G2. Local Greens

A new report from the Center for Western Priorities found that less than one percent of 35,700 comments submitted to the National Park Service in response to signage asking the public to report negative depictions of American history in parks actually used the comment form as intended. The comments were received via a QR code sign that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered to be posted at national park sites. The sign asked park visitors to report “any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.”

The Center for Western Priorities analyzed 35,700 comments submitted across 475 national park units between June 2025 and January 2026, organizing the comments into categories based on content and sentiment. The vast majority of comments expressed opposition to the order, support for national parks, the importance of telling a complete history, criticism of the Trump administration generally, as well as a number of jokes and off-topic responses. However, a negligible number of comments actually flagged signage or supported removal, with only 47 comments, or 0.1 percent of the total comments submitted.

“These comments pass the vibe check with flying colors. Americans support our parks and the stories they tell, and they aren’t happy about the Trump administration’s efforts to rewrite history,” said Lilly Bock-Brownstein, Center for Western Priorities Creative Content and Policy Manager. “Instead of helping Trump censor our national parks, visitors used the comment form to tell the Trump administration to respect our parks or get lost.”

A former Interior department official explains what’s wrong with mining on public land

On a new episode of The Landscape, Kate and Aaron are joined by Dr. Steve Feldgus, an independent consultant who served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the Interior department under President Biden. Dr. Feldgus talks about how to improve mine permitting in the U.S., a topic he worked on while at Interior.

Quick hits Effort to get national park visitors to snitch on signs backfires

Center for Western Priorities [report] | KOAA | Source NM | West Central Tribune | Salt Lake Tribune

New BLM grazing rules eliminate Tribal bison from public lands

Inside Climate News | Public Domain | Idaho Statesman [opinion]

BLM and Utah Lt. Governor sign co-management agreement for San Rafael Swell

ABC4 | Salt Lake Tribune | Deseret News

Elk herd habitat near Dinosaur National Monument to open for drilling

High Country News | International Business Times

Forest Service admits cabin project in Alaska was cancelled due to mining interests, after previously denying it

KTOO

Trump administration waives environmental laws to allow border wall in Big Bend National Park

National Parks Traveler | Common Dreams

Opinion: Federal policies put public lands elk habitat on the chopping block

Colorado Newsline

Once underwater, Colorado River canyon country reemerges as drought-stricken Lake Powell’s levels drop

Denver Post

Quote of the day

Folks need to understand the long-term impacts of a rush to lease so much public land. Once those leases are issued they are very hard to get rid of — they stay on the land for a long time, even if they aren’t developed.”

—Peter Hart, legal director of the Wilderness Workshop, High Country News

Picture This @u.s.forestservice

The rings on the shells of wood turtles reveal their age — giving them something in common with the trees in the forests they live in.

Forest Service scientists’ partner with land managers across the Midwest, finding ways to care for wood turtles threatened by habitat loss, stream pollution, disease, and poaching.

Data from long-term monitoring shows that protecting nests and constructing roadside barriers help turtles survive to adulthood and ensure the next generation of hatchlings.

(Forest Service photo by Donald Brown)

 

 

Featured photo: Lower Delicate Arch viewpoint, Arches National Park. NPS/Chris Wonderly

The post Trump effort to solicit negative feedback on national park signage backfires appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Co-authored by Jenny Silva is the Executive Director at Call Marin Home and Member of the Executive Committee of the Marin Group of the Sierra Club SF Bay Chapter.
Jessie Rountree is the Marin Resilience Manager at Greenbelt Alliance.

The housing and climate crises are often regarded as separate problems, when in fact they are intertwined. In an increasingly urbanized world, there is one powerful solution that addresses both: building more homes where people already live. 

This type of development is called infill. It places new and modified homes within existing neighborhoods and developed areas. The contrast to this is sprawl, a familiar practice in much of California that includes low-density residential housing, often on rural, natural, and agricultural lands. Sprawl fragments habitat, severs wildlife corridors, and disrupts the carbon sequestration and flood-prevention benefits of healthy ecosystems.

Because we share these beliefs, Greenbelt Alliance is proud to join Call Marin Home, a coalition of leading organizations expanding housing through production, preservation, and protection for an inclusive Marin County. We know that increasing housing supply is essential to advancing our mission and sustaining a thriving, equitable community. 

By choosing infill housing instead of sprawl, we can address both our housing shortage and climate challenge to create healthier communities.

Protecting the land we can't afford to lose

Marin’s environmental ethos is evident in our abundant open spaces. Over 85% of Marin County is restricted from development, consisting of federal parks, agricultural land, water district lands, and open space preserves. However, we seem to limit our value of open space to only our County boundaries. 

Because we have simultaneously limited affordable and moderate-density homes in Marin, our community members have been forced to move elsewhere in the region and commute in for work. The direct result is that we are disrupting more lands by creating sprawl further out in Sonoma, the East Bay, and beyond. Since 1950, outer-metro locations like Santa Rosa have increased in physical size by over 300%, mostly through low-density development.

When we build inward instead of outward, we reduce disruption to the soils, trees, and plant communities. These healthier landscapes sequester carbon, improve water quality and quantity, and offer connected habitat to wildlife. The good news is that we have substantial options within already developed footprints to build the housing we need without disrupting our beloved open space.

The more housing density we build now, the more land we can preserve for our future.

Reducing our emissions

Transportation accounts for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in Marin County. 64% of Marin’s workforce commutes from outside the county due to its high cost of living and age distribution.

When homes are built closer to jobs, transit, and services, people drive less. That means fewer and shorter car trips—one of the most effective strategies California can use to address climate change. In fact, building affordable housing is one of the most effective strategies for reducing carbon emissions, far more effective than transitioning to EVs. 

Less driving also improves our notorious Bay Area traffic and reduces wear on roads and bridges, so that local government budgets can be allocated to needed adaptation investments. Further, density creates the demand that makes buses, trains, and public transit economically viable. Centralized and denser housing is what makes public transit actually work.The emissions benefits are not limited to transportation. Newer units also tend to be more compact than suburban single-family homes, which require less energy and use less water.  

Connecting our community

Building new homes in existing communities puts families closer to jobs, schools, parks, and shopping, giving more Californians access to vibrant, connected communities. When a new building is nestled amongst a storefront or café, it generates foot traffic that supports local businesses, activates streets, and makes walking and biking safer and more enjoyable options.

Walkability also rebuilds the kind of social connections that keep communities healthy and resilient in the face of climate change. Neighbors who walk the same streets, share the same corner store, and know each other by name are more likely to support one another when climate impacts occur.

All Californians should have the opportunity to live in healthy communities and enjoy the natural lands and open spaces that make this area unique.

Creating a greater variety of homes in connected communities can help increase affordability, address climate change, and improve quality of life for Californians. That is the future we want to build in Marin.

