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New legislation would stop federal land managers from auctioning off parcels of public land that have little potential for oil and gas development. The bill was introduced by Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto of Nevada, whose state has seen a massive influx in speculative oil leases under the Trump administration.
Cortez-Masto noted that since 2016, less than ten percent of land in Nevada nominated by the oil and gas industry was actually leased, and most of that went for the minimum bid of $2 an acre or less. Her legislation would require the Bureau of Land Management to study a parcel's potential for development and hold a public comment period before offering a lease sale.
Park Service rejects listing of Utah rock art
The National Park Service has rejected a proposal to list 199 rock art sites in the Moab area on the National Register of Historic Places, turning away thousands of hours of field work by volunteers who meticulously documented the sites across 180,000 acres of public land. The rejection comes just days after the Bureau of Land Management revealed it's preparing to offer oil and gas leases inside the nearby Sand Flats Recreation Area.
Organizers of the listing effort had partnered with BLM to nominate all 199 sites together using a process that successfully listed multiple locations in 2012 and 2014. After initially accepting the latest submission, the Trump administration pulled a "bureaucratic bait and switch" that could now delay the listing for years.
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As far as I’m concerned, you can kill those rattlesnakes. I’ll give you a little secret. As many as we kill, they’ll be here long after us. The rattlesnake. You can kill every son of a bitchin’ rattlesnake.”
