** How the Trump administration silenced BLM Resource Advisory Councils
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Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Center for Western Priorities analysis ([link removed]) of Bureau of Land Management Resource Advisory Councils
For decades, the Bureau of Land Management has chartered dozens of Resource Advisory Councils (RACs) around the West, each stocked with a diverse range of public stakeholders who provide input on land management decisions in their region. These committees represent one of the most important venues for the agency to hear directly from the public on a broad range of issues, including conservation, drilling, and grazing.
But under the Trump administration, the Interior Department has actively worked to undermine ([link removed]) these committees, first suspending all of them, then reinstating many with politically-driven charters requiring members to provide recommendations on how to expand drilling and eliminate regulations.
An analysis conducted by the Center for Western Priorities ([link removed]) finds that 30 of the 37 Resource Advisory Councils have been reinstated by the Trump administration with politically-motivated mandates. The remaining seven RACs appear not to have renewed charters. Of the 30 Trump-chartered RACs, 17 have not met under their new charter. In sum, more than half of all RACs—20 of 37—have not met since 2017.
** Look West taking a break Oct. 10-11
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The Look West newsletter will not be delivered on Thursday or Friday of this week, and will return Monday, October 14. If you're attending the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Fort Collins, Colorado, come meet our staff in the tabling area.
Quick hits
** The Trump administration is systematically dismantling public lands policies, tilting system towards extraction
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Yale E360 ([link removed])
** Acting BLM chief to announce more than 200 forced reassignments in coming weeks
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The Hill ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])
** Acting BLM chief denied existence of ozone hole, compared immigrants to cancer
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CNN ([link removed])
** Hydro company proposes to dam Little Colorado River east of Grand Canyon
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Associated Press ([link removed])
** With climate change looming, what will Yellowstone's ecosystems lose?
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Bozeman Daily Chronicle ([link removed])
** Court rules BLM must disclose development activities on lands cut from Utah national monuments
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E&E News ([link removed])
** Federal government investigating bankrupt Wyoming coal operator for fraud
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Casper Star-Tribune ([link removed]) | Wyoming Public Media ([link removed])
** Editorial: Manage our public lands for all, not just oil and gas
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Santa Fe New Mexican ([link removed])
Quote of the day
It’s like Humpty Dumpty, and it will take a long time to put the pieces back together. It will set conservation back a generation or two.”
—Jim Lyons, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, on Trump administration public lands policies, Yale E360 ([link removed])
Picture this
Flowers bloom in California's Carrizo Plain National Monument
Photo by Bob Wick | Bureau of Land Management ([link removed])
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