Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Supreme Court refuses to hear Utah's latest public lands challenge
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Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Sign within the Cedar City Field Office area. Photo by Jeremy T. Dyer, BLM Utah ([link removed]) .
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Utah’s land grab lawsuit, ([link removed]) which sought control of 18.5 million acres of national public lands in the state. The high court's decision strikes a major blow to Utah's latest attempt to turn over the management of federal public lands.
In August, Governor Spencer Cox and then-Attorney General Sean Reyes filed a lawsuit directly with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to declare the management of millions of acres of federal land in Utah unconstitutional, a move that would have had serious ramifications for public lands across the country. The state has paid a law firm over $500,000 of taxpayer money to pursue the suit, and wasted millions more ([link removed]) on a taxpayer-funded PR campaign to try to convince Utahns of their misguided effort.
“Even this staunchly conservative Supreme Court refused to take up Utah’s complaint, likely because it relies on a blatant misreading of the Constitution and would disrupt over a century of legal precedent and property law," said ([link removed]) Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Jennifer Rokala.
In December the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) sued the Utah governor and attorney general ([link removed]) for bringing the case to the Supreme Court. Steve Bloch, SUWA’s legal director, said in a statement ([link removed]) , “We’re grateful the Supreme Court swiftly rejected the State of Utah’s misguided land grab lawsuit. For more than 100 years, the Supreme Court has affirmed the power of the federal government to hold and manage public lands on behalf of all Americans.”
What Trump's "energy dominance" agenda means for public lands
On the latest episode of The Landscape ([link removed]) , Kate and Aaron are joined by Alan Zibel, a research director at Public Citizen ([link removed]) who focuses on energy and environmental issues. He breaks down what Donald Trump and the incoming Congress’s so-called “energy dominance” agenda could mean for public lands—given that the U.S. is already the world’s top exporter of natural gas (otherwise known as methane).
** Quick hits
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Supreme Court refuses to hear Utah's latest public lands challenge
Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed]) | Utah News Dispatch ([link removed]) | Bloomberg Law ([link removed]) | Fox 13 News ([link removed]) | Axios ([link removed]) | KUNC ([link removed]) | KUER ([link removed]) | National Parks
Traveler ([link removed]) | HuffPost ([link removed]) | Reuters ([link removed])
Feds OK Wyoming idea to use old wind turbines to fill in coal mines
Cowboy State Daily ([link removed]) | K2 Radio ([link removed])
Opinion: Haaland changed how America faces its history
Native News Online ([link removed])
How suburban sprawl and climate change are making wildfires more destructive
CBS News ([link removed])
Will Trump's re-election mean déjà vu for Utah's national monuments?
Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])
Colorado prepares for second wave of reintroduced wolves
Colorado Sun ([link removed])
Outgoing BLM director Tracy Stone-Manning reflects on tenure
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel ([link removed])
Column: Taylor Sheridan's "Landman" needs less fossil fuel propoganda
Los Angeles Times ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” In Indian Country, we have a word for individuals like Deb Haaland: Warrior. And she has proven to be a fierce one.”
—Levi Rickert, Native News Online ([link removed])
** Picture This
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@usinterior ([link removed])
There are no roads or trails at the @usfws ([link removed]) Pierce National Wildlife Refuge in Washington. Closed to the public, this refuge is literally for the birds.
A small refuge (329 acres) with big impacts on wildlife, Pierce supports one of the last remaining runs of chum salmon on the Columbia River and is also home to other state threatened and endangered species.
Photo taken from atop Beacon Rock by Brent Lawrence / USFWS
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