OP-ED: Duplicity at the Gold King Mine Rep. Rob Bishop As the effects of dumping 3 million gallons of contaminated mine water into the Animas and San Juan Rivers continue to be studied, the story of the Gold King Mine disaster grows from bad to worse. Some may have heard that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "accidentally" caused the blowout, but newly disclosed information… Read more »

Yesterday evening, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) issued subpoenas to the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for documents related to the USACE’s peer review of DOI’s Technical Evaluation of the August 2015 Gold King Mine spill. Republicans and Democrats on the Committee have raised numerous… Read more »

If a private company dumped three million gallons of toxic sludge into Colorado waterways, we’d be flooded with daily media updates for months. Yet the press has by now forgotten the disaster unleashed in August when EPA contractors punctured an abandoned mine. New evidence suggests the government isn’t coming clean about what happened. The House Natural Resources Committee last week… Read more »

Today, President Obama unilaterally designated three new national monuments in the California desert: Sand to Snow National Monument, Mojave Trails National Monument, and Castle Mountains National Monument. Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) issued the following statement: “This is presidential bullying. The intent of the Antiquities Act is not to act as the President’s magic wand to commandeer… Read more »

Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources released a Majority staff report detailing information uncovered during the Committee’s ongoing investigation of the EPA’s Gold King Mine blowout near Silverton, Colorado in August 2015. The 73-page report documents the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) and the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) inaccurate and misleading accounts of… Read more »

Yesterday, the Supreme Court stayed the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan in a 5-4 decision. Chairman Bishop (R-UT) issued the following statement: “Much of the President’s unilateral agenda, including efforts to stomp out coal without going through Congress, will ultimately be gutted by the courts.   “This ruling is one small win for impoverished coal communities and all… Read more »

Today, the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans held an oversight hearing titled, “The Costly Impacts of Predation and Conflicting Federal Statues on Nature and Endangered Fish Species.” The panel outlined how conflicting federal laws encourage predation of fish species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).   “The status quo may be working for sea lions and… Read more »

Today, the Obama Administration released its budget proposal for the 2017 fiscal year. Chairman Bishop (R-UT) issued the following statement: “To defend this budget would require spin with dexterity that only a Las Vegas contortionist can accomplish,” Bishop said. On Energy: “President Obama stubs out the last bit of leverage the country has from our recent energy renaissance and… Read more »

Puerto Rico and its top advisers made their case in Washington on Friday for a law that would allow broad restructuring of the island’s multibillion-dollar debt, saying that if Congress did not act soon, major defaults were likely this spring. The officials also said they knew that any legislative help would come at a stiff price: Puerto Rico would have to submit to a federal control… Read more »

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service announced the finalization of a new policy for defining and designating critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act. Chairman Bishop (R-UT) issued the following statement: “Just like we saw with WOTUS, this is another power grab. The new definition injects even more ambiguity and confusion into an… Read more »