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The Trump administration's rollback of environmental protections for streams, rivers, and wetlands will hit the West especially hard. The Los Angeles Times reports that federal data show 81% of streams in the Southwest will lose protections. In Arizona and New Mexico, more than 95% of each state’s waterways and wetlands could be left unprotected from pollution, because so few streams and rivers in the region flow year-round.
Elected officials are gearing up for a legal fight against the new rule. “My administration is committed to protecting New Mexico’s precious waters and will consider all legal options to prevent this rule from going into effect. This is far from over,” New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham said. Colorado Governor Jared Polis called the new rule an attempt “to gut federal clean water protections,” and vowed “to reject attempts by the Trump administration to gut proven ways to protect our health and environment.”
NRA got special favors from Interior official
An investigation by Jimmy Tobias at The Guardian found a former National Rifle Association lobbyist, Benjamin Cassidy, gave special access to the firearms lobby soon after he took a top job inside the Trump administration. Emails show Cassidy helped an NRA official obtain a position on Interior's International Wildlife Conservation Council, which promoted trophy hunting and importing. Cassidy also kept the NRA apprised of a plan to limit target shooting inside Arizona's Sonoran Desert National Monument. The final plan followed the NRA’s request to leave 90% of the monument open to shooting.
Last April, Interior's inspector general opened an investigation into whether Cassidy violated federal ethics rules. Shortly after that, he left the department to join the hunting advocacy group Safari Club International—a former client of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.
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It’s basically a free-for-all for building. The same is true for mining. For them, obviously, it makes it cheaper. But for everybody else, we’re going to bear that cost.”
