Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Judge throws out 1.7 million acre Gulf lease sale
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Friday, January 28, 2022
Oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. N ([link removed]) OAA, Flickr ([link removed])

A federal judge invalidated the largest offshore oil and gas lease sale in the nation’s history ([link removed]) yesterday, ruling an environmental assessment completed for the sale under the Trump administration was deeply flawed and inadequate ([link removed]) .

The decision invalidates 1.7 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico that were leased to oil and gas producers. The Biden administration offered up more than 80 million acres in the lease sale, which occurred in November 2021 ([link removed]) . At the time, the administration said its hands were tied by a federal court ruling that the administration's pause on new oil and gas leasing was illegal. But many environmental and conservation groups, including the Center for Western Priorities ([link removed]) , argued that nothing was forcing the administration to lease so many acres.

The Biden administration did not appear to be disappointed by the loss. In a statement ([link removed]) late Thursday night, Interior Department Communications Director Melissa Schwartz noted that the sale was "based on the the previous administration's environmental analysis," and the agency looked ahead to the need for "significant and long overdue programmatic reforms."

The Interior department will have to complete a new environmental assessment for the lease sale in order to move forward. But Earthjustice attorney Brettny Hardy, whose group is a plaintiff in the case, said ([link removed]) “We’re confident that once they do the emissions modeling right, given the climate crisis that we’re in, they will reach the decision that leasing doesn’t make sense right now."


** Anti-trans activists derail Thacker Pass protest
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Protests against the Thacker Pass lithium mine began in the spring of last year, after nearby tribes learned the Bureau of Land Management had hastily approved the mine in January. A number of tribes oppose the mine, which they say will be built on a site where Paiute people were twice massacred ([link removed]) . The opposition movement to the mine has generated national media coverage in outlets including Grist ([link removed]) and the New York Times. ([link removed]) But the movement was recently derailed ([link removed]) by two radical environmentalists who hold transphobic views.

In a story published yesterday ([link removed]) , E&E News reporter Jael Holzman documents how Max Wilbert and Will Falk, co-founders of a radical environmental group called Deep Green Resistance, misled tribal members in the fight against Thacker Pass by hiding their connection to Deep Green Resistance as well as their hateful views. Wilbert and Falk set up a group called Protect Thacker Pass ([link removed]) that raised money for the protest movement, and Falk served as an attorney for People of Red Mountain, an Indigenous group challenging the mine in court. People of Red Mountain fired Falk when it learned he was connected to Deep Green Resistance.

“It’s not right,” said Daranda Hinkey ([link removed]) , secretary of the group. “Before all of this fell out, before we all really knew anything… we sat in ceremony with them. We prayed for these people.” Non-Native environmental groups have also sought to distance themselves from Wilbert and Falk after learning about their transphobic views, proving there's no room in the mainstream environmental movement for discrimination. “The fact that we’re trying to tie ourselves into knots around this speaks to the real cost of having them involved,” Kelly Fuller, energy and mining campaign director for Western Watersheds Project, told E&E News ([link removed]) .
Quick hits


** Oil and gas industry behind "hydrogen hub" push in New Mexico
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Capital and Main ([link removed])


** See the Channel Islands' stunning ecological recovery
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High Country News ([link removed])


** World's largest wildlife crossing project underway in California
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Curbed ([link removed])


** Judge throws out 1.7 million acre Gulf lease sale
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New York Times ([link removed]) | Washington Post ([link removed]) | Reuters ([link removed]) | The Hill ([link removed]) | Wall Street Journal ([link removed]) | Bloomberg ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Colorado's largest Black homestead settlement could become a national park
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Colorado Newsline ([link removed])


** Arizona utility regulators kill 100% clean energy rules
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Arizona Republic ([link removed])


** Anti-trans activists derail Thacker Pass lithium mine protest
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Efforts to change offensive landmark names are ramping up
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NPR ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” It's a gift—a real blessing to our tribes... Our relatives and our ancestors are happy and can be at peace, because this is where our ancestors were forced off their land and had to run away from either being killed or taken away. I believe that their spirits and our spirits are connected together today in a happy time.”
—Priscilla Hunter, chair of the Sinkyone Council, on return of redwood forest to tribes, K ([link removed]) QED ([link removed])
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** @G ([link removed]) lacierBayNPS ([link removed])
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Who's up for a winter paddle? Today we gained over four minutes of daylight. Brighter days are on the horizon! [link removed]… ([link removed])
#FindYourPark ([link removed]) #EncuentraTuParque ([link removed]) #GlacierBay ([link removed])

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