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What is the cost of polluting the air that Coloradans breathe? 

On February 24, 2025, we filmed pollution pouring out of a storage tank valve on a well pad owned by PDC Energy, a subsidiary of Chevron. The well pad is located just outside Brighton, Colorado and is within a half-mile radius of dozens of homes. Colorado’s Air Pollution Control Division (APCD) responded promptly and an APCD inspector observed the same pollution at the site a few days later. The valve was not operating as designed, so the APCD issued a notice of alleged violation.

(Top) Image of storage tanks on the well pad
(Bottom) Optical gas imaging video showing invisible pollution from a valve on one of the tanks

On March 4, 2025, the valve was fixed. 

For nine days the facility was in violation of Colorado’s air quality rules, dumping harmful compounds into the air that pose a threat to public health, degrade regional air quality, and accelerate climate change. 

The maximum daily fine in 2026 for violating Colorado’s air quality regulations is $57,773. A violation lasting nine days could result in a fine of over half a million dollars.

Yet, on August 13, 2026, the state proposed a total fine of only $18,375. This is less than 5% of the maximum fine that could have been assessed.

A few justifications APCD offered for this drastically reduced fine:

• One was the operator’s good behavior and cooperation. Meanwhile, another Chevron subsidiary in Colorado was just fined $1.5 million for a well blowout that rained toxic chemicals down on Galeton, Colorado for days. 
• The other was the operator’s willingness to get back into compliance, but notably only after they were caught in violation of Colorado rules by Earthworks.

So, to answer the question posed above: for the oil and gas industry, polluting the air that Coloradans breathe is significantly cheaper than lobbying lawmakers and convincing the public that their pollution is not a threat.

We aim to change that. 

Colorado is preparing for the 2027 legislative session, which is the first with a new governor in 8 years. This creates a rare opportunity for decisive action to put people over polluters. The Polis Administration has operated under the idea that “compliance” is the only thing that matters when it comes to air pollution, routinely negotiating penalties down to tiny fractions of the allowable maximum. This has allowed operators to routinely spew pollution into Colorado communities for pennies. 

To truly put people, health, and the environment first, we need penalties that actually matter. 

The post A Slap on the Wrist appeared first on Earthworks.

Oct. 28th, 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact

Milagros R. Elia

Program Manager, Climate and Clean Energy Advocacy

Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments

milagros@envirn.org

914.455.1165

Nurses Condemn EPA Methane Rule Rollback

[Washington, D.C.]- On Oct. 27th, 2026, the U.S. EPA announced its proposal to rollback the landmark 2024 Methane Rule, removing requirements for oil and gas companies to monitor and detect leaks at both new and existing operations. The 2024 Methane Rule was developed with significant input from community leaders and advocates, the oil and gas industry, investors, health experts, and members of Congress. 

Methane pollution from oil and gas operations is released alongside other dangerous pollutants, such as smog-causing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can worsen asthma and respiratory disease, and known carcinogens, such as benzene and toluene. 

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone, which can contribute to premature births and premature deaths. Ground-level ozone contributes to asthma attacks and aggravates other chronic lung diseases and pre-existing heart problems. 

In response to this latest EPA proposed rollback, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments’ Executive Director Katie Huffling, DNP, RN, CNM, FAAN issued the following statement:

“Rolling back the 2024 methane rule would compromise all of us. As nurses, many of our patients are in the estimated 17.3 million people and 3.9 million children across the country who live within half a mile of an oil and gas facility. Living near oil and gas wells is associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease, impaired lung function, asthmatic attacks, preterm birth and childhood leukemia. The commonsense approach required by the 2024 EPA methane rule was estimated to avoid up to 700 premature deaths and 73,000 childhood asthma attacks each year.

“The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) strongly condemns the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rollback of this health protective rule. Weakening methane safeguards undermines efforts to protect vulnerable populations, and  reverses efforts to reduce harmful emissions that accelerate climate change. ANHE calls on the EPA to abandon this proposal and ensure strong, enforceable methane standards are in place that hold polluters accountable.”

###

The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments is the only national nursing organization focused solely on the intersection of health and the environment. The mission of the Alliance is to support nurses in promoting planetary health and equity globally by educating and leading the nursing profession, advancing research, incorporating planet-safe practice, and influencing policy.

http://enviRN.org

 

The post Nurses Condemn EPA Methane Rule Rollback appeared first on ANHE.

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• ‘New course on energy’
• Energy bills
• Warm homes plan
• Fuel duty and EVs
• CCS and hydrogen
• Data centres
• Other announcements

Chancellor John Healey has announced a “new course on energy” for the UK, focused on keeping bills low amid the global crisis triggered by war in the Middle East.

As he laid out his first budget, Healey said the Labour government would still prioritise the expansion of clean power and remain “unshakably committed to net-zero”.

The budget sets out what the chancellor calls a “radical reform of energy”, including a longer-term effort to “break the grip of gas on bills”.

There are also a variety of short-term measures to curb energy bills, including a council-tax rebate and the removal of the gas “standing charge”, though these fell far short of pre-budget calls to tackle high prices.

Moreover, in order to fund defence spending, the government is cutting £1bn from its “warm homes plan” and £700m from hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.

The budget also appears to cut up to another £4.7bn from the warm homes plan – as well as ending zero-rated VAT for solar panels and extending a “temporary” 5p cut in fuel duty.

Finally, the government set out plans to ensure new data centres meet strict environmental regulations, while leaving the door open to on-site fossil-fuel power generation.

Below, Carbon Brief runs through the key climate- and energy-focused announcements from the budget.

• ‘New course on energy’
• Energy bills
• Warm homes plan
• Fuel duty and EVs
• CCS and hydrogen
• Data centres
• Other announcements

‘New course on energy’

Conflict in the Middle East has driven up energy bills for people in the UK, as the global trade in oil and gas has been thrown into disarray.

In this context, the new budget sets out a “shift in the government’s approach to energy”, focusing on “cheaper energy” as the main priority.

At the same time, Healey was clear that fossil fuels were driving the price increases and that clean power would be essential for the government’s cost-cutting agenda.

In its accompanying analysis, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) notes that “fossil-fuel prices rose by 83% in the year to September 2026”.

In his speech, the chancellor announced a “radical reform of energy to reduce bills”, stating: 

“Today, I’m setting a new course on energy. To get UK energy costs down in line with Europe, from this point, our Labour government priority is first and foremost cheaper energy, with clean power key to achieving this. This is possible because of the progress we have made towards clean power over the last two years.”

Conservative and Reform politicians have argued that the UK should abandon its net-zero targets, including Labour’s “clean power by 2030” goal, in order to cut energy prices.

This is despite expensive gas driving most of the recent price increases and renewables saving the UK billions in gas imports since the start of the Hormuz crisis.

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The government has not explicitly rolled back any climate targets and Healey stressed in his speech that “this government remains unshakably committed to net-zero by 2050”.

Nevertheless, the budget document speaks of a “new energy pathway” on which the government’s upcoming “10 year plan” will build. It also states:

“Cheaper electricity will boost electrification, increasing the UK’s energy security and helping to decarbonise the whole economy.”

