public lands
A Pale Echo of the Sagebrush Rebellion
The latest failed effort at privatization of federal lands shows the modern political weakness of land transfer movements
Republican Utah Senator Lee’s effort to sell significant amounts of federal land through the reconciliation bill is dead – he withdrew his proposal last week. I want to contrast the modern efforts at privatization with another era of calls for transfer of federal lands, the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s. Like Senator Lee’s effort, as …
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CONTINUE READINGThe “Big Beautiful Bill” is One Damn Dirty Deal
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
My family is about to take a road trip. Out our window we will see beaches, lakes, and a whole lot of public land that would be eligible to be sold off to developers and corporations under the recent version of a budget bill that Republicans want to rush through this week. Welcome to The …
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CONTINUE READINGIt’s back.
Land sale provisions are back in reconciliation. And they are far worse than before.
Last time I posted on this topic, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives was considering a provision to sell or dispose of public lands in Utah and Nevada, arguably on the grounds of facilitating needed housing production around growing metropolitan areas. That provision was criticized across the political spectrum, received opposition from a …
CONTINUE READINGPay to Play
The reconciliation bill has a new approach to try and change substantive law
I posted earlier about a provision in the House reconciliation bill that attempts to effectively repeal NEPA by allowing sponsors of projects to pay a fee to avoid any judicial review of NEPA documents. That provision is not unique, and indeed it looks like House Republicans are trying to develop a new tool to use …
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CONTINUE READINGReconciliation and public lands
Most changes would be to the leasing process for oil and gas development and reflect a partisan response to ping-pong governance
As the Senate takes up the House’s version of the reconciliation bill, I wanted to briefly summarize the main provisions that relate to public lands – in part so readers can be aware of the state of play as to what might (or might not) come to pass in the Senate. The bill as passed …
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CONTINUE READINGImplications of the Seven County Decision
Possible limitations on NEPA analysis for climate effects and indirect effects
This is the third in our series of posts on the Seven County case. The first post was here, summarizing the key points of the opinion. The second post is here, providing our assessment of the analysis in the opinion. In this third post, we discuss the implications of the case for what have been …
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CONTINUE READINGA Midnight Public Land Sale?
Last-minute addition to House reconciliation bill proposes sale or exchange of hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands
There was a last minute amendment added to the House Natural Resources Committee markup on May 6, an amendment which has gotten a lot of negative attention, including from conservative outdoors advocates. The amendment, made by Representative Amodei (Republican, Nevada) and Rep. Maloy (Republican, Utah) would mandate the sale or exchange of at least 449,174 …
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CONTINUE READINGFix Our Forests, version 2
A revised bipartisan proposal in the Senate is a step forward in the right direction
I wrote previously about the Fix Our Forests bill which has been passed by the House and is currently being considered by the Senate. I noted some concerns I had about its overuse of emergency authorities, its expansion of categorical exclusions, and some changes to litigation, as well as some positive features of the bill. …
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CONTINUE READINGSurfing the Wave of Executive Orders
As an old song says, “Mama Miá, here we go again!”
One thing that no one can deny is that Trump is brilliant at political theater. People overlook the importance of that at their peril. But theater isn’t reality, and it remains to be seen how many of the grand gestures Trump made today will eventuate in law.Presidents love issuing executive orders. It’s easy to do, and many people will credit the president with major accomplishment. But really, as someone recently said, an executive order is “just a memo on fancy letterhead.”
CONTINUE READINGA Way Forward?
Reducing the Number of Decisions Could Accelerate Fire Management
This is the third of a series of three posts on how to do more to reduce fire risks on federal lands. The first post is here, the second post is here. In addressing the increasing risks of wildfire, we certainly need to scale up the resources we apply to the problem, doing more prescribed …
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