The White House is pushing Congress to break a decades-long impasse around the handling of nuclear waste and entice states to get on board, according to a document obtained by POLITICO. The Trump administration is seeking changes to federal law to allow the Department of Energy to partner with states willing to store waste generated...
The 50-year era of “don’t-touch” conservation may have ended three weeks ago, after the Trump administration narrowed the definition of harm under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Harming an endangered species used to encompass damage to the land the species lives on. Landowners with endangered species were limited in how they could steward their plots of land. After all, endangered species’ recoveries relied on proactive efforts by landowners, which will remain intact regardless of the changing incentive structure of the ESA. The unnecessary penalties landowners had to incur were lifted, and conservation efforts will be able to fit the needs of the land and life rather than keeping the overburdening punishments of the ESA.
The far-left environmental lobby has a problem with Rep. Bruce Westerman’s proposed amendments to the Endangered Species Act. The Sierra Club calls them “nothing short of a tragedy.” The Center for Biological Diversity simply calls it the “Extinction Act.” These slogans are alarming and completely disconnected from what the bill does and from the stubborn reality of a law that is failing...
As major fires burn across Colorado and Utah this summer, the broader Western lesson is hard to miss. Colorado’s Aspen Acres fire forced evacuations and destroyed more than 160 structures. Utah’s Babylon Fire passed 100,000 acres recently, the state’s first fire to reach that mark in eight years. Colorado officials also issued air-quality advisoriestied to wildfire smoke moving through the...
Electricity rates are rising faster than inflation and are felt by households across America. After decades of flat electricity demand, the country is experiencing significant load growth, driven by hyperscale AI data centers, resurgent domestic manufacturing, and the steady electrification of buildings and vehicles.
“The endangered species list is not a dean’s list,” Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon said this week, standing near Big Sky, MT, with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the governors of Montana and Idaho. “It's time this bear graduates.” After decades of federal control and an amazing tale of conservation success in America, the Interior Department has announced it will shift the daily management of the grizzly bear back to the states. Grizzly bears would, however, remain listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
America is betting on a nuclear comeback, driven by a new generation of advanced reactors with lower capital costs and significant potential for economies of scale. Many of these reactors, however, require specialized fuel that has led the government to pour billions into a domestic supply chain. To ensure these investments pay off, federal officials should proactively eliminate artificial procurement barriers and permitting hurdles which threaten to stall nuclear fuel independence.
President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Monday afternoon that shrank the size of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments — again. The two orders collectively cut nearly three million acres out of monument protection, including 1.69 million acres of land from Grand Staircase Escalante-National Monument and 1.24 million acres for Bears Ears National Monuments — about 90%...
The Trump administration Friday finalized a repeal of decades-old regulation that said habitat destruction was a form of harm to endangered species. Overturning that interpretation of one of the country’s bedrock environmental laws could allow for mining, ranching and other development to expand into previously protected areas. Read more in the Washington Post here.
Heading into the August recess, policymakers continue to hash out the details of a comprehensive permitting bill in hopes of sending it to President Trump’s desk this Congress. There is bipartisan recognition that permitting reform is essential to improving energy affordability and reliability, and to meeting our environmental ambitions. As the discussions on Capitol Hill evolve, one law starting to receive more attention for reform is the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).
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