The budget mentions short- and long-term measures to bring costs down, including expansion of the electricity grid. (See sections below for more details.)

It says the government will “consult on market arrangements for gas”, potentially a nod to the idea of putting gas-power plants into a strategic reserve.

Healey also used his speech to welcome the recent approval of the controversial Jackdaw gasfield, which he framed as a “pragmatic” decision that would boost UK “energy security”.

The government is yet to make a decision on the Rosebank oilfield, but OBR forecasts released alongside the budget assume that it will be approved.

Energy bills

The budget offers short-term relief on household and industrial energy bills, as well as promising longer-term sectoral reform.

Nevertheless, it falls far short of proposals for cutting bills that had been set out by industry bodies, thinktanks, charities and energy companies ahead of the budget.

This has stoked expectations that the government may be forced to offer further support on energy bills after the price cap for January 2027 is announced later this year.

Forecasts suggest bills could rise by a quarter – some £470 – to around £2,200 a year.

The only substantive and immediate new bills measure in the budget is a £100 council-tax rebate for English households in bands A-D, which Healey said would cost £2.6bn.

Devolved governments will receive a share of the funding to provide their own support. Meanwhile, local authorities will receive an additional £100m to provide targeted support to households “acutely impacted” by rising energy bills.

In addition, Healey announced that the temporary removal of VAT from household electricity bills – worth around £45 per year – will be extended by three months, from April to July 2027. 

Healey also made a commitment that no new policy costs would be added to energy bills until a comprehensive “cost-control framework” is in place. This is expected at the spending review in 2027. The budget says:

“The government will introduce a new comprehensive cost control framework (CCF) at the spending review in 2027 that will set budgets for components of energy costs, including policy costs, to ensure government action drives bills down over the next 10 years.”

“As part of this, the budget specifies that going forward, the government will only procure new clean-power projects that lower bills and can easily connect to the grid. 

It specifically notes that the upcoming eighth “contracts for difference” (CfD) auction (AR8) “will lower bills, as well as deliver[ing] a good outcome for energy security and climate”.

Speaking to Carbon Brief, James Dyson, senior researcher at E3G says that an effective framework should “set out a specific, timebound commitment to remove the hidden costs from energy bills which have accumulated over the last two decades”, as well as providing oversight of system costs in the future.

A planned levy on gas bills – a long-term funding mechanism for the low-carbon hydrogen dubbed the “gas shipper obligation” – will be moved into general taxation, so that “government rather than consumers fund the costs of hydrogen projects”.

On the morning of the budget, the government announced that the “unfair and outdated” gas standing charge would be removed for around 23m homes in the UK. 

A standing charge is a fixed daily fee paid by households as part of their bill, regardless of how much gas they use. This costs around £108 a year for a typical household. 

The government says it will ask energy regulator Ofgem to move the cost of the standing charge onto gas unit rates in 2027, or as soon as possible. It says this will save 60% of households an average of around £45 a year on their gas bill

The change will disproportionately benefit the poorest households, according to analysis from thinktank Nesta shown in the figure below.

Nesta says the shift will reduce the “spark gap” – the ratio between electricity and gas prices – by around 0.3 points, from 3.3 under the current price cap to 3.0. This could help encourage a shift to electrified technologies, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles (EVs).

The budget also includes a commitment to “reform” standing charges on electricity bills, with further details to be published in 2027.

However, Jess Britton at UKERC tells Carbon Brief that “simply moving [electricity standing] charges on to unit costs risks disincentivising electrification”.

From next year, the government will introduce a new “energy debt circuit breaker”, which will save billpayers £30 by 2030, according to the budget.

This is designed to “tackle the scourge of energy debt”, which currently adds around £60 to typical household energy bills each year, according to Carbon Brief analysis. . 

The initiative follows warnings from trade association Energy UK that customer energy debt is on course to hit £7bn by the end of 2026, potentially adding another £10-15 to bills. 

The budget also confirmed additional support for business energy bills. It says the “British industrial competitiveness scheme” (BICS) will be expanded to provide a 20-25% electricity discount to 10,000 energy-intensive manufacturing firms from April 2027. This will include back-payments for 2026-27. 

According to the OBR, the treasury will indirectly cover the cost of expanding BICS by taking a portion of CfD levies off electricity bills for other consumers.

In the longer term, the budget includes a commitment to “breaking the grip of gas on bills”.

A consultation published alongside the budget fleshes out the options for a proposed “wholesale contracts for difference” (WCfD) scheme, initially outlined in April. This would offer fixed-price contracts to eligible renewable-energy generators.

The expansion of renewables is already helping to decouple gas and power prices, with gas setting wholesale electricity prices around 60% of the time in 2025, down from around 90% in the early 2020s.

Warm homes plan

Following speculation in the run-up to the budget, chancellor Healey confirmed a cut to the UK’s flagship energy efficiency programme. 

His budget cuts £1bn from the “warm homes plan” to help cover a shortfall in defence spending. 

The warm homes plan is supposed to provide up to 5m households with £15bn of grants and loans to support the installation of heat pumps, rooftop solar panels and insulation. 

The budget states that the “government remains committed to heat-pump deployment”.

It says it will continue to fund the “boiler upgrade scheme” (BUS) at current funding levels of £400m in 2027‑28, after which it will rise broadly in line with inflation.

However, this represents a significant cut in funding for heat-pump deployment of around £800m, relative to previously announced levels. Analysts tell Carbon Brief that this could lead to around 100,000 heat pumps not being installed over three years.

Andrew Sissons, director in sustainable future at Nesta tells Carbon Brief:

“The chancellor has announced that funding for future heat-pump subsidies will be reduced by nearly £800m over three years. This is a backward step at a time when Britain urgently needs to move away from using gas.”

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In an emailed statement, Yara van Ingen, lead buildings and heat analyst at BloombergNEF said the cut would make the government’s ambition to reach 450,000 heat-pump installations a year by 2030 “harder to achieve”.

In addition to the £1bn in lost grants for the warm-homes plan, the budget also suggests that significant additional funding for the scheme has been cut.

It says a new £4.7bn “your first home” scheme is being funded by reallocating “financial transactions” previously allocated to the energy and environment departments.

While the details of this shift remain sparse, this suggests funding for the warm homes plan could end up being reduced from the headline £15bn to as little as £9bn, analysts tell Carbon Brief.

E3G’s Dyson adds: 

“An unknown amount of funding has been cut from the ‘financial transactions’ pot, which is money that is used to loan to businesses and households. The cut is between £1.5bn and £5bn. 

“The government’s not even tried to spend this money, it only officially launched its [warm-homes] loan scheme today. Businesses and households need certainty to invest in decarbonising homes and this kind of reaction does not support it.”

Ben Westerman, director of policy and advocacy at campaign group Electrify Britain, tells Carbon Brief that “all in all, [the budget is] really disappointing for electrification”.

The budget comes the day after the government launched its “warm homes loan” scheme, which offers households no- and low-interest loans of between £7,500 and £35,000 for installing technologies such as solar panels, batteries and heat pumps. 

According to the government, households that install a heat pump, a battery and solar panels could save £550 a year on their energy bills. This could rise to £800 a year when combined with a time-of-use tariff. 