Local decisions about housing are being made now, and elected leaders need to hear clearly from residents who support building more homes. Stay connected with Greenbelt Alliance via email and social media and sign up for Call Marin Home’s email updates to stay informed about key upcoming meetings and get the tools you need to make your voice heard.

Header Photo: Scott Hess

The post Housing Builds a Healthier Climate Future for Marin appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

Kate and Aaron are joined by Dr. Steve Feldgus, an independent consultant who served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the Interior Department under President Biden. Dr. Feldgus talks about how to improve mine permitting in the US, a topic he worked on while at Interior.

News

• Falling behind: Forest Service fuel treatment gap puts communities at risk – Center for Western Priorities
• Americans’ national parks passes will pay for Trump’s July 4 plans, documents show – Washington Post
• Wyoming’s ‘Path of the Pronghorn’ is a signature away from protections fought over for a quarter century – WyoFile

Resources

• Red Tape is a Red Herring: Deregulation Will Not Speed Critical Mineral Development
• Watch this episode on YouTube

Produced by Aaron Weiss, Lauren Bogard, Kate Groetzinger, and Lilly Bock-Brownstein
Feedback: podcast@westernpriorities.org
Music: Purple Planet
Featured image: Construction equipment at a bentonite mine on BLM land near Greybull, Wyoming; Source: Photo by Gretchen Hurley, Geologist, BLM Cody Field Office

The post A former Interior department official explains what’s wrong with mining on public land appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Update: Santa Clara voters made their support for open spaces clear by saying YES to Measure D! With over 54% of the vote, the measure to enhance the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority’s capacity to care for open spaces in its jurisdiction passed!

Also known as the Santa Clara Valley Wildfire Protection, Clean Water, and Open Space Act, Measure D will implement an equitable parcel tax to generate approximately $17 million annually to steward these lands.

Greenbelt Alliance proudly endorsed and advocated for this measure and is thrilled to see that voters embraced this cause!

Why It Matters

The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority is an essential steward and protector of vital landscapes in Santa Clara County, and it currently needs more resources to manage these lands sustainably.

Just in the past decade, the lands under the agency’s management more than doubled, from 12,000 to 30,000 acres, while revenue has remained flat, limiting its ability to carry out its stewardship and resilience mission.

Since 1993, the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority has been a steward of the irreplaceable natural landscapes of central and southern Santa Clara County. The Authority conserves the natural environment, supports agriculture, and connects people to nature by protecting open spaces, natural areas, and working farms and ranches for today and for future generations. Visitors enjoy free, year-round access to hike, walk, bike, horseback ride, or simply relax in a beautiful landscape. With preserves such as Sierra Vista, Rancho Cañada del Oro, and the iconic Coyote Valley—a campaign that Greenbelt Alliance fought for for many years—, thousands of residents have access to nature near their homes. 

Protected open space is not a luxury. Healthy watersheds, managed grasslands, and restored wildlife corridors reduce wildfire risk, protect drinking water, filter runoff, and give communities a better chance to withstand extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent and intense.

Supporting this measure is the smart thing to do because it advances key priorities, including:

• Reducing catastrophic wildfire risk by removing hazardous brush
• Protecting our drinking water sources, including rivers, creeks, and streams, from pollution
• Helping clean up pollution and litter in natural areas
• Protecting our area’s farms and healthy, local food sources
• Maintaining and restoring wildlife habitats and corridors

Investing in Resilient Landscapes

At a time when the cost of living and economic challenges are top of mind for American voters, asking voters to support a new tax is never a small request. However, unlike a traditional flat-rate parcel tax, this new measure applies a rate of two cents per square foot of building area. For the average homeowner in the Authority’s jurisdiction, that represents approximately $32 per year, while large commercial and industrial property owners, including the corporations and campuses that benefit enormously from the Bay Area’s livability and natural amenities, will pay proportionally more, but still have a cap of $7,500 per parcel annually. 

The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority has already proven it knows how to deploy this kind of investment effectively. For every dollar of local funding collected, the Authority has leveraged significant matching funds from state, federal, and private sources, bringing in more than $180 million in outside resources to date. This measure will expand that leverage, unlocking additional state and federal dollars that require local matching commitments. 

Endorsement originally published on March 19, 2026.

The post WIN: Measure D Reaffirms Santa Clara’s Protection of Open Spaces appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

DENVER—A new report from the Center for Western Priorities found that less than one percent of 35,700 comments submitted to the National Park Service in response to signage asking the public to report negative depictions of American history in parks actually used the comment form as intended.

The analysis looked at 35,700 comments submitted across 475 national park units between June 2025 and January 2026, organizing the comments into seven distinct categories based on content and sentiment. The largest category was “General opposition to the order,” which accounted for nearly 10,000 responses. This was followed by “Defend historical accuracy” (over 5,000 responses) and “General pro-parks support” (over 4,000 responses).

Other notable categories of public feedback included comments on the “Park visit experience,” “Trump / Burgum criticism,” and a number of “Off-topic / jokes / spam” submissions. In contrast, only 47 comments, or 0.1 percent of the total comments submitted, “Flagged signage or supported removal.” 

Background: In March of 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14253, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” In response, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered national park staff to put up signs asking park visitors to report “any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.”

Methodology: In May 2026, the Department of the Interior released 35,700 comments submitted through a QR code system in response to a FOIA request by KOAA News 5 and others. The Center for Western Priorities sorted the full dataset into categories based on content and sentiment through a combination of pattern-based classification and a manual verification/refinement process. More information on methodology is available in the full report.

The Center for Western Priorities released the following quote from Creative Content and Policy Manager Lilly Bock-Brownstein, who conducted the analysis and authored the report:

“These comments pass the vibe check with flying colors. Americans support our parks and the stories they tell, and they aren’t happy about the Trump administration’s efforts to rewrite history. Instead of helping Trump censor our national parks, visitors used the comment form to tell the Trump administration to respect our parks or get lost.”

Learn more:

• ‘Censorship:’ See the National Park visitor responses after Trump requested help deleting ‘negative’ signage – Government Executive

• The National Park Service race to rewrite history becomes a slog – Politico

• America’s 250th anniversary and why history matters in our parks – The Landscape (Center for Western Priorities’ podcast)

• Confidential database reveals which items NPS thinks may ‘disparage’ America – Washington Post

The post New analysis finds Trump effort to solicit negative feedback on national park signage completely fails  appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

June 8, 2026 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SUWA Statement on new Cooperative Management Agreement for the San Rafael Swell – 6.8.26  Latest effort by State of Utah to exert control over federal public lands 

Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org

Salt Lake City, UT– Today, the State of Utah announced it signed a Cooperative Management Agreement with the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regarding the San Rafael Swell Recreation Area in southern Utah; the Area was established as part of the 2019 Dingell Act. Below is a statement from SUWA Legal Director Steve Bloch and additional information.  

