** Mounting legal defeats stymy Interior oil and gas lease sales
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Monday, November 18, 2019
Pronghorn in Wyoming's Pinedale Anticline natural gas field | Fish and Wildlife Service ([link removed])

The Bureau of Land Management has suspended oil and gas leases ([link removed]) covering hundreds of thousands of acres after a string of legal defeats. Last week the agency suspended 130 leases ([link removed]) in Utah after failing to consider the climate impacts of oil and gas development. Previously, the BLM had pulled back leases in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah after a judge ruled ([link removed]) the agency had not adequately considered climate impacts.

Jayni Hein, natural resources director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU School of Law, notes, "It is potentially a BLM-wide issue. It could have the effect of suspending even more leases across the West, and not just for oil and gas, for coal as well."

The BLM has also suffered legal defeats after weakening landmark sage-grouse conservation plans to allow increased oil and gas development on public lands. Last week the agency canceled an upcoming oil and gas lease sale ([link removed]) in Colorado after a federal judge suspended the administration's weakened sage-grouse plans.
Quick hits


** Air quality is better everywhere except the West, thanks to wildfires
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Bitterroot Magazine ([link removed])


** Senate committee to vote on series of key bills, from funding park maintenance to protecting Chaco Canyon
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Natural gas production, consumption reaches record highs despite minimal growth in Mountain West
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Wyoming Public Media ([link removed])


** BLM suspends more oil and gas leases after string of legal defeats over lack of climate analysis
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InsideClimate News ([link removed])


** Report finds many Native Americans lack access to clean water
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KJZZ ([link removed])


** Wyoming coal mines face uncertain future after Navajo Nation pulls support
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Casper Star-Tribune ([link removed])


** Opinion: Uranium mining near the Grand Canyon threatens water, natural heritage
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Arizona Daily Star ([link removed])


** Opinion: Secretary Bernhardt's previous lobbying raises questions about sweetheart deal for his former client
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Los Angeles Times ([link removed])
Quote of the day
Bernhardt’s fingerprints aren’t detectable on the Westlands contract. But the miasma of corruption within the Interior Department has become so thick that almost every major decision today, even those that look innocent on the surface, makes one wrinkle one’s nose. This is why a failure to stringently police public ethics can be so corrosive — nothing escapes the stench.”
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times ([link removed])
Picture this

Alabama Hills National Scenic Area
Photo by Michele James | @Interior ([link removed])

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