Fuel duty and EVs

The budget froze fuel duty once again – for the 16th year in a row. 

Chancellor Healey also confirmed the extension of the 5p per litre fuel-duty cut announced in 2022 under Conservative then-chancellor Rishi Sunak, in response to the energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

The cumulative cost of these freezes has now reached £139bn since 2010-2011, according to the OBR. If fuel duty continues to be frozen until 2029-30, the OBR says that public-sector net borrowing will rise by £4.3bn.

.cb-tweet img{ border: solid 1.25px #333333; border-radius: 5px; } @media (max-width:650px){ .cb-tweet{ width:100%; } }

Alongside the budget, the government published an independent review of the cost of public EV charging. This includes plans to cut prices at local, lower-powered public chargers, saving drivers around £150 a year on average, according to the government. 

This will be funded through £100m of government money over two years from spring 2027.

Additionally, the government states that it is “laying the groundwork for a better system in the future” by taking forward a recommendation by the review to launch a “tariff porting” taskforce. This will explore ways to allow drivers to use cheaper domestic tariffs at certain public chargers.

However, the budget also specifies that “electricity supplied through publicly accessible and workplace electric-vehicle charging points is subject to 20% VAT and is not considered domestic use”. This definition will take effect from 1 November 2026, as part of legislation in the finance bill 2026-27. 

Industry bodies criticised this categorisation, with Shane Brennan, CEO of ChargeUK, writing in a statement on LinkedIn that it will “do serious damage to the EV transition”. He continues: 

“Instead of listening to the call of EV drivers for fairness on VAT, the government has slammed the door shut on ending a rank unfairness between at-home and out-of-home charging…[which] even the courts ruled to be illegal earlier this year.”

Within the budget, the government confirmed some changes to the electric-vehicle excise duty (eVED) pay-per-mile tax, announced in last year’s budget. This includes introducing a mileage estimate tool, developing an opt-in system for connectivity and other changes. 

The government will publish its response to the zero-emissions vehicle mandate review by the end of 2026, with a view to changes taking place in 2027. 

CCS and hydrogen

The government has confirmed a £200m cut in capital-grant funding for CCS and £500m for low-carbon hydrogen projects.

This is part of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) “reprioritising its budget” to contribute more to the UK’s defence spending.

There are four planned CCS “clusters” in the works across the UK – part of a government-backed effort to make the nation an “early leader” in the sector.

The budget says the government will “prioritise” the two “mature” clusters under development on Teesside, and on Merseyside and North Wales. These include “blue-hydrogen” production, gas power with CCS and industrial uses.

It also says the government will “maintain grant funding” for the Viking cluster in the Humber region.

The £200m in removed funding will therefore come from the Acorn cluster, which was planned for north-east Scotland.

At the same time, the government says it is “actively looking at how loan or equity investments can support the continued development of future CCS and hydrogen projects…including for the Acorn cluster”.

While the Labour government has stressed the importance of CCS for reaching the UK’s net-zero targets, the billions in public spending committed to these projects have drawn criticism from both climate activists and climate sceptics.

Details of the cuts remain limited, but Prof Rob Gross, director of the UK Energy Research Centre, tells Carbon Brief:

“The history of CCS investment in the UK is not a happy one and if the government wishes to retain investor confidence and the regional economic benefits that the clusters could bring then a repeat of the precipitous cuts made in 2015 must be avoided. It appears that the government is aware and treading carefully.”

Data centres

As part of efforts to boost the UK’s use of artificial intelligence (AI), the budget sets out a “data-centre covenant”, with “tests” that data centres must meet to gain approval.

These include a stipulation that developers must pay for “any energy costs they create”, while also “support[ing] grid resilience, flexibility and clean power”.

The “covenant” will also require data centres to “adhere to the highest environmental standards”, including protecting nature, curbing water use, publishing energy-use data and using waste heat to heat nearby buildings “wherever practical”.

In return, the government will use new planning powers to accelerate the grid connection of data centres, alongside other “strategically important” projects.

When grid connection is not immediately available, the government says it will set out a framework to allow on-site generation until a grid connection can be secured.  

The government stresses that on-site generation will be “tightly controlled” and “only…available for exceptionally strategic projects”.

Nevertheless, NGOs raised the likelihood that “on-site power” would come in the form of gas or diesel generation, rather than clean power, potentially threatening the UK’s climate goals.

Other announcements

There were various other climate- and energy-related announcements in the budget, including: 

• The government has not extended zero-rated VAT for “energy saving materials” – including solar panels – when installed on homes beyond the end of March 2027.
• The budget confirms the establishment of an “energy wealth fund”, which was recently announced as a way to invest revenues from North Sea oil and gas into low-carbon energy infrastructure.
• The government is legislating for the “oil and gas revenue levy” to replace the “energy profits levy” when that ends by April 2030 at the latest.
• It freezes the electricity main rates of the “climate-change levy” from April 2028, in order to “reduce electricity costs in real terms for businesses”.
• As part of the government’s efforts to promote housebuilding, it has introduced an exemption from “biodiversity net gain” requirements for residential brownfield developments on sites up to 1.5 hectares in England.

Related Analysis: How the UK spent more than £11.6bn on climate aid since 2021 28.10.2026 UK policy Revealed: UK relied on £2bn of ‘questionable accounting’ to hit its climate-aid goal 28.10.2026 UK policy Q&A: Why are UK energy bills so high – and how could they be lowered? 27.10.2026 Oil and gas Revealed: Expensive gas behind ‘nearly 90%’ of rise in UK electricity bills 21.10.2026 Oil and gas

The post UK budget 2026: Key climate and energy announcements appeared first on Carbon Brief.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 28, 2026

Radio Ad Features 911 Call From CO2 Pipeline Rupture, Warns Nebraska Landowners of Safety and Eminent Domain Threats From Summit Carbon Pipeline

Ad running across Nebraska documents 2020 CO2 pipeline rupture in Satartia, MS that caused evacuations, hospitalizations and lingering health impacts to this day

Hastings, NE – A new 60-second radio ad sponsored by Bold and Nebraska landowners opposed to Summit Carbon’s risky CO2 pipeline proposed to traverse the state features a 911 call recording from a 2020 carbon pipeline rupture in Satartia, Mississippi that caused evacuations, hospitalizations and lingering health impacts to this day.

In the radio ad – that began running last week on stations across Nebraska – the narrator describes what happened during the 2020 incident in Satartia, MS where a carbon pipeline operated by Denbury Resources ruptured, causing an explosive release of carbon in an immense plume, which was later found by a government-issued report to be toxic for more than a mile from the site of the rupture. A video version of the ad will also run as an ad on Facebook across Nebraska counties that may be impacted by the proposed Summit pipeline.

The ad then features a 911 recording from a Satartia victim who is very concerned and confused about what is happening after her car has stalled – a direct result of the high CO2 concentration making the combustion engine nonfunctional – and her friend is having what she believes is a seizure, as CO2 is an asphyxiant.

After facing insurmountable obstacles to obtaining permits for its CO2 pipeline in South Dakota and North Dakota, Summit earlier this year announced a pivot of its troubled business plan, and instead now intends to route its proposed CO2 pipeline across the entire state of Nebraska, with Wyoming as a new final destination for the CO2 waste dumps. Summit would need eminent domain to seize landowners’ property across Nebraska for the dangerous carbon pipeline.