“Today’s announcement has all the hallmarks of the fox being put in charge of the henhouse,” said Steve Bloch, Legal Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “Under Governor Cox’s leadership, the state has conspired to place control of American public lands into the hands of politicians who have their own agenda: prioritizing off-road vehicle use over everything else. Gov. Cox has found a willing parter in the Trump administration, who sees public lands as little more than figures on a “balance sheet” to be dismantled and monetized for short-term gain. We will be watching closely for any shenanigans that stem from this agreement.” 

Additional information: 

The John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, which was signed into law on March 12, 2019, designated 663,000 acres of BLM-managed wilderness within 17 new wilderness areas. In addition, the legislation established the 117,000-acre San Rafael Swell Recreation Area, added 63 miles of the Green River to the National Wild and Scenic River System, designated the John Wesley Powell National Conservation Area and the Jurassic National Monument, and directed a land exchange between the BLM and Utah’s Trust Lands Administration. Additional information can found here. 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a federal agency, is part of the Department of the Interior, a Cabinet-level department headed by Secretary Doug Burgum. In Utah, the BLM manages 22.8 million acres of public land, ranging from “spectacular red-rock canyons and roaring rivers to high mountain peaks and expansive salt flats,” including Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (designated in 1996 and the first monument managed by the BLM) and Bears Ears National Monument (designated in 2017 and jointly managed with the US Forest Service).  

The BLM manages several congressionally-designated wilderness areas in Utah, including remarkable places such as Muddy Creek (Emery County), Canaan Mountain (Washington County), and the Cedar Mountains (Tooele County). BLM-Utah also manages more than 80 Wilderness Study Areas and other significant public landscapes including Nine Mile Canyon, Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, and the Desolation Canyon and Labyrinth Canyon stretches of the Green River (designated Wild and Scenic Rivers). SUWA’s signature bill, America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, would designate more than 8 million acres of BLM land in Utah as wilderness.  

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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 SUWA Statement on new San Rafael Swell Management Agreement – 6.8.26  appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Contact: Madeline Bove – mbove@fwwatch.org; (202) 683-2539

Earlier this week, environmental justice, climate and animal welfare groups submitted a comment calling on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to reject the latest, and most egregious, factory farm biogas scheme being pushed through the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). 

The proposed biogas project would allow Bar 20 dairy, one of the San Joaquin Valley’s largest mega-dairies, to gain unprecedented incentives under California’s LCFS by selling factory farm biogas to a nearby facility that will burn that biogas to produce hydrogen. Factory farm biogas is a noxious mixture of climate intensive methane gas and other air pollutants that large factory farms generate when they irresponsibly manage their waste. 

While certainly not the first factory farm to be granted lucrative incentives from their pollution under the LCFS, this instance is particularly alarming because the hydrogen produced is poised to be assigned an unheard of carbon intensity (CI) value of -1887.35 CI (for comparison, most biogas falls around -250 CI while solar panels and wind energy are typically limited to a CI of zero or higher). A lower CI means more money from credit trading. This is the lowest CI in the history of the LCFS. 

In other words, no matter how much pollution they spew into nearby communities, these facilities will be set to gain unprecedented amounts of money from that pollution. 

“The application from Bar 20 takes the LCFS’s “pay to pollute” model to a higher level than we ever thought possible,” said Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability Co-Executive Director Phoebe Seaton. “And, once again, it’s California consumers who are paying with their hard-earned dollars and San Joaquin Valley residents who are paying with their health.”

“The California Air Resources Board has an obligation to regulate the factory farming industry’s climate pollution—not encourage it with massive subsidies,” said Animal Legal Defense Fund Senior Staff Attorney Christine Ball-Blakely. “Bar 20 is a mega dairy factory farm choosing to use a liquid manure management system that creates large quantities of methane, which is a potent climate pollutant. Such intentionally created methane can never become renewable fuel. Paying factory farms like Bar 20 to create as much methane as possible is not just bad math—it’s perverse policy.”

“What we’re seeing here is the expected result of what the LCFS has become after it was amended to double down on factory farm biogas production at the largest and most polluting dairies,” said Food & Water Watch Staff Attorney Tyler Lobdell. “Despite the warnings of environmental advocates and community members, CARB has allowed this program to morph into an increasingly perverse giveaway to factory farms that undermines real climate progress. This project shows that in real time as one of the state’s largest dairies is poised to greenwash dirty hydrogen production so that it appears better than zero-emission hydrogen production, on paper. Unfortunately, it’s Californians that will pay for this foolishness at the pump and in their healthcare costs.”

The comment was submitted by Defensores del Valle Central para el Aire y Agua Límpio (“Defensores”), Animal Legal Defense Fund, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, and Food & Water Watch. 

This comment was also submitted days after another cohort of groups provided CARB with a robust list of suggestions on how to regulate California’s dairy industry to center the concerns of community members and prioritize actual reducing methane emissions over programs like the LCFS that pay polluters to keep polluting. Defensores del Valle Central para el Aire y Agua Límpio (“Defensores”), Animal Legal Defense Fund, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, and Food & Water Watch also submitted a comment. 

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About the Animal Legal Defense Fund 
The Animal Legal Defense Fund was founded in 1979 to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. To accomplish this mission, the Animal Legal Defense Fund files high-impact lawsuits to protect animals from harm; provides free legal assistance and training to prosecutors to assure that animal abusers are held accountable for their crimes; supports tough animal protection legislation and fights harmful legislation; and provides resources and opportunities to law students and professionals to advance the emerging field of animal law. For more information, please visit aldf.org.

About Food & Water Watch
Food & Water Watch brings together more than 2 million people nationwide to fight for safe food, clean water, and a livable climate. For over 20 years, we’ve partnered with communities to take on polluting industries and win real, meaningful protections for people and the environment.

About Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability
Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability works alongside the most impacted communities in the San Joaquin Valley and Eastern Coachella Valley to advocate for sound policy and eradicate injustice to secure equal access to opportunity regardless of wealth, race, income, and place. Leadership Counsel focuses on issues like housing, land use, transportation, safe and affordable drinking water and climate change impacts on communities.

The post CA Regulators Poised to Approve Most Egregious Biogas Scheme Yet  appeared first on Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability.

In a striking op-ed published today by the Sacramento Bee, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director at Restore the Delta, argues that the Delta Tunnel is on track to become California’s next High Speed Rail project, a massively expensive project that fails to deliver on its promises. 

In the piece, Barbara notes that the Department of Water Resources (DWR) has already spent more than $700 million planning the Delta Tunnel, yet key information about that spending and the project itself remains inaccessible to the public. As costs continue to escalate, the project still lacks a clear financing plan. She asserts that the consequences extend far beyond taxpayers’ wallets, threatening the ecological future of the Bay-Delta estuary as well as the communities, industries, and wildlife that depend on it.  

