Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Trump 2.0 vs. the planet
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Wednesday, November 13
The People's Climate March in Washington, DC, April 2017. Photo: Susan Melkisethian, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ([link removed])
One week after the victory of President-elect Donald Trump, the implications of his second term on climate change and the West are coming into focus. As Sammy Roth writes in the L.A. Times' Boiling Point newsletter ([link removed]) , Trump's return means "the same types of people who populated his first administration—many of them fossil fuel lobbyists and climate deniers—will be back in power." Trump's agenda, including the withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and the trying to repeal oil and gas reforms in the Inflation Reduction Act, prioritizes fossil fuels and deregulation.
Jonathan Thompson, in his Land Desk newsletter ([link removed]) , takes a deep dive into what Trump policies may mean for public lands. "[J]udging from Trump’s platform, promises, and his first-term record," Thompson writes, "we do know he and his minions will set out to dismantle the administrative state, which is to say gut federal agencies, replace experienced staffers with Trump loyalists, and remove government protections on human health, the environment, and worker safety."
Thompson anticipates a reversal of the Biden-era ban on drilling near Chaco Culture National Historic Park and Colorado's Thompson Divide, and an attempt to dismantle the Bureau of Land Management's Public Lands Rule, which provides a framework for conservation and recreation as an explicit use of public lands, alongside grazing and extraction.
Over at Heated, Emily Atkin writes about the implications of Trump's EPA nominee ([link removed]) , Lee Zeldin. Atkin notes that Zeldin's first tweet ([link removed]) after his nomination said he would "use the EPA to 'restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI'—three things that have nothing to do with human health or the environment."
With that assault on the planet already taking shape, Atkin looks at the prospects of more grassroots activism during Trump's second term. The Sunrise Movement plans to expand the school strikes ([link removed]) that made headlines in 2020, and eventually grow to a general worker strike if Trump's climate policies get even more extreme.
Correction: Tuesday's Look West said that Lee Zeldin was a former congressman from Florida. He is from New York.
** Quick hits
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How Gavin Newsom is "Trump-proofing" California
Politico ([link removed]) | Los Angeles Times ([link removed])
Coal barons start backtracking on promises while Exxon CEO warns GOP to not go too far
Bloomberg ([link removed]) (Regulations) | Bloomberg ([link removed]) (Coal CEO) | Politico ([link removed])
DC Circuit delivers shock ruling invalidating White House CEQ power to issue enviro regulations
Politico ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])
Trump win could revive disastrous BLM move to Grand Junction
Daily Sentinel ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])
Utah lawmakers hint at "war" in land grab lawsuit
The New Republic ([link removed])
BLM sage-grouse plan met with cautious optimism and skepticism
Boise State Public Radio ([link removed]) | Wyofile ([link removed])
Tucson takes another step toward protecting Santa Cruz River
KOLD ([link removed]) | Arizona Public Media ([link removed])
Opinion: The fight to tell America's history on public lands will continue under Trump
San Antonio Express-News ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” We gotta get used to talking to regular-ass people. We have to be creating campaigns that aren’t just getting people that agree with us to donate $5, but that are getting people out, knocking on doors and having the millions of conversations needed to actually bring new people into the movement.”
—Kaniela Ing, national director of the Green New Deal Network, Heated ([link removed])
** Picture This
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@usinterior ([link removed])
Look at those giant paws! Canada lynx have large feet that act like snowshoes, keeping them nimble as they saunter through deep, powdery snow. As elusive creatures, they hunt in the shadow hours of dawn and dusk for their favorite meal, the snowshoe hare.
Photo by NPS
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