Already in Nebraska, Stanton County voted unanimously to deny a conditional use permit to Summit for its proposed pipeline, while Dakota County tabled and subsequently removed a pipeline permit request from its official agenda. More recently, Logan County, McPherson County and Red Willow County approved 12-month moratoriums on projects that include CO2 pipelines, and Hitchcock County has considered a similar moratorium. Meanwhile, counties including Antelope, and Holt have taken action to adapt local zoning rules, and enact conditional provisions on any possible permits for Summit.

“The pipeline company and their investors are using this unproven and hazardous idea as a tax scam and will try to take our land for their own private gain. The safety questions go unanswered by the pipelines’ representatives, but they continue to state their pipelines are going to be “different” than the one that exploded in Satartia. The farmer and landowner takes all the risk – including the risk of explosion and death of all living beings in the path of the plume,” said Shelli Meyer, Nebraska Director for Bold Alliance and impacted landowner on a century farm in Dixon County, Nebraska.

“South Dakota said no to Summit’s carbon capture scheme. North Dakota said no. Iowans are saying no. It’s time for Nebraskans to say no too. Our land, our water, our rights are more important than the greed-fueled desires of an out-of-state corporation and its foreign investors.” said Emma Schmit, Organizing Director at Bold Alliance.

Bold is currently collecting signatures on a petition urging Nebraskans to support a bill in the legislature in the coming year to ban eminent domain for CO2 pipelines. Bold also recently launched another petition in response to recent applications to permit carbon injection well waste dumps in western Nebraska counties, a new threat of contamination to the Ogallala aquifer and our groundwater resources.

The new petition also targets Nebraska’s pending application to the U.S. EPA to take over “primacy” of these sequestration wells, and instead authorize the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment to handle both permitting and monitoring of risks from the highly-pressurized gas injected underground, supposedly forever.

View the video version of the ad running on Facebook:

About Bold’s Easement Action Teams:
The Easement Action Teams are a project of the Bold Education Fund. The EATs work with local communities to provide immediate legal representation to landowners facing pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. Our first priority is to protect landowners’ property rights and water. We believe landowners should have the ultimate right of what does and does not happen on their land. We stand against the use of eminent domain for private gain. (https://easementteams.org) The first landowners legal co-op formed was the Nebraska Easement Action Team, which successfully organized landowners to fight the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, and currently works with landowners fighting carbon pipelines in the state. (https://neeasement.org)

About Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub:
The Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub, a project of the Bold Education Fund, provides technical, legal, story telling and organizing assistance to any community fighting pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure, with the goal of protecting the land and water. (https://pipelinefighters.org)

About Bold:
The Bold Alliance and Bold Education Fund are coordinating state-based groups with our Pipeline Fighters Hub and landowner legal groups called the Easement Action Teams to stop pipelines from using eminent domain for private gain. (https://boldalliance.org)

# # #

The post Radio Ad Features 911 Call From CO2 Pipeline Rupture, Warns Nebraska Landowners of Safety and Eminent Domain Threats From Summit Carbon Pipeline appeared first on Bold Nebraska.

Former Biden climate adviser John Podesta says the Senate’s bipartisan permitting bill would let President Donald Trump approve projects on public lands that courts could not reverse, even if the approvals break the law. Podesta made the remarks Friday at a University of Colorado Boulder symposium, according to a recording obtained by Heatmap. He applauded the parts of the bill that would allow new long-distance transmission construction, but criticized the bill’s reforms to fossil fuel permitting and federal land development.

The bill would bar agencies from altering federal permits issued after September 2026 and from denying or delaying permits in a way that shows a “pattern of disparate treatment” against specific projects. Podesta said this would mean the Trump administration could permit development, even illegally, in places including near Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, and Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. Podesta said lawmakers should pass the bill in the lame-duck session only if they fix those provisions.

“I think they have handed Trump not just a loaded gun, but they’ve handed him a loaded Howitzer to go after public lands, to permit stuff that even if it’s illegal can’t be reversed by the courts,” said Podesta. “They’re going to have a permit gorge like you’ve never seen, not really caring about whether they’re going through the legal steps to do it, and under this bill, those can’t be reversed.”

Trump moves to loosen methane rules for the leakiest oil and gas wells

President Trump on Tuesday unveiled a proposal to weaken federal methane rules for oil and gas operations, including wells on public lands. The rule would set looser standards for low-producing “marginal” wells, which produce about seven percent of the nation’s oil and gas but roughly half its methane emissions, and would repeal the Super Emitter Program, which requires companies to respond to credible reports of major leaks.

“The Trump administration is giving oil companies a free pass to spew methane across the country, and the Senate permitting bill would make that pass permanent,” said Aaron Weiss, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities.

Quick hits Trump’s arch would cast a shadow over Arlington Cemetery

Washington Post

Trump loosens rules for oil firms on methane

New York Times | Bloomberg | The Hill | The Verge | Politico | Washington Post | Center for Western Priorities [press release]

A missing Wabanaki marker in Maine and the fight over what stories national parks should tell

Associated Press

Burgum signs order to expand grazing on public lands

Bloomberg Law | WIBW | KFYR | Western Watersheds Project

Opinion: Instead of asking what we can take from our public lands, we should first ask what we owe them

Ground Shift

The quiet collapse of America’s wildlife refuges

RE:PUBLIC/MeatEater

Conservationists sound the alarm on Trump’s Endangered Species Act changes

Harvest Public Media

The creepiest ghost stories from America’s national parks

Outside

Quote of the day

What if we began with reverence? Essentially, what is our righteous relationship to land? I’m not talking about worship, sentimentality, total exclusion, or leaving every piece of landscape untouched. I mean that some things in this world have value beyond what we take from them, and we can honor that without taking sides.”

—Jim Enote, Zuni Tribal member, CEO of the Colorado Plateau Foundation, and Board Chair for the Grand Canyon Trust, Ground Shift

Picture This @grandcanyonnps

Hikers can once again explore several inner-canyon trails. These trails have reopened following repairs after trail damage caused by recent flooding.

The South Kaibab Trail below The Tipoff and the entire River Trail, connecting the South Kaibab to the Bright Angel Trail, has reopened to hikers. The Bright Angel Trail between Mile-and-a-Half Resthouse and Havasupai Gardens has reopened to hikers only. This section will remain closed to stock use as crews continue to repair additional trail damage.

Emergency response times may be delayed in the inner canyon, and rescue is not guaranteed. Hikers should assess their abilities, prepare for changing conditions and understand the risks before beginning their trip.

go.nps.gov/gc-hkm

NPS Photo – South Kaibab Trail below Cedar Ridge.

 

 

Featured photo: Blythe Solar Project, California. BLM

The post Podesta says permitting bill would shield illegal approvals on public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

The continued survival of manatees is dependent on the protection and preservation of Florida’s springs system.

We reaffirm our recognition of their legitimate struggle for self-determination, territorial autonomy, and the defense of their ways of life, culture, and community organization.