Barbara points to the urgent need for California to pursue alternative solutions, such as the Water Renaissance Plan, which would move the state away from costly, unreliable water imports toward local, sustainable solutions that provide reliable water supplies at an affordable price.

In addition to advancing these solutions, Barbara calls on lawmakers to conduct a full audit of DWR’s spending on the Delta Tunnel so Californians can understand how their money is being spent. She also urges legislators to reject AB 2215, a bill that would pave the way for controversial projects like the Delta Tunnel while weakening regulatory oversight.

Read the full op-ed here. 

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The Trump administration’s lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Friday drew little interest from the oil and gas industry. It netted just $3.7 million, a low result following two prior sales with similarly poor returns. Only two bidders showed up for the auction: HEX Energy, a small Alaska-based natural gas company, and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), a state-owned public corporation. Of roughly 60 tracts offered, only five received bids, covering 72,000 of the 689,000 acres on offer.

The ANWR lease sale was the first of four required by 2035 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would generate $452 million in federal revenue over a decade, but the recent pattern of lease sales shows that may be unrealistic. The 2021 sale netted $16.5 million, less than one percent of the $1.1 billion Congress originally projected, and the two private companies that bid later relinquished their leases. The 2025 sale received no bids at all. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, every tract that received a bid Friday had already been offered in 2021, and either got no bids at the time or was later relinquished.

The lack of industry interest is due to the difficulty of developing in the area. “Arctic projects are high-cost, they take decades to get into production; once they’re in production, it takes decades to earn a revenue back to make up for the cost of development,” saidAndy Moderow, senior director of policy for the Alaska Wilderness League.

Wildfire experts say Trump’s attacks on public land agencies will make this summer wildfire season worse

A new Westwise blog post from Center for Western Priorities Deputy Director Lauren Bogard reveals how wildland fire managers and former federal officials are reacting to the Trump administration’s dismantling of public land agencies during what forecasters expect to be a severe season. More than 2.4 million acres have already burned across the country in 2026, nearly double the ten-year average.

Quick hits Trump auctions off rights to drill in Alaska wildlife refuge, but gets few bidders

The Hill | E&E News | Washington Post | Taxpayers for Common Sense

U.S. Forest Service to open millions of acres to off-road vehicles

New York Times | MeatEater | Field & Stream

The Colorado River’s largest reservoirs are heading toward a ‘system crash,’ experts warn

Salt Lake Tribune | Fox13 | National Parks Traveler | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Park Service orders removal of ‘woke’ quotes at Boston’s Bunker Hill monument

Washington Post | WBUR | NBC Boston

Chuck Sams: The Trump administration wants to kill a rule that protects millions of acres of national forests

The Guardian

The Forest Service wants to close research hubs to save money. That could be costly

NPR

As park fees go to DC, Yellowstone, Grand Teton face $1.5B backlog

WyoFile

Lawsuit filed to stop UFC fight on White House lawn

National Parks Traveler | Associated Press | Variety | NBC

Quote of the day

Anyone who thinks this is a fight between red and blue is deeply mistaken. Few things unite the people of this country like their love of the land. Hunters, anglers, hikers, campers, families of every stripe support the national treasures that are our wild places. We all want a relationship with our land.”

—Chuck Sams, former National Park Service director, The Guardian

Picture This @yosemitenps

The Sierra lupine is bursting into bloom at Yosemite National Park!

When driving through Yosemite Valley, visitors might come across a blanket of purple flowers and green herbage carpeting the forest floor. That is Lupinus grayi, otherwise known as the Sierra lupine. It’s one of 26 documented species of lupine seen throughout the park. Warm weather, open sunlight, and a healthy forest floor make the perfect grounds for these flowers to stretch into the sky.

Please do not trample on, touch, or pick any wildflowers you see. While lupine is common in the park, it remains part of Yosemite’s delicate ecosystem and plays an important role in supporting pollinators and improving soil health. Help preserve and protect the wildflowers of Yosemite so they can grow back just as happily as this for years to come.

Featured photo: Caribou and Brooks Range, Arctic NWR, USFWS

The post Oil industry largely passes on Alaska lease sale appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

In January Congress passed a “minibus” bill that raided $500 million in previously appropriated coal mine cleanup funds to pay for other federal programs. We’re now seeing the first results of that bill: $45.5 million less in mine cleanup funding every year for the next 11 years. Combined with growing inflation, this means fewer jobs will be supported cleaning up mines and more hazardous coal mining damage won’t be reclaimed in Appalachia and across the country.

When it passed in 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided about $10.9 billion for the reclamation of Abandoned Mine Land (AML) sites across the country in fifteen annual grants to states and tribes. The first four years’ worth of grants were awarded between 2022-2025. The minibus bill cuts $500 million from the total AML funding provided under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – but it was unclear at the time of passage if the $500 million would be cut entirely from the last (fifteenth) year of AML grants or equally across the remaining 11 years worth of annual funding. Now we have our answer.

The 2026 AML grants for states and tribes were announced in May and the cuts are here. According to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, the $500 million cut “will be applied equally to the remaining 11 grant distribution years, approximately $45.45 million per year.” The figure below shows the annual reduction in funds for each state and tribe, as well as the total cuts that will play out over the next 11 years. Pennsylvania and West Virginia have the largest cuts (by absolute value), at about $15 million and $9 million per year, respectively.

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The cuts are reducing the amount of damage states and tribes can reclaim. Inflation – especially recent rises in fuel costs that can drive up the cost of operating construction equipment – is also lowering the spending power of reclamation dollars even from last year, further reducing the amount of reclamation states and tribes can accomplish in 2026.

States and tribes have a five-year window to spend their FY2026 AML grant, and those agencies will now begin planning for fewer dollars by taking steps like selecting fewer reclamation projects or reducing the scope of projects. In Pennsylvania, for example, the cuts are equivalent to the cost of two large abandoned mine drainage treatment systems.

As we explained in a previous post, the extent of AML damage that needs to be cleaned up is likely twice as large as the existing $10.9 billion in funding– even before $500 million was cut.

This is damage to land and water that has lingered since at least the 1970s, and now residents will have to wait even longer for cleanup. If this cut hadn’t occurred, $45 million per year in more mine cleanup would be put to use across the country in the next few years, removing hazards to the local population and supporting more jobs, such as in construction, doing reclamation work primarily in rural areas. Congress should reverse the $500 million reduction, and should protect the program from similar cuts in the future.

The post Breaking down how much Congress cut AML funds by state appeared first on Ohio River Valley Institute.

The company with the biggest stake in the Wressle oil field has agreed a £1m loan from the site operator, Egdon Resources.

