Environmentalists urge Feds to launch another operation to seize Bundy cattle

It's hard to imagine how the 2014 federal effort to impound Cliven Bundy 's cattle could have gone any worse, but environmentalists are demanding that the Bureau of Land Management go back and try it again. Days after a federal judge threw out the case against Mr. Bundy and two of his sons, environmental groups urged Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to remove the family's cattle from the property near Bunkerville, Nevada.

Secretary Zinke Signs Order to Begin Process of Creating First Ever…

Today, following President Donald J. Trump's executive order to break America's dependence on foreign minerals, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke signed a secretarial order directing the initial steps to producing the first nationwide geological and topographical survey of the United States in modern history. The order also directs Interior bureaus to begin work on identifying immediate domestic sources for critical minerals.

this Land is Your Land? | U.S. House com…

On Monday, Dec. 4, President Donald Trump, speaking in Utah, announced that the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears national monument would be shrunk by over 80 percent, potentially making it available for mining, exploration and private use. In response, Ventura-based outdoor retailer Patagonia, along with a coalition of environmental, Native American and outdoor organizations, filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block the president's authority to make such a move.

Donald Trump moves to ‘reverse federal overreach,’ cuts down Bears Ears, Grand Staircase monuments

Saying it was his duty to "reverse federal overreach" by both the Obama and Clinton administrations, President Trump on Monday signed two proclamations to pare down and carve up both the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. At a speech in Salt Lake City, Mr. Trump said previous presidents have greatly abused their power under the century-old Antiquities Act, and stretched the law past its limits in cordoning off millions of acres of land and placing them under government control.

Documents: Puerto Rico utility ignored advice on repair deal

Puerto Rico's bankrupt electric utility ignored advice from its own lawyers before signing an expanded contract worth $300 million with a tiny Montana company to repair its damaged power grid, newly released documents show. The law firm, Greenberg Traurig, recommended that the state-run power authority be allowed to terminate the deal within 10 days for any breach by the company, Whitefish Energy Holdings.

Power lines lay broken after the passage of Hurricane Maria in Dorado, Puerto Rico.

QUESTIONS have been raised about a $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico's electrical infrastructure was awarded to a small, two-year-old company that had only two employees when Hurricane Maria struck the US territory. Both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have called for an investigation after Whitefish Energy Holdings in Montana secured the multi-million dollar deal.

Lawmakers seek probe of power contract to Zinke neighbor

Members of Congress from both parties on Tuesday called for an investigation into a $300 million contract awarded to a small company based in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's hometown of Whitefish, Montana. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority awarded the contract to Whitefish Energy Holdings to help crews restore transmission and distribution lines damaged or destroyed during Hurricane Maria.

Things aren’t adding up at Interior headquarters

Returning power to the people has been a recurring theme of the Trump administration since the president delivered his inaugural address back in January. When Congress rolled back the Bureau of Land Management's new resource management planning rule in March, lawmakers cited diminished opportunities for state and local government input as a big reason.

S.L. mayor, Utah senators jockey for Trump’s ear on monuments

The Democratic leader of Utah's capital city and a pair of Utah Republican congressmen were jockeying for the president's ear on public lands Friday. The jostling comes as U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke considers whether the president should shrink or rescind Utah's national monuments.

Trump Takes Aim at Western Monuments That May Hold Oil Riches

Bears Ears National Monument in Utah boasts stretches of red-and-yellow sandstone so brilliant they appear to be ablaze and rock structures so precarious they appear to defy gravity. The rugged terrain south of the Colorado River also has reserves of oil and natural gas that are currently off limits to new leasing -- restrictions that may end as the Trump administration reviews 27 large-scale monuments his predecessors set aside for protection.

Monuments under the microscope: Subcommittee debates designations

An undated photo of an Ancestral Puebloan ruin site within the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument. The Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a two-hour plus oversight hearing on the merits and detriments of monument designations, particularly Bears Ears and Grand Staircase in Utah comprising more than three million acres.

Democrats pressure Trump to keep national monuments

Western Democrats are pressuring President Donald Trump not to rescind land protections put in place by President Barack Obama, including Utah's Bears Ears National Monument. Obama infuriated Utah Republicans when he created the monument in late December on 1.3 million acres of land that is sacred to Native Americans and home to tens of thousands of archaeological sites, including ancient cliff dwellings.

Trump administration blocks changes on coal mining royalties

The Interior Department has put on hold changes to how the federal government values huge volumes of coal extracted from public lands, primarily in the Western United States, after mining companies challenged the agency in federal court. The move by the Trump administration means current rules governing the industry will remain in place pending decisions in the courts, according to an agency notification due to be published Monday in the Federal Register.

My view: Utah delegation should represent us or let someone else do the job

I was incredibly proud of my friends and neighbors in Utah during the recent presidential election. We made national headlines for opposing Donald Trump's antics and ethics even when so many other Republican states embraced him with open arms.