The post La Via Campesina Solidarity with the Mapuche Nation of Chile appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

By Jeremy Brecher,
Senior Strategic Advisor, LNS Co-Founder

Listen to the audio version >>

This commentary presents an overview of the elements that are necessary for a Green New Deal 2.0 in the era of the Polycrisis.

The Green New Deal 2.0, like earlier Green New Deals, is a project to abolish the extraction and burning of fossil fuels while rapidly expanding equality, justice, and wellbeing. To do that it will have to learn from the earlier Green New Deals but also develop far beyond them. It will be aided in doing so by the radical reduction in the cost of fossil free energy and the ways in which energy is used – the Greentech Revolution. But the Green New Deal 2.0 will also have to function within – and help transform – the period of global disorder that has come to be known as the Polycrisis.

To succeed, the Green New Deal 2.0 will need to be multi-level: local, state, regional, national, and global. From the start it needs to be global in its perspective and to transcend national borders in many of its actions. But it will initially have to be built from the bottom up, community by community, jurisdiction by jurisdiction. Eventually it will need to control and wield the power of national governments.

The Green New Deal 2.0 won’t happen all at once; it will have to develop over time. In the U.S. the Green New Deal 2.0 may start with an Emergency Green New Deal addressing the catastrophe now being experienced by the American people and its impending intensification. This catastrophe includes the crises of food, housing, energy, health, public safety, climate, inequality, democracy, and the rule of law – a veritable American Polycrisis. In some ways it resembles the “Yeltsin Era” that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union when systems from employment to food to healthcare to housing to the rule of law broke down; male life expectancy at birth fell by six years just between 1990 and 1994.

There is little likelihood of immediate federal solutions to this catastrophe – indeed, those currently in control of the federal government are taking extreme measures to exacerbate it. Addressing it requires people organizing themselves from below to implement an Emergency Green New Deal that will put people to work doing the things are that are necessary to ensure survival and wellbeing in the face of the American Polycrisis.

Achieving the goals of the Green New Deal 2.0 – abolishing fossil fuel extraction and burning while rapidly reducing inequality, injustice, and deprivation – will require simultaneous action at many levels from local communities to global institutions. It will constitute an era of social reconstruction.

Realizing the objectives of the Green New Deal 2.0 –while a gigantic leap forward for humanity – will not in itself be sufficient to put human life on a secure basis that makes possible a good life for all. The Green New Deal 2.0 must make part of its project laying the groundwork for what we might dub the Green New Deal 3.0.

Elements of the Green New Deal 2.0

Photo taken at the 2017 DC Climate March on April 29, 2017. #RESIST. Credit: Mark Dixon from Pittsburgh, PA, Wikipedia Commons, CC By 2.0

Here are some of the ways in which the Green New Deal 2.0 can incorporate but go far beyond previous Green New Deals:

The Greentech Revolution Protecting the climate by replacing fossil fuels with fossil free energy was the central pillar of the original U.S. Green New Deal. Since then, climate catastrophe has truly arrived. But the global Greentech Revolution has created a new basis for moving to fossil-free communities, countries, and world. The Green New Deal 2.0 will accelerate the timetable for the transition to climate safety, while utilizing it as the pivot for other transformations.

Green Jobs The original U.S. Green New Deal resolution noted a “4-decade trend of wage stagnation, deindustrialization, and antilabor policies.” It proposed to use climate mobilization as a vehicle to transform the world of work through high-quality union jobs, worker rights, labor standards, and a “job guarantee” that would ensure a job for every worker who wants one doing the work that is necessary to protect the climate and create a more just society. Since then, inequality has exploded and artificial intelligence (AI) threatens to eliminate millions of jobs and turn millions of others into excruciating daily oppression. The Green New Deal 2.0 will expand the jobs programs proposed by the Green New Deal, ensure that there are good jobs for those affected by AI, and empower workers to organize and act collectively on the job.

Affordability Rising prices for the necessities of life are a crucial concern for working people today. The Green New Deal 2.0 will address this from the start by replacing fossil fuels with far cheaper fossil-free energy, reducing the price of everything that uses energy – that is to say, everything. It will also make massive investment in energy-conserving housing, food production, and other necessities of life that will both protect the climate and reduce the cost of living. It will tax the rich to reduce inequality and provide resources for the 99%.

Human Needs The Green New Deal specifically addressed the unmet needs for housing, education, healthcare, and other necessities of life as part of the transition to a climate-safe society. Recent bills in Congress have proposed Green New Deals for housing and education. The Trump administration has devastated all aspects of our already inadequate social provision and is taking aim at what’s left. The Green New Deal 2.0 will establish new systems of social provision that empower local communities while providing the resources necessary to meet individual and social needs.

Justice and Equity The original Green New Deal resolution proposed to use its programs to “promote justice and equity by preventing current and repairing historic oppression” of “indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth.” Today the further degradation of all these groups is being actively promoted by the Trump administration and its supporters in all spheres of life. The Green New Deal 2.0 will use resources, policies, democratic processes, and law to reverse both historic and new forms of injustice and inequality.     

Democratization The original U.S. Green New Deal was defeated in large part by the inordinate wealth and power of the fossil fuel industry and its power base within both Republican and Democratic parties. Since then, the Trump administration and the forces of plutocracy have further degraded our democracy and empowered the billionaire class. The initial U.S. Green New Deal resolution called for “ensuring the use of democratic and participatory processes that are inclusive of and led by frontline and vulnerable communities and workers to plan, implement, and administer the Green New Deal.” The Green New Deal 2.0 will rebuild democracy from the bottom up. That includes establishing democratic institutions at the grassroots and establishing genuine political equality for all people. It will also extend democracy within workplaces and the economy. Donald Trump has greatly expanded the role of government in the economy for the worst of purposes, to enrich kleptocrats and war contractors. The Green New Deal 2.0 will utilize that expansion of powers to provide planning and investment to serve the common good.

Constraining Corporations and Technologies The original New Deal of the Great Depression aimed to control the anti-social behavior of “malefactors of great wealth.” The startling growth of hyperscale data centers controlled by a handful of tech billionaires has forced new attention to the need to constrain corporations and their technology. To realize its objectives, the Green New Deal 2.0 will have to go far beyond previous green new deals in halting the anti-social behavior of today’s malefactors of great wealth, the corporations they control, and the destructive technologies they are seeking to impose. It will need to implement the “precautionary principle” that forbids introduction of new technologies until they are proven safe. More broadly, it will need to make the actions of private economic entities accountable to the public and those they affect.

Global Cooperation Neither the climate nor the economy can be fixed at a purely local or national level. The growing chaos of the global Polycrisis with its breakdown of international cooperation has led to a collapse of climate protection, proliferating warfare, economic chaos, and an inability of any nation to provide security and wellbeing for its people. The Green New Deal 2.0 will treat a worldwide Green New Deal as a common project of the world’s people and will make cooperation among movements and nations a primary part of its local and national programs. It will promote mutually managed international trade in the interest of protecting the climate and the world’s people rather than either economic nationalism or unconstrained globalization.