Wressle oil field in North Lincolnshire. Photo: Egdon Resources

Union Jack Oil announced in a statement to investors this morning the loan would provide it with “additional working capital for general purposes”.

The statement said the loan was secured against Union Jack’s 40% stake in the Wressle licences, PEDL180 and PEDL182, in North Lincolnshire.

Union Jack has previously reported that it was debt free. At the time of writing, shares in the company had fallen 2.78%.

The Wressle well produced an average of 119 barrels of oil per day for Union Jack during 2025, according to annual accounts published last month. The average oil price at the time was US$68.2 per barrel.

Loan terms

Under the loan terms, Union Jack must pay 60% of its free cash flow generated from Wressle each month. This will first be applied to unpaid interest and then to reduce the loan principal.

If free cash flow from Wressle was insufficient, interest for that month would be capitalised and added to the loan balance.

The loan must be repaid in full after 24 months. The interest rate is 5% per year.

Restrictions

The agreement also requires Union Jack to support Egdon’s role as the Wressle operator. Union Jack cannot “vote or act to remove or replace the lender as operator (except in cases of gross misconduct”.

If Union Jack wants to sell its interest in the Wressle licences, Egdon now has the right of first refusal before any third parties are approached. This will last for 12 months after the repayment date.

The controversial shale gas site at Preston New Road in Lancashire must be returned to farmland by the end of the year, officials confirmed today (8 June 2026).

Preston New Road shale gas site. Photo: Maple Independent Media

Lancashire County Council said in a statement it had served an enforcement notice on Cuadrilla for the site near Blackpool.

The notice requires the removal all plant, buildings, security and acoustic fencing, pollution control membranes, aggregates and concrete hardstanding forming part of the drilling compound within four months.

The land must then be restored to a condition suitable for agriculture within six months of the notice.

The action follows the council’s refusal in December 2025 of Cuadrilla’s application for two more years to complete restoration work.

The statement said:

“the approved timetable for restoration was not met, resulting in unacceptable and unnecessary harm to the rural character of the area.”

Councillor Joshua Roberts, cabinet member for Rural Affairs, Environment and Communities, said:

“This situation has gone on for far too long.

“Local residents have had to live with this site for longer than they should have, and it is right that we have now taken firm action to bring this to a conclusion.

“It is positive that work is beginning to remove infrastructure from the site, but it is essential that the full restoration is completed within the required timeframe.

“We will not hesitate to take further steps if necessary.”

DrillOrDrop invited Cuadrilla to comment on the enforcement action. This article will be updated with any response.

Local reaction

The Preston New Road shale gas site has been widely opposed in the Fylde region of Lancashire and across the UK for more than a decade.

There were more than 18,000 formal objections to the proposal and petitions against it were signed by nearly 92,000 people.

During drilling and fracking, there were daily protests outside the site.

Susan Holliday, from Preston New Road Action Group, said today:

“There appears to have been very little activity at the site over the last twelve months so it is great that enforcement action is finally being taken.

“The time extension that Cuadrilla applied for, over 12 months ago and were refused, has been taken anyway due to procrastination.

“As a local community we just want the blot on our landscape gone and as soon as possible. It will be great if the site is restored to a green field by the end of this year at which point we will have had its presence for 10 years.”

Miranda Cox, from Frack Free Lancashire, said:

“Finally, some meaningful action from Lancashire County Council. We hope it also entails significant consequences for Cuadrilla. 

“For too long, their planning breaches and tardiness in compliance have been indulged. 

“We look forward to finally waving them goodbye. The damaging saga of Preston New Road may finally have an ending for our community.”

Delays and missed deadlines

Cuadrilla was required to restore Preston New Road by July 2023 under the terms of the original planning permission. It missed the deadline.

The company was granted a two-year extension until June 2025 but missed that deadline as well.

Work to plug and abandon the wells finally began in February 2025. Plant and equipment had been removed by November 2025.

But the hardcore that made up the drilling pad, the security and acoustic fencing and access road remained.

In July 2025, the company sought another two years, applying to delay restoration until 30 June 2027.

Cuadrilla said the extension was needed to complete 12 months of groundwater monitoring and environmental monitoring. This had to be completed before site restoration could begin, the company said.

But Lancashire County Council refused permission saying the extension would breach national and local planning policies, which sought to restore the site at the earliest opportunity.

Apart from site decommissioning, the Preston New Road has been mothballed since August 2019 when fracking caused multiple small earthquakes. These included the largest induced by fracking in the UK.

Updated: Lancashire County Council confirmed this morning that the enforcement notice had been served on Cuadrilla.

Spring 2026 Newsletter TAKE QUICK ACTION for a REAL IMPACT

 

Dear Friends, Thanks to ongoing community efforts, New Mexico officials are taking action to require DOE, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to prioritize sending LANL’s “Legacy” nuclear waste to WIPP for disposal. “Legacy Waste” is Cold War nuclear waste, created during decades of nuclear weapons research, design and fabrication. DOE promised New Mexicans that if we allowed WIPP to be built in our state, Cold War and other radioactive waste, then stored at LANL, would have priority to be disposed in WIPP. DOE has continually broken this promise over the years. New Mexico is usually far behind other states in disposing LANL’s Legacy Waste in WIPP. This has led to, among other problems, about 2500 drums of plutonium-contaminated Legacy Waste languishing for decades in tents in “Area G” in a wildfire zone. The red area shows the combined burn area of 8 wildfires between 1977 and 2022 three of which burned over LANL property. For more information about these fires, including an interactive map, go to FireOnTheMountain.xyz   On April 23, our New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) issued an important permit modification to WIPP’s 2023 Renewal Permit, holding LANL and DOE accountable for not prioritizing this Legacy Waste disposal as required in the 2023 WIPP Permit Renewal.   Important Points in the Proposed Permit Modification •  All Legacy Waste currently stored above-ground at LANL’s Area G shall be disposed in WIPP by July 1, 2028. (This would include the plutonium-contaminated Legacy Waste stored in the tents. •  From January 1, 2027 through December 31, 2031, at least 55% of the total volume of all waste disposed in WIPP from all national sites must be LANL Legacy Waste. •  Beginning January 1, 2032, and until all LANL legacy waste has been disposed in WIPP, LANL legacy waste must be at least 75% of the total volume of waste disposed in WIPP from all national sites. •  If at any point any of those conditions are not met, all shipments, other than those from LANL, must cease until all deficiencies are cured.   NMED needs to hear that we are in support of this permit modification.   Our full support is especially necessary because DOE is strongly opposing the modification.       To view the full Permit Modification, Public Notice, and a detailed Fact Sheet, go to:
www.env.nm.gov/hazardous-waste/wipp/
And scroll down to WIPP News 2026 For more information and sample comments go to:
www.StopForeverWIPP.org ————————————————————– Members of the Stop Forever WIPP Coalition and Fire on the Mountain as well as other community groups support this action and urge people to submit written comments in support of NMED’s action by Monday, June 22 at 5 PM.   How to submit comments     •  NMED has asked that we submit comments directly through their portal here. •  But if you find that a little intimidating you can email your comments to:      HWB-WIPP-Comment@env.nm.gov •  Or even snail mail them to NMED at:            
    Megan McLean, WIPP Program Manager
Hazardous Waste Bureau
New Mexico Environment Department
2905 Rodeo Park Drive East, Building 1 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505-6303   For more information visit    Stop Forever WIPP https://stopforeverwipp.org
https://www.facebook.com/StopfvrWIPP/ Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS) http://nuclearactive.org Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC)
http://www.sric.org/ Nuclear Watch New Mexico

https://nukewatch.org

Fire on the Mountain www.fireonthemountain.xyz

For Immediate Release:

