Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Trump admin advances Arctic oil leasing despite shutdown
------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, October 23, 2025
Coastal erosion reveals the extent of ice-rich permafrost underlying active layer on the Arctic Coastal Plain in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area of the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska. Credit: Brandt Meixell, USGS ([link removed])
Despite the government shutdown, the Trump administration began the process of offering up around 16 million acres of public land in the Arctic ([link removed]) for oil and gas drilling. The areas targeted for drilling include lands adjacent to Teshekpuk Lake. Teshekpuk is the largest lake in Arctic Alaska and one that's vital to the Teshekpuk caribou herd and Indigenous subsistence practices.
The Trump administration published a notice in the Federal Register ([link removed]) asking oil and gas companies for nominations of areas to include in an upcoming oil and gas lease sale. The "One Big Beautiful Bill" that passed on a party-line vote this summer requires the Bureau of Land Management to hold at least five lease sales of at least four million acres each over the next ten years.
Conservation groups blasted the Interior department ([link removed]) for moving ahead with the lease sale while the government is shut down.
“We shouldn’t be focused on opening areas up for leasing for foreign companies to make profits when there’s hard-working Americans who aren’t getting paychecks,” said Andy Moderow, senior director of policy at the Alaska Wilderness League.
Kennedy threatens CRA chaos over owls
Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana is trying to fast-track a resolution that would overturn a Biden-era plan ([link removed]) to save the Pacific Northwest's spotted owl by killing hundreds of thousands of invasive barred owls. Kennedy wants to use the Congressional Review Act to block the Biden plan, even though that plan is also supported by Interior secretary Doug Burgum and timber companies. Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington indicated she was "kind of in agreement" and might be open to Kennedy's resolution.
The American Forest Resource Council raised alarms, saying using the CRA to overturn a forest management plan ([link removed]) “would create unacceptable risks and delays to current and future timber sales, legal vulnerability for the agency, uncertainty for the local milling infrastructure and private sector workforce.”
Sen. Kennedy was undeterred. “I like owls. I love owls. I like owls better than people,” he told E&E News. ([link removed]) “Those owls never did anything to the federal government. They just want to eat and live peacefully like everyone else.”
** Quick hits
------------------------------------------------------------
Opinions: Trump and Burgum are using the shutdown to destroy national parks
High Country News ([link removed]) | The Hill ([link removed])
Westerman says parks will have to close if shutdown continues
E&E News ([link removed])
Former public land leaders say Interior layoffs would be disastrous
NPR ([link removed])
Planned BLM layoffs raise potential grazing impacts
Capital Press ([link removed])
Interior workforce being kept in the dark about layoff plans
Wyofile ([link removed]) | Post Independent ([link removed]) | KSL NewsRadio ([link removed])
The park rangers are not alright
Outside ([link removed])
Shutdown affects public recreation in Colorado's San Juan mountains
Rocky Mountain PBS ([link removed])
Nuclear storage company drops plan for interim facility in New Mexico
Exchange Monitor ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
------------------------------------------------------------
” ...in our combined 90 years of professional work on national parks, we have never seen such a direct assault on the mission, public servants and resources of the National Park Service. Assault after assault on the agency will have a cumulative impact: the firing of employees, threats of retribution, closure of park support offices, budget proposals that would cut the entire operation by one-third, and the clearly stated goal of transferring over hundreds of small parks to the states. And now the parks are being left wide-open to vandalism as well.”
—Jon Jarvis and Destry Jarvis, High Country News ([link removed])
** Picture This
------------------------------------------------------------
@nvstateparks ([link removed])
🍂 Fall is showing off in Nevada’s Eastern Parks! 🍁
Now’s the perfect time to experience the magic of autumn.
Share your favorite fall photos with us using #NVStateParks ([link removed]) for a chance to be featured!
Explore more parks and plan your visit at parks.nv.gov.
============================================================
** Website ([link removed])
** Instagram ([link removed])
** Facebook ([link removed])
** TikTok ([link removed])
** Medium ([link removed])
Copyright © 2025 Center for Western Priorities, All rights reserved.
You've signed up to receive Look West updates.
Center for Western Priorities
1999 Broadway
Suite 520
Denver, CO 80202
USA
** View this on the web ([link removed])
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
