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


** Senate passes landmark climate bill
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Monday, August 8, 2022
Vice President Kamala Harris casts the tie-breaking vote, C-SPAN ([link removed])

The U.S. Senate on Sunday passed a bill ([link removed]) that would, if it becomes law, take America's first major steps towards addressing the climate crisis and overhaul the 100-year-old system that governs oil and gas leasing on public lands in the West.

The Inflation Reduction Act contains $369 million in climate funding ([link removed]) , including tax breaks on electric vehicles, and incentives to increase domestic production of batteries and solar panels. It also requires oil and gas companies to pay up front when nominating public land for leasing, increases the royalty rate that companies pay for publicly-owned oil and gas, and makes them pay that royalty even when they waste methane by flaring or venting it.

But the bill's successes came with strings attached to win the support of Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. In order for the Interior Department to advance renewable energy projects, it requires onshore lease sales of half the acreage that oil companies nominate, or two million acres per year, whichever is smaller. It also requires offshore lease sales of at least 60 million acres per year. An additional disappointment came over the weekend, when the Senate parliamentarian ruled that increasing the bonds that oil companies must post before drilling didn't meet Senate rules for inclusion under the budget reconciliation process. The bonding requirements were removed from the final bill.

Despite the tradeoffs, climate hawks in the Senate were emotional as the bill passed on a party-line vote of 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.

“I don’t know if it’s quite caught up with me yet,” Sen. Martin Heinrich said ([link removed]) . “We thought we were going to get this done back in 2009, 2010 and obviously it took another 12 years. It's going to be transformative.”

The bill now goes to the House for consideration, and it could be sent to the White House for President Biden's signature this week.
Quick hits


** The Senate has a climate deal—now the hard part starts
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Los Angeles Times ([link removed]) | Washington Post ([link removed])


** Why it took Congress five decades to act on climate
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New York Times ([link removed])


** What's in the Inflation Reduction Act, who won, and who lost
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NPR News ([link removed]) | The Hill ([link removed]) | New York Times ([link removed]) | Politico ([link removed]) | CNN ([link removed]) | Vox ([link removed]) | Washington Post ([link removed])


** Supreme Court fight over public land access pits Montana landowners against Forest Service
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Fourth set of human remains found as drought dries Lake Mead
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** Torrential rains, flooding strands 1,000 people in Death Valley
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Reno Gazette Journal ([link removed]) | Sacramento Bee ([link removed]) | CBS News ([link removed])


** Wildfire appears to have killed tens of thousands of fish on the Klamath River, Karuk Tribe says
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Associated Press ([link removed]) | CNN ([link removed])


** Former ranger shares 9 mistakes you're making when visiting national parks
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Insider ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” This is a planetary emergency, and this is the first time the federal government has taken action that is worthy of the moment. This is the biggest climate action that any country has ever taken, and now I can look my kids in the eye and say we’re really doing something about climate.”
—Sen. Brian Schatz ([link removed])
Picture this


** @nationalparkservice ([link removed])
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“He’s my best friend, he’s my pal, he’s my homeboy, my rotten soldier, my sweet cheese, my good time boy.” - Laszlo

Sometimes it’s nice to find solitude in nature. Other times, it’s good to take a best friend, a pal, someone you’ll think twice about before pushing down to outrun a bear.

Two bears embrace one another on a cloudy morning in Katmai National Park & Preserve, Alaksa. NPS/Lian Law

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