June 5, 2026

Contact:
Ashley Castaneda, ashley@restorethedelta.org

STOCKTON, CA — In response to a recent press release from Governor Gavin Newsom, Restore the Delta’s Executive Director, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla released the following statement:

“Further proof that Governor Newsom holds the same values regarding California water management as the Trump Administration. The Governor is influencing every regulatory process for his corporate agenda hoping the next Governor will continue with these special interest, big water projects like the Delta Conveyance Project.

Left, right, and center, the majority of Californians do not support the Delta tunnel or the water grab. They do support plans like the Water Renaissance Plan. If the top two gubernatorial candidates line up with Governor Newsom on water, they will lose a great deal of public support from voters.”

Restore the Delta further reiterates that Governor Newsom’s approach to water resources management fails the tests of morality, fairness, affordability, and protection for everyday Californians. Under this administration, the Delta has not only been neglected, it has been placed at even greater risk by policies that continue to endanger the region, its communities, and its future. 
 

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APPLY HERE

Job Title:Director of Finance and Operations
Job Location: Hybrid-based in Oakland, California: 2 days in office required.
Position Start Date: September 2026
Job Classification: Full-Time Employee, Exempt, 37.5 hours per week
Salary Range: USD $135,000-145,000 per year
Reporting To: Amanda Brown-Stevens, Executive Director

About the Opportunity:

Are you enthusiastic about bringing a numbers-savvy, strategic lens to financial oversight and management? Excited to provide leadership and direction to operational infrastructure in service of the organization’s mission and long-term sustainability? Greenbelt Alliance is hiring a Director of Finance and Operations who will be instrumental in deepening its financial management infrastructure to accommodate anticipated growth in programs and revenue while engaging deeply in the day-to-day details of nonprofit operations and human resources. This is a senior leadership role working closely with organizational leadership to support thoughtful decision-making around growth, staffing, program expansion, and funding strategy.

We are looking for someone who brings years of experience in finance and operations, who is excited to collaborate with colleagues to direct and implement organizational financial policies, procedures, management, and strategy to ensure Greenbelt Alliance’s healthy financial position carries forward and operational needs are consistently met.

You’ll be a great Director of Finance and Operations for Greenbelt Alliance if you:

• • Bring expertise in budgeting, forecasting, and monitoring of revenue and expenses
  • Enjoy translating what the numbers are indicating about annual financial health to non-financially savvy colleagues, executives, and board members 
  • Can proactively solve problems, developing and improving systems
  • Have experience building and overseeing complex, publicly-funded project budgets to philanthropic grant project budgets
  • Have excellent communication and critical thinking skills, including experience presenting to Board of Directors and Finance Committees
  • Thrive in providing leadership and oversight of organizational operations
  • Bring experience managing a high-functioning Finance and Operations department
  • Ability to create and promote a positive and supportive work environment
  • Enjoy collaborating and iterating with a talented, bright, and supportive team
  • Pride yourself on having great attention to detail
  • Bring a passion for supporting organizational excellence in our mission to ensure the Bay Area is resilient to a changing climate

Key Activities Will Include:

Strategic Financial Leadership

• Oversee all financial operations, including accounts, ledgers, AP/AR, cash management, investments, and reporting systems
• Lead annual budget development, midyear forecasting, and multi-year financial planning, including cash flow analyses and contingency planning
• Present financial reports, dashboards, and narratives to the Finance Committee and Board of Directors
• Manage monthly, quarterly, and annual financial close and internal reporting

Compliance & Audit

• Lead the annual audit process, including financial statements and IRS 990
• Develop and manage complex public funding budget proposals and oversee state and federal grant administration and compliance
• Maintain a revenue processing system for timely draw-downs and reimbursements across multiple grant periods
• Strengthen and implement internal policies and controls to protect assets and ensure financial accuracy

People Management

• Supervise and provide strategic guidance to the Sr. Finance and Grants Manager and accounting staff, serving as back-up across functions as needed
• Provide oversight to the People Operations Manager on HR and employee relations matters in collaboration with a third-party PEO

Operations Management

• Oversee organizational operations, including office management, infrastructure, and vendor relations
• Support the development and maintenance of operational systems, policies, and documentation
• Ensure operational practices reflect organizational values and foster a collaborative work environment

Desired Qualifications:

NOTE: We do not expect any single candidate to have extensive expertise/experience in all of these areas, but will prioritize candidates with demonstrated success as a critical-thinker and quick-learner.

• Experience in accounting, finance, business administration or a related field.
• Experience as a people manager with knowledge of and ability to employ effective strategies that motivate and guide other staff members.
• Excellent mathematical and analysis skills.
• Experience with nonprofit financial systems as well as operations and administration.
• Knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and nonprofit accounting.
• Proficient use of the following software is a plus: Google Suite, Quickbooks, BILL, Zoom, Salesforce, Asana, Insperity, TimeCamp, Slack.
• Ability to lead departments and individuals.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, including presenting on financial information.
• Willingness to continually improve processes and systems, and be a team player.
• Ability to strategize creatively and think critically, overcoming obstacles and offering sustainable solutions.
• Self-starting work ethic, comfortable working both collaboratively and independently.

Benefits:

• 100% Employer-Paid Health Insurance, Dental Insurance, and Vision Insurance policies. Life insurance policy also provided.
• 50% Employer-Paid Insurance policies for dependents.
• Generous Paid Time-Off package, including Vacation Days, Sick Days, and Floating Holidays. As many as 14 paid holidays off, including Winter Break.
• Professional development and training opportunities. 

How To Apply

Applications for this position will be considered on a rolling basis; however, priority consideration will be given to applications submitted by June 29, 2026. Please allow several weeks for a response, as we are reviewing applications. Be sure to attach a professional resume as a PDF document to your application. In your cover letter, state your interest in the role along with answers to the following questions: 

1. How do you communicate complex financial metrics, risks, and forecasts to non-finance staff and board members?
2. What is your leadership philosophy for managing and developing a high-performing finance and operations team?
3. Give an example of how you used financial data and forecasting to inform an organization’s strategy direction?