Laying the Groundwork for the Green New Deal 3.0

The Green New Deal 2.0 will not solve all the world’s problems; that will require more fundamental forms of change, including a changed relationship between humans and nature and new ways of guiding human society as a whole. Part of its objective, therefore, must be to lay the groundwork for further change – the Green New Deal 3.0. While the parameters of that change can be seen only hazily from the vantage point of today, we can aim to ensure that the Green New Deal 2.0 opens rather than closes the way to a peaceful, just, and climate safe world order.

The elements of the Green New Deal 2.0 will rapidly improve the lives of workers, communities, and ordinary Americans. The Greentech Revolution will not only retard climate devastation, it will reduce pollution and reverse soaring energy costs. Putting millions of people to work addressing human and environmental needs will not only provide quality employment but rapidly expand provision of food, housing, medical care, public safety, and other necessities of life. Rebuilding democracy from the bottom up will offer protection against the aggressions of authoritarian government and promote our ability to control our common life.

By itself the Green New Deal 2.0 won’t quell the global Polycrisis. But working with other forces it can begin to constrain Polycrisis dynamics while also starting to transcend them. The rapid reduction in burning fossil fuels and the transition to fossil free energy can slow and eventually reverse the destruction of the earth’s climate. The reduction in inequity and injustice, the meeting of social needs, the provision of full employment, and the constraining of corporate power all address the inequality promoted by rightwing policies and the Polycrisis. The drive for international cooperation can help begin to bring warmaking, war crimes, nihilistic geopolitics, and global plunder under control. Cooperation of diverse forces can begin to bring together “patchworks” of order and justice that can constrain the Polycrisis and develop toward an alternative world order.

The Green New Deal project has been promoted by a wide array of social forces. It has brought together people operating inside political systems with social movements organizing outside of them. It has used both the institutions of representative democracy and the direct-action power of the people to implement its objectives. The Green New Deal 2.0 will draw on comparable sources of power – but on a more continuous and more extensive scale.

(The next commentaries in this series will delineate the American Polycrisis and the Emergency Green New Deal.)  

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The post What Is the Green New Deal 2.0? first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

African negotiators have asked the UN to open a formal space at COP31 for contentious talks on adaptation finance and trade, lining up a potential fight over the agenda when the climate summit opens in Antalya on November 9.

In a letter sent to UN climate chief Simon Stiell last Sunday, Ghana, which is chairing the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) this year, requested three additional agenda items on tripling adaptation finance, trade and climate change, and the financing arrangements of the Green Climate Fund. 

Governments agreed at last year’s COP30 on a new target to “at least triple” finance for climate adaptation in developing countries by 2035, following a push led by the least-developed countries which are highly vulnerable to growing climate impacts. But the last-minute deal left out key details, including the baseline year for tripling, a headline amount, who should pay and how it will be delivered.

AGN chair Antwi-Boasiako Amoah wrote in the letter that “a dedicated item is needed”, pointing to worrying trends in adaptation finance. He added that the mid-year climate talks in Bonn had “made clear” that countries could not agree how or where to take the goal forward.

During June’s session, developing countries tried to anchor the target in the negotiations on the Global Goal on Adaptation, which lays out technical indicators to measure and boost global efforts to cope with climate change. But wealthy nations – led primarily by the EU, the UK and Japan – opposed that push, arguing adaptation finance should be discussed elsewhere. Unable to break the deadlock, diplomats left Bonn without an agreement on adaptation.

‘Homeless’ issue

No other developing-country group has officially backed the AGN’s proposal so far. That may change next week, when negotiating blocs hold their pre-COP coordination meetings in Antalya.

Raju Pandit Chhetri, lead climate finance negotiator for the least-developed countries (LDCs), told Climate Home News it would be difficult to secure an agenda item on adaptation finance alone, but it is “a homeless issue” that needs to be discussed somewhere within the formal talks at COP31.

• Oct 27, 2026 News National climate plans now promise half the emission cuts expected by UN The US exit from the Paris Agreement and weak new pledges leave 2035 emissions just 6% below 2019 levels, against 12% projected last year Read more
• Oct 23, 2026 News Early speakers’ list suggests few powerful leaders will attend COP31 Just 77 heads of state or government are scheduled to address the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, a third less than the COP28 peak Read more

Developed countries are likely to resist. In their agreed COP31 negotiating position, EU governments reaffirmed the tripling call but framed it within the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), the broader post-2025 finance goal agreed at COP29 in Baku. The EU and its member states are the largest provider of international climate finance to developing countries, but some nations, including Germany and France, have cut their aid budgets in recent years.

The LDCs want the goal to be defined as $120 billion a year by 2030 (five years before the agreed timeline), which would triple a previous target of around $40 billion. That was meant to be reached in 2025 but is likely to have been missed.

Mattias Söderberg, global climate lead for the Danish development NGO DanChurchAid, said tripling adaptation finance is not just “catchy wording”, but something that will save lives and help countries and communities cope with climate change on the ground. 

He added that the AGN’s proposal will “for sure” spark a debate and “may lead to an agenda fight”, but it will ensure that the goal will not be forgotten. 

Members of civil society call for a tripling of adaptation finance. (Photo: IISD/ENB – Kiara Worth) Members of civil society call for a tripling of adaptation finance. (Photo: IISD/ENB – Kiara Worth) GCF’s needs assessment

The second request in Ghana’s letter aims to revive a provision dating back to COP19 in 2013. Countries agreed then that the COP conferences should periodically assess how much money developing countries need to implement the UN climate convention, with the goal of helping inform fundraising by the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

Amoah said the COP has not made that assessment since 2013, so the fund’s replenishments have gone ahead without it. The GCF’s next fundraising round, covering 2028 to 2031, officially began in July. Its board is meeting in South Korea this week to agree rules for donor contributions, and a pledging conference is expected by the end of 2027.

The letter points to “declining” aid and “pressure on multilateral climate funds”. In May, the UK told the GCF it would deliver only half of the £1.62bn it had pledged for the current period, as it spends more on national security.

Trade tensions return

The third African request, for a “Trade and Climate Change Dialogue” item, is likely to be just as contentious. Disputes over what some countries call unilateral trade measures, such as the EU’s carbon border tax, have flared at recent COPs.

To keep this hot issue out of the official negotiations, in Belém last year, the Brazilian presidency set up three trade dialogues to take place at the Bonn mid-year sessions from 2026 to 2028. The first, in June, stayed stuck at “principled debate”, E3G’s Ellie Belton told Climate Home News. There, the African Group and Russia floated a formal negotiating track, which developed countries are reluctant to open.

Tensions set to flare over trade at COP31 as China makes it a priority

The AGN letter argues that the Belém decision already gives sufficient basis for an agenda item. “Respecting previous decisions of the [UNFCCC] governing bodies is an inalienable basis for trust in the process,” it says.

China, which previously asked for an agenda item on trade, signalled last week that it wants COP31 to tackle trade “protectionism” and the free flow of green technology, after US and EU curbs on its cleantech exports.

The UN climate secretariat can add the requested items to a provisional agenda that would need to be formally adopted at the start of the COP. Any government can object to the inclusion of additional issues, and disputed items are often moved into consultations led by the presidency to broker a deal.

The post Africa wants adaptation finance on COP31 agenda, raising risk of a fight appeared first on Climate Home News.

