NOTE: “Consider how far the Antiquities Act has strayed from its original intent: The act states that monument designations should be limited to “the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.” In recent years, however, it has been used as a large-scale conservation policy, dictated by presidential decree. Many recent monuments have… Read more »

Earlier today, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) appeared on C-SPAN’s Newsmakers to discuss a range of issues including energy development on federal lands, forest management and wildfires and President Trump’s recent executive order on national monuments. Click below to view the interview. Energy: “If the United States is truly going to live up to our… Read more »

By: Valerie Richardson Another piece of President Obama’s energy legacy: Oil and natural gas production on federal lands tanked under his tenure even as private activity increased. From 2008 to 2016, major indicators of federal onshore and natural gas operations declined, including the number of leases, acres leased, permits approved and wells drills, according to the Western Energy… Read more »

By John Siciliano House Republicans on Wednesday will help draw attention to endangered species rules that are limiting the expansion of hydro-electric dams and could impede President Trump's infrastructure development goals. The House Natural Resources Committee is holding a Wednesday hearing to examine environmental obstacles to boosting water power. Republicans note that in some… Read more »

By: Alan Kovski There is an overflowing list of possible actions the House Natural Resources Committee could launch in 2017 after six years of sometimes rancorous stalemate on many of them between Congress and the Obama administration. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the committee, spoke Jan. 30 to Bloomberg BNA about many of the prospects. His remarks suggested a unifying… Read more »

By: Bill Johnson and Evan Jenkins and David McKinley For close to a decade, Republicans have been leading the charge against the regulatory onslaught on coal communities. But now, with an ally in the White House, we can finally begin to roll back some of the punishing regulations of the last eight years. This starts with repealing the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and… Read more »

By Dale Bosworth, retired chief of the U.S. Forest Service and former Regional Forester in Missoula, and Jack Blackwell is a retired Regional Forester for the California region of the Forest Service. Many of our national forests are in dire condition and Congress must take urgent action to address this worsening crisis. Catastrophic wildfires have once again wreaked havoc this year,… Read more »

By: Catherine Traywick The Southern Ute Indian Tribe of southwestern Colorado has a higher long-term credit rating than Wells Fargo & Co., and more oil and natural-gas wells than it has members. Welcome to the other side of the tribal land energy conundrum. While the Standing Rock Sioux have drawn considerable media coverage for their fight against the Dakota Access… Read more »

By: Terry L. Anderson and Shawn Regan As Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump court the minority vote, they have paid virtually no attention to one of the most impoverished groups—Native Americans. More than any other group, American Indians are shackled by bureaucratic red tape that deprives them of the same rights and dignity as other Americans. The continuing… Read more »

By: “Ayyaiyak” Stefanie Armstrong As a proud Alaska Native and an aspiring engineer at the University of Alaska Anchorage, I’m enthused about Alaska’s future, and my role in it.  I’m also convinced that Alaska’s economic sustainability and America’s energy security are inextricably bound to the continuation of safe, responsible oil and natural gas development.  That’s why it is… Read more »