APPLY HERE

Work Authorization:

At this time, Greenbelt Alliance is unable to offer assistance to noncitizens or nonresidents in obtaining employer-sponsored work visas. All employees must have existing authorization from the federal government to work lawfully in the United States of America. Authorization would include US citizenship, US permanent residency (“green card”), or any other type of unexpired work authorization visa issued by the federal government.

Equal Employment Statement:

Greenbelt Alliance is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, disability, sex, gender expression, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other category. We strongly encourage people of color, LGBTQIA+ persons, people of different levels of physical ability, people with diverse national and class origins, and all qualified persons to apply for this position. Learn more about our nondiscrimination policy here.

Greenbelt Alliance encourages candidates of all abilities to apply to this position! In the case you may require any kind of special accommodation in order to complete the application or hiring process, please contact us at info@greenbelt.org.

About Greenbelt Alliance:

Greenbelt Alliance’s mission is to educate, advocate, and collaborate to ensure the Bay Area’s lands and communities are resilient to a changing climate. Greenbelt Alliance has stewarded the region’s beautiful natural landscapes while promoting the growth needed for thriving communities for over 65 years. We focus on innovative policy solutions and accelerating local and regional collaboration to plan and invest in resilient communities. Learn more at greenbelt.org.

The post Director of Finance & Operations appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

A lower-volume frack and well test at the West Newton-A oil and gas site in East Yorkshire could start within three months, the operator revealed today.

In an update, Rathlin Energy said the operations were due to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026.

West Newton-A site in Holderness, East Yorkshire. Photo: DrillOrDrop

But the start date depended on securing additional approvals and on equipment being available, the company said.

The lower-volume frack is also facing a legal challenge at the High Court from a local campaigner.

Before work can begin, passing places must be built on part of the lorry route to the site. This is expected to take four weeks, during which Pasture Lane would be closed.

Rathlin confirmed in the update that it was considering “near-term” plans to use gas from West Newton-A to generate electricity for what it called onsite “computer facilities”.

A major investor has previously said the gas would power bitcoin mining.

Rathlin has permission to generate electricity at West Newton-A but it would need planning permission for the computer facilities.

The update said stimulation modelling for the lower-volume frack had been completed, along with the design of a year-long extended well test (EWT).

Well completion and testing companies had been contacted to determine their availability, it added.

Rathlin said the 12-month extended well test was dependent on the success of the lower-volume frack.

The test would allow it to “assess the extent and performance of the reservoir, providing the essential data required before determining the most appropriate route for full field development”, the company said.

It added:

“Until the reservoir characteristics are fully understood, through an EWT, it is too early to determine the most suitable method for transporting gas to market.

“Rathlin has reviewed several potential options, including a pipeline connection to the National Transmission System or direct supply to local industrial users.”

The update also confirmed:

• Rathlin would establish a community benefit fund before work started
• A new work programme would allow the West Newton licence, PEDL183, to be retained in its current form until June 2030.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: June 5, 2026
Contact: Anja Semanco | anja@alaskawild.org | 724-967-2777 

Arctic Refuge Lease Sale Exposes Administration’s Reckless Gamble and the Market’s Clear Rejection 

Anchorage, AK — For the third time, a lease sale in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has produced results that fall catastrophically short of what Congress promised the American people when it authorized drilling in one of the nation’s most treasured wild places. 

Today’s sale produced just nine bids from two entities—the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) and HEX Energy LLC—neither of which represents the serious industry investment required to bring Arctic Refuge oil to market. Together they generated just $3,741,528 in total revenue—0.37% of the nearly $1 billion proponents claimed would offset the costs to the federal government of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Overall, all three sales have fallen short of producing even 1% of the total revenue from the 2017 Tax Act, which is split between the federal government and state of Alaska. No major oil company participated. No credible path to the promised revenue exists. 

The pattern is undeniable. The American taxpayers told this bargain was worth opening one of the country’s last intact ecosystems are still waiting for a return that has never materialized—and by today’s results, never will. 

“When Congress passed the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the American people were told that opening the Arctic Refuge to drilling would generate close to $1 billion in federal revenue,” said Kristen Miller, executive director of Alaska Wilderness League. “Today, the total return remains a fraction of that promise. Economic gain was a false justification to permanently sell off the most ecologically and culturally significant landscapes in the United States. The American people don’t want this, the oil industry doesn’t want this, and our public lands deserve so much better. The Arctic Refuge, traditional homelands of the Gwich’in people, deserves permanent protection.” 

This outcome was foreseeable. The world’s largest banks—Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and others—declined years ago to finance Arctic Refuge drilling. Major insurers declined to underwrite it. Oil companies with the capital and technical capacity to operate in one of the world’s most demanding environments looked at the cost structures, the logistical challenges, accelerating permafrost instability, and the long-term demand outlook for high-cost Arctic oil—and consistently chose not to bid. 

The Gwich’in Nation Has Opposed This From the Start 

The economic failure of these lease sales cannot be separated from the human cost of pursuing them. The coastal plain—what the Gwich’in people call “the Sacred Place Where Life Begins”—is the calving and nursery ground of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, which the Gwich’in Nation has depended upon for thousands of years for their physical, cultural, and spiritual well-being. 

The Gwich’in were not consulted when Congress opened this land to leasing, and they have opposed drilling at every turn—in Congress, before international bodies, and in the courts. They have been unequivocal: this is not a trade-off they will accept at any price. Given that the economic projections used to override their objections have now proven fiction, the case for continuing to do so has collapsed entirely. 

Three Failed Lease Sales Are Enough 

The Arctic Refuge coastal plain is the calving ground of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, one of the largest remaining terrestrial migrations on earth, and home to polar bears, musk oxen, wolves, Dall sheep, and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds. It is a landscape that cannot be restored once industrial development begins. 

Congress opened this land on the basis of a financial promise it could not keep—a promise that has now failed three times. The legal mandate requiring the administration to continue holding lease sales, regardless of market interest, taxpayer return, or the wishes of the Gwich’in Nation, should be repealed.

###

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 5, 2026

June 11 North Omaha Town Hall: Senators Terrell McKinney & Ashlei Spivey to Discuss Data Centers With Guest Jane Kleeb

Omaha – Nebraska State Senators Terrell McKinney and Ashlei Spivey will host a community town hall meeting on Thursday, June 11 to provide an overview of the recent legislative session, along with a discussion about data centers where the Senators will be joined by Bold Nebraska Founder and Executive Director Jane Kleeb. 

