link removed])
Quote of the day
Rural communities in the U.S. are changing and their economies transitioning away from a reliance on resource-dependent industries. Our results suggest that protecting some of these public lands as national monuments does not exacerbate these trends, but rather could even be reversing them and creating a new set of economic forces oriented around the historic, cultural, and scenic amenities these public lands provide.”
—Findings from Resources for the Future's ([link removed]) study on the economic impact of national monument designations
Picture this
** @ ([link removed]) Interior ([link removed])
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This gorgeous pic @BryceCanyonNPS ([link removed]) makes us want to put on a coat & climb through the screen #Utah ([link removed]) #VirtualVisit ([link removed])
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