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


** Utah Senator Mike Lee files bill to sell off public land for housing
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Monday April 11, 2022
Utah Senator Mike Lee Gage Skidmore, Flickr ([link removed])

Utah Senator and public lands opponent Mike Lee thinks selling off federal public lands can help solve the West's housing affordability crisis. He filed legislation on Friday ([link removed]) to allow state and local governments to buy parcels of federal land at a reduced price to address housing supply and affordability in their areas. The bill includes stipulations regarding housing density and barring the development of second homes.

But it's unclear whether Lee's bill would actually help address housing shortages, even if it passes. Lee says ([link removed]) that federal land ownership in the West is driving the affordability crisis, but land availability is not the main factor driving up home prices in the West. Rather, it's a lack of housing stock ([link removed]) caused by a sustained decline in home building following the Great Recession.

This is not Lee's first attempt to liquidate federal public land. He's long railed against federal public lands ([link removed]) as a drain on Western states, despite clear evidence to the opposite ([link removed]) . In 2018, he put forth a similar proposal to his current legislation ([link removed]) . And in 2019, he suggested transferring control of federal public lands to states ([link removed]) , so that they could be sold off or managed in order to fund public education.

While some Western lawmakers have supported Lee's radical ideas—Utah Senator Mitt Romney and Wyoming Senator John Barrasso are co-sponsors of his new bill—they haven't gained much traction in the past. Perhaps that's because Congress doesn't understand Western issues, as Lee likes to say, or perhaps it's because they see his legislation for what it is: a thinly-veiled attack on public lands.
Quick hits


** Changes recommended for Colorado sites with offensive names
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Colorado Sun ([link removed]) | KUSA ([link removed])


** Invocation of Defense Production Act won't speed mining permitting
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E&E News ([link removed])


** El Paso congresswoman calls on Biden to designate Castner Range National Monument
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El Paso Times ([link removed])


** Washington state creates 10,000-acre "carbon reserve"
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** Proposed lithium mine near Oregon-Nevada border stirs concerns among tribes
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Indian Country Today ([link removed])


** Western housing crisis leads more people to live on public lands
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Boise State Public Radio ([link removed])


** New legislation will digitize maps of federal public lands
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Outdoor Life ([link removed])


** 315,000 acres in southern New Mexico protected in military conservation deal
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Carlsbad Current-Argus ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” We often hear about environmental justice, social injustice... Flat-out racism is what the local perception is about these long-standing issues, almost 80 years in some areas. Lack of cleanup, lack of funding, lack of emphasis to prioritize cleanup.”
—Dariel Yazzie, head of the Navajo Nation’s Superfund program, on long overdue uranium reclamation work, New Mexico In Depth ([link removed])
Picture this


** @aweiss ([link removed])
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Hummingbird outside Kartchner Caverns State Park, Arizona.

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