We reaffirm our commitment to stand with the struggles of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, to defend their sovereignty and self-determination, and to denounce the policies of interference, dispossession, and criminalization that violate their rights.

The post La Via Campesina Solidarity with the Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

We express our deep solidarity with the peasant, indigenous, and Garifuna organizations of Honduras, as well as with the communities, women, youth, families, and defenders of land and territories who face violence, threats, criminalization, and dispossession.

The post La Via Campesina Solidarity with the Peasant, Indigenous, and Garifuna Organizations of Honduras appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
October 28, 2026

Over 40 Mining Claims Filed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, including at least 13 within shrunken boundaries Since Trump’s reductions, 110+ claims filed in Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante

Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Dr. Jacqualine Grant, Executive Director, Grand Staircase Escalante Partners (GSEP); (435) 269-1237 (jackie@gsenm.org)
Keri Gilliland, The Wilderness Society, (KGilliland@tws.org)
Chaitna Sinha, Conservation Codirector and Staff Attorney, Grand Canyon Trust; (970) 399-9565 (csinha@grandcanyontrust.org)
Amy Dominguez, Sierra Club, amy.dominguez@sierraclub.org, (385) 355-4631
Andrew Scibetta, NRDC, (202) 289-2421, ascibetta@nrdc.org
Daniel Hernandez, National Parks Conservation Association, dhernandez@npca.org, (202) 573-2201

GARFIELD COUNTY, UT – 41 new mining claims (see map) have recently been located in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument – 13 in the shrunken Monument, six that may be in the shrunken Monument, and 22 in lands that were previously protected. The previously protected lands became subject to mining claims on Friday, September 11 – 60 days after President Trump decimated Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears by shrinking these national monuments by over 90%. Lands within the reduced Monument remain closed to mining claims and any/all newly located claims here are invalid.

The new mining claims (see map), all filed by Dan W. Proctor, are in three general areas: (1) Colt Mesa (Dan and his son Nick acquired mining claims filed during the previous Trump reduction by Glacier Lake Resources, a Canadian company. Neither Glacier Lake nor the Proctors have developed these claims.); (2) near Studhorse Peaks; and (3) on the northern edge of the reduced Monument, close to where it borders the Dixie National Forest, south of the Circle Cliffs. 13 of the claims near Colt Mesa are in the reduced monument boundaries and six more may be. 

The exact location of the 6 mining claims won’t be confirmed until the paperwork accompanying the recordation of the claims is reviewed. It is also impossible to know at this stage the actual footprint of any mining operations on the claims. The public won’t know the size of any proposed operations until Mr. Proctor files paperwork with the Bureau of Land Management indicating whether it’s notice-level mining (5 acres and under, mostly not subject to federal environmental laws such as NEPA, NHPA, etc.) or plan-level mining (generally 5 acres or more, is subject to federal environmental laws).

“These 41 new claims – in addition to the 72 claims located in Bears Ears National Monument – illustrate that illegally shrinking the monuments was done to further the Trump administration’s extraction-focused agenda,” said Hanna Larsen, Staff Attorney at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “These 113 mining claims put some of southern Utah’s most remarkable places at risk of being irreparably damaged and reinforce the need for vigilance while we work to permanently restore both Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments.”

“These new mining claims threaten what makes the Monument a scientific hotspot. At risk is North America’s second largest petrified forest, a magnificent and nearly unmatched 225-million-year-old site dating back to the late Triassic period,” said Dr. Jackie Grant, Executive Director of Grand Staircase Escalante Partners. “Also at risk is a Federally listed plant species, Jones cycladenia. Only five populations of this rare plant are known to exist; in 2021, energy and mineral development were identified as major threats to its continued existence. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is worthy of protection and should not be threatened by short-sighted mining efforts.”

“The growing number of mining claims at Grand Staircase-Escalante is a warning of what could happen when protections are stripped away, and Tribal Nations and local communities are shut out of decisions about these lands. Irreplaceable cultural resources, wildlife habitat and our freedom to experience one of America’s most extraordinary public landscapes are all at risk,” said Charlie Luke, Utah State Director at The Wilderness Society. “Grand Staircase deserves lasting protections that preserve these irreplaceable values for future generations.”       

“Gut a national monument, and this is the predictable result, a rush of mining claims across lands Americans have repeatedly said they want protected,” said Bobby McEnaney, Senior Lands Analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “Grand Staircase-Escalante is a globally significant landscape, but mining companies and speculators are exploiting a law written in 1872 to stake claims on public lands that contain irreplaceable cultural resources, wildlife habitat, and scientific treasures. Americans should not have to watch iconic public lands be carved up because the administration has decided to disregard the importance of our national monuments.”

 “Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’s paleontology and geology hold the stories of our planet’s past and the monument remains a living cultural landscape of vital importance to many tribes,” said Chaitna Sinha, Staff Attorney and Conservation Codirector for the Grand Canyon Trust. “According to a recent poll, Utah voters strongly prioritize conservation over mining. These mining claims are short-sighted and out of step with what Utah voters want.”

“The claims that continue to come out of the woodwork make no secret of the Trump administration’s true motives for shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments,” said Director of the Sierra Club in Utah, Franque Bains. “Exploiting the culturally significant, revered, and treasured lands so many are connected to for a quick buck is the definition of greed. Utahns want these lands protected, not offered up on a platter for industrial development.”

“It’s heartbreaking to watch this extraordinary place chipped away by mining claims, when Tribal Nations have maintained deep connections to these lands since time immemorial,” said Davina Smith Idjesa, Four Corners Tribal Program Manager at the National Parks Conservation Association. “This confirms what we knew about the proclamation to dismantle the monument. This was always about slashing protections, including clearing the way for unchecked energy development and dismantling co-stewardship structures that give Tribal Nations a leading role in managing their ancestral lands. Grand Staircase-Escalante is deeply intertwined with the National Park System, linking Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Now, we’re seeing the result when the door is left wide open to reckless drilling and mining.” 

Background Information on other Mining claims: 

Under President Trump’s proclamations decimating Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante by over 90%, mining claims could not be staked until 60 days after the date of the proclamation: Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. Despite this, on July 14, 2026, Kimmerle Mining filed 7 mining claims (see map) with the San Juan County (Utah) Recorder’s Office. Kimmerle Mining previously filed mining claims after Trump’s 2017 reduction of Bears Ears and excavated a partially reclaimed mine shaft on one of the claims – the so-called Easy Peasy claim (this mine has been re-buried); Kyle Kimmerle (a Managing Member of Kimmerle Mining) was also a plaintiff in one of the cases filed in the District of Utah challenging President Biden’s 2021 restoration of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.  

Two mining claims were also filed in Grand Staircase-Escalante, less than one month after Trump’s attack. On August 6, 2026, Craig Rosequist filed two mining claims (see map) with the Kane County (Utah) Recorder’s Office in areas cut out of the monument by the Trump proclamations. According to public records, Rosequist previously located several mining claims in neighboring Washington County, Utah. The Bureau of Land Management should reject claims filed in both national monuments prior to Sept. 11. 

From 2018-2021 (during the previous, illegal reduction), there were a total of 20 mining claims filed in the lands cut from Bears Ears National Monument. So far, more than triple that number – 72 claims – have been filed. 

