Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Protestors rally at Utah capitol against state's public lands lawsuit
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Monday, January 13, 2025
Photo: Kate Groetzinger, Center for Western Priorities.
BREAKING: The U.S. Supreme Court announced today ([link removed]) that it will not hear Utah’s land grab lawsuit, which seeks control of federal public lands in the state.
Protestors gathered on the steps of the Utah state capitol on Saturday to rally against ([link removed]) Utah's land grab lawsuit. In August 2024, Utah Governor Spencer Cox and then-Attorney General Sean Reyes filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s authority to manage 18.5 million acres of federal public land within the state of Utah. The state has paid over $500,000 to a law firm championing the attack ([link removed]) on federal control over public lands and has budgeted twice as much on a media campaign to influence public opinion.
The protest lasted for two hours, and included speeches ([link removed]) by Utah Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, poet and conservationist Terry Tempest Williams, Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, a member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Louise Fernandez, the rally’s first speaker and an environmental biology student at Salt Lake Community College. “For far too long, these lands, our lands, have been under constant threat. Time and time again, those in power have sought to strip these lands of their beauty, essence and life,” said ([link removed]) Fernandez. “The urgency has never been greater and the need for action has never been more pressing.”
Utah’s media campaign includes billboards, print, TV and radio ads, and a website advocating for the state’s position in the lawsuit. The PR campaign, along with attorney fees, has cost taxpayers over $1 million ([link removed]) . “Those lawsuits are spending hundreds of millions of dollars of our state budget that could go to education, food security, health care,” Senate Minority Leader Escamilla said ([link removed]) .
** Quick hits
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Protestors rally at Utah capitol against Utah land grab lawsuit
Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed]) | Utah News Dispatch ([link removed]) | KSL Radio ([link removed]) | Fox13 News ([link removed])
Tracy Stone-Manning: "When we save nature, we save ourselves."
High Country News ([link removed])
Wyoming representative Harriet Hageman takes aim at federal land, grizzly policies
WyoFile ([link removed])
Study: A quarter of freshwater animals are threatened with extinction
Associated Press ([link removed])
AI data centers face scrutiny for water, energy use as L.A. fires rage
E&E News ([link removed])
Couple builds house in Glacier National Park without permission
Cowboy State Daily ([link removed])
Women's climbing night latest casualty of Utah's anti-DEI law
Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])
It's official: 2024 was the hottest year on record
CNN ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” These are climate change fires. The scientific literature on this is unambiguous.”
—Donald Falk, tree ring scientist, wildfire ecologist, and professor at the University of Arizona, Arizona Republic ([link removed])
** Picture This
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@usinterior ([link removed])
The majestic bald eagle finally claimed its rightful title as the official national bird of the United States! 🦅
With its striking yellow beak, white head and piercing eyes, the bald eagle has graced the center of the United States Great Seal since 1782, symbolizing the nation’s independence, strength and freedom.
Photos at Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho by Derek Butler | @hikester_ ([link removed])
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