• WHAT: North Omaha Town Hall & Data Center Discussion
• WHO: Nebraska State Senators Terrell McKinney & Ashlei Spivey; Bold Founder & Executive Director Jane Kleeb (Free and open to the public)
• WHEN: Thursday, June 11, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. (Refreshments will be provided)
• WHERE: Nelson Mandela Elementary School, 6316 N. 30th Street, Omaha, NE

In addition to the traditional town halls that Senators Spivey and McKinney hold on a regular basis with their constituents, a discussion will take place on June 11 on LB 1111, a data center bill sponsored by Senators McKinney, Spivey and Machaela Cavanaugh, which was also supported by Bold Nebraska. 

The law holds data centers accountable and provides for transparency that no other state has been able to pass. Jane Kleeb will join the Senators for the data center discussion. Nebraska is already home to more than 30 data center facilities, operated by tech giants including Meta, and Google.

Nebraska is believed to be the first state in the nation to pass a law requiring Community Benefits Agreements for data center projects. A Community Benefits Agreement is an actual contract between the developer and impacted local communities that require the developer to ensure local community members benefit directly from the development activity – so these billion-dollar data center projects are obligated to pay back millions of dollars annually to impacted communities.

Nebraska is also now one of the first states to impose a statutory requirement for data centers to implement decommissioning plans, so that rural communities are not left holding the bag when these massive facilities housing huge amounts of hazardous environmental waste go out of business or are no longer of use.

The public disclosures that data centers in Nebraska are now required to provide include:

• The name of the proposed data center.
• The names of the developers and owners of the proposed data center.
• The physical size of the proposed data center in square feet.
• The location of the proposed data center, including street address and County.
• The annual electricity demand of the proposed data center.
• The annual water usage of the proposed data center.
• The sales and use tax exemptions that the proposed data center utilizes or expects to utilize.
• Any incentive payments for the proposed data center under the ImagiNE Nebraska Act and the Nebraska Advantage Act.
• All energy efficiency, load management, and conservation measures implemented by the proposed data center.
• All commitments by the proposed data center to use renewable energy.
• The service life of the proposed data center.

“My community is being polluted every single day by a coal plant that stays open largely to power data centers. This bill finally forces public disclosure of the electricity and water demands we’ve been demanding — and couldn’t get. It puts people in the driver’s seat with legally binding Community Benefits Agreements and decommissioning plans, so we’re not left cleaning up a corporate mess decades later,” said Nebraska State Senator Terrell McKinney.

“Communities deserve to know basic facts about data centers when deciding what’s best for their towns. Nebraska had zero guardrails on data centers before this law, and now developers must, if a community decides this is right for their town, enter into a Community Benefits Agreement and put a decommissioning plan in place. No data center should be able to run roughshod over a community while making billions of dollars,” said Jane Kleeb, Bold Alliance Founder and Director. “Communities and those who live near these massive projects deserve to generate wealth and be protected from any public health and environmental harms. This law provides guardrails to protect communities and put them first, not big corporations.”

“Ken Winston, Chapter Director of the Nebraska Sierra Club, stated: “We are pleased to see that the Legislature passed LB 1010 on a vote of 49 to zero to establish important guardrails on data centers, including requiring data centers to pay the full cost of electricity and ensuring that no costs are passed on to other retail customers. We greatly appreciate the leadership of Senator Machaela Cavanaugh, Senator Terrell McKinney and Senator Ashlei Spivey in introducing the original legislation and making sure that necessary amendments were added to LB 1010. We want to recognize the importance of requiring data centers to bear all decommissioning costs and requiring them to enter into community benefit agreements with communities affected by the data center. This legislation provides a great opportunity for local communities to tailor their community benefit agreements to meet the needs of their community. This could include projects that mitigate the data center’s use of water or other natural resources, or funding for projects the community cannot otherwise afford such as low-income energy efficiency programs, solar and battery powered community resilience hubs or assistance with affordable housing. These agreements should be funded at a meaningful level and funds should be provided throughout the operational life of the facility because the companies behind data centers are some of the richest corporations on the planet.”

The Bold Energy Builders project organizes unlikely alliances with the goal of justly building more clean energy, providing education, training, legal, communications and organizing support to rural communities who want to see more clean energy built in their towns. At the center of the Energy Builders project is working with local residents to develop Community Benefits Agreements, including an American Energy Dividend to those that live in the viewshed of wind and solar. We believe more money in people’s pockets, while adding more American-made energy on the grid, can change the game in rural America – putting those who live on the land and in our rural towns in the driver’s seat. We are looking at America’s next 100 years of energy.

MEETING REGISTRATION PAGE:
https://actionnetwork.org/events/boldnebraska_northotownhall_june2026 

About Bold Energy Builders
Bold’s Energy Builders Project provides education, training, legal, communications, and organizing support to rural communities that want to see more clean energy built in their towns. (https://boldenergybuilders.us)

About Bold
Bold is a network of “small and mighty” groups in rural states working to protect land and water. We fight fossil fuel projects, protect landowners against eminent domain abuse, and work for clean energy solutions while building an engaged base of citizens who care about the land, water, and climate change. (https://boldalliance.org) 

“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up-to-date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.

Are you in the Lehigh Valley area or the Lancaster area? Please take a transit survey from Transit For All PA, to help us better understand transit needs for users in the area. Lehigh Valley survey link and Lancaster area survey link.

Keep Paratransit and Shared-Ride moving by signing onto this organizational letter!

Image Source: Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Advocates push for transit funding for rural, disabled communities as Pa. budget talks build – Transit for All PA! gathered transit advocates, riders, workers, and supporters from across Pennsylvania for a day of action in Harrisburg this week. Speakers called for a new funding model, one that’s more sustainable, secure, and supportive for transit options that cover rural and disabled communities. Shared-ride and paratransit services must be provided due to the Americans with Disabilities Act, but without dedicated funding, these services are slated to disappear in Pennsylvania. Sign on to support Transit For All PA!’s movement here

Image Source: BillyPenn

WHYY: SEPTA board approves budget and bus route changes – The New Bus Network won final approval late last week, with the agency launching new routes and more frequent service throughout Philadelphia. There will be a phased rollout of the new plan in August, with a massive education campaign underway during the summer as well. The agency plans to have staff at 3,000 locations to educate riders about upcoming changes and how it affects them.

Image Source: WPXI Pittsburgh

WPXI Pittsburgh: Riders urge Pittsburgh Regional Transit to rethink bus line cuts – Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) is being urged by transit advocates to adjust their upcoming bus line cuts. PRT has announced plans to cut 14 routes and add 9 new ones. The plan has received more than 25,000 comments on the draft so far. Advocates say that certain areas are being cut off with this new plan, disproportionately affecting families, low-income residents, and people with disabilities.

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CBS Philadelphia: SEPTA reopens long-shuttered South Broad Concourse in Center City Philadelphia

The Inquirer: Philly plans to install 800 electric vehicle chargers in the next 10 years

CBS Philadelphia: Attendees say Open Streets: Midtown Village in Philadelphia should become permanent after first night