Background information about the national monument reductions:

• Statements from Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal coalitions
• SUWA Statement on Trump’s Illegal Reductions of Grand Staircase-Escalante & Bears Ears National Monuments
• Full Statement and Quotes Tracking
• Maps of the reductions
• Reporter Background Memo on National Monuments

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The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters from around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards a world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org.

The post Over 40 Mining Claims Filed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, including at least 13 within shrunken boundaries appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Assembly #21 - 25/11/2026 Date, time and meeting link * Date: 25/11/2026 * Time: 1pm GMT * Duration: 2 hours Agenda * Introduction (10 minutes) * Interweaving (50 minutes) * Governance (40 minutes) * Information (15 minutes) Description

A vertical farm in the Camille Graham Correctional Institution in South Carolina serves education space for incarcerated women, where women gain skills in farming and workforce development.

The 20-week program teaches women how to plant, grow, and harvest hydroponic lettuce, along with other skills in food handling. Around 15 inmates participate, producing over 3,000 heads of lettuce every week. South Carolina’s Department of Corrections (DOC) then sells the lettuces back to the facilities, where they are served to inmates across Camille Graham and two neighboring women’s prisons.

The goal is to equip women with skills for life after incarceration and support their wellbeing through hands-on connection with agriculture and more nutritious meals.

In addition to being the first controlled agriculture operation in a U.S. prison, the Camille Graham farm is the pilot program for the Growing Justice initiative, operated by criminal justice nonprofit Impact Justice. This summer, Camille Graham began its third cohort of the program, and Impact Justice also launched a Growing Justice location at a correctional facility in California.

“Access to fresh vegetables and locally grown produce is pretty rare” in prisons, Kristina Bell, the Growing Justice Director at Impact Justice, tells Food Tank. “We’ve seen tremendous positive feedback around the fact that they have access to this lettuce, and tremendous pride as well. The participants know that others in the facility are benefiting and enjoying the produce that they’ve grown.”

The technology is sourced by vertical farm company AmplifiedAg. CEO David Flynn tells Food Tank that the farm is a repurposed shipping container with an HVAC system and LED lighting that allow multiple stacked rows of lettuce to grow.

One container has the capacity to produce 40,000 pounds of lettuce every year. Rick Doran, the Division Director of Agriculture for South Carolina’s Department of Corrections (DOC), says that around 4,000 servings of lettuce are harvested each week.

Doran remembers being “blown away” by the technology’s high output, low water intake, and logistical ease for a correctional facility. He was also inspired by the growing potential of controlled environment agriculture in South Carolina, which he said could create job opportunities for participants of the program, who train in this field, after their release.

“Any time we can show people how to be more self-sustaining and understand where their food comes from and what goes into producing and harvesting and being safe with that food—it fits terrifically into the whole idea that when the ladies finally move out of the institutional setting,” Doran tells Food Tank. “It helps keep the recidivism lower, and that’s one of the big goals.”

The Growing Justice curriculum has three main pillars: hands-on work at the farm, classroom instruction on agriculture and food production, and workforce development, which includes resume writing and interview preparation. Participants spend around 10 hours with the program each week, over the span of five months. By the end, they receive a U.S. Department of Agriculture Good Agricultural Practices food safety certification, as well as a US$1,450 stipend after their release from the facility.

As water depletion becomes a growing issue in farming-forward South Carolina, the DOC continues to seek newer technologies, like vertical farming, to build efficiency in its agricultural operations. Tom Osmer, one of the department’s Assistant Deputy Directors, is excited by the Camille Graham farm’s model. He believes the combination of resource-efficient production, revenue generation for the DOC, nutritional value for inmates, and its potential to improve participants’ wellbeing and livelihoods make it an all-around win.

Impact Justice and South Carolina’s DOC describe the program’s influence as immense. “When they’re a part of something, they take more interest in rehabilitation, and it’s a form of therapy for the inmates to work and see their work come to fruition,” Osmer tells Food Tank. “We want them to live a fruitful life on the outside, so these are skills and disciplines they’re learning to keep them productive.”

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Impact Justice

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Jinwar: Women’s Collective Approach to Managing the Local Economy By Halwest Karim Introduction Jinwar is an ecological village for women and children in Rojava-Western of Kurdistan. It is located between agricultural lands and the Kibaz Hill, in the northeastern plains of Syria’s Hasakah Governorate. The village built by the Kurdish women’s movement as a safe home for women affected by violence and war to rebuild their lives and live together in a community based on solidarity, freedom, an…

But he’s Halloween-Scary about climate change and wishing captive regulators, Duke Energy and Big Tech corporations would change course to help North Carolinians

Yesterday NC Gov. Josh Stein issued a press release on the need to combat rising utility bills, featuring highlights from his Energy Policy Task Force. The Governor correctly alluded to the A.I. data center frenzy being out of control.

But he’s horribly out of step about how to change course.

What Stein and team got more-or less correct:

• Electricity rates could increase by 70% over the next 15 years, with data centers driving some 80% of the expanded energy projects. 
• Data centers’ large energy loads will create $50 billion more in costs through 2050. 
• A recent backroom deal between Duke and Big Tech corporations about data center power costs excludes the lion’s share of costs – new power plants – as NC WARN explained after Duke and others lied that the deal protects smaller power customers. 
• Gov. Stein now says data centers should pay the full cost of their impact and bring their own clean energy. 

What’s Halloween-Scary about Stein’s statement:

• “Bring their own clean energy” is delusional without assertive intervention from the Governor; few if any of the data centers plan to invest in renewable power, and the Duke-Big Tech deal virtually locks out that option. Instead, Duke Energy plans to build polluting power plants near many new data centers. 
• Calling for the NC Utilities Commission to “require” anything of Duke Energy ignores many years of cozy regulatory treatment of one of the world’s worst polluters. That’s why NC WARN is urging Stein to enact a 2-year freeze on data center development to establish a better process to protect communities from Duke Energy and data center developers’ backroom deals. 
• Stein says “If North Carolina starts cutting [carbon] emissions in the mid-2030s rather than later,” it would save ratepayers billions. This is horribly out of step with the 61 climate scientists pressing him to stop Duke Energy’s fossil fuel expansion immediately. [emphasis added]

Has the Governor given up on helping avert runaway climate and social chaos? Is he okay with relegating millions of state and global residents to the climate destruction being amplified by corporate polluters?

NC WARN has been increasingly critical of state government’s collaboration with Duke Energy to recruit A.I. data centers. Our demand for all records about state expenditures regarding those actions will be answered soon unless Gov. Stein chooses to fight this out in court.

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Now in its 38th year, NC WARN is building people power in the climate and energy justice movement to persuade or require Charlotte-based Duke Energy – one of the world’s largest climate polluters – to make a quick transition to renewable, affordable power generation and energy efficiency in order to avert climate tipping points and ongoing rate hikes. 

The post Gov. Stein is Right about Data Centers Driving up NC Power Bills 70% — NC WARN News Release appeared first on NC WARN.

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Pamayanihan: Growing Food, Solidarity and Economies of Life in the Philippines By Charlene Tan Introduction GTA