Washington, DC-- Today, the House of Representatives hosted a hearing on the Boundary Waters Wilderness Protection and Pollution Prevention Act-- a bill that would permanently protect more than 200,000 acres of the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota from copper, nickel and precious metals mining. The legislation would safeguard the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from toxic sulfide-ore copper pollution.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the House Natural Resources Committee took up legislation to designate new wilderness in California, Washington, and Colorado. Included in the bills passed out of committee are the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act (H.R. 2199); San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Protection Act (H.R. 2215); Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation, and Working Forests Act (H.R. 2250); Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (H.R. 2642); the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2019 (H.R. 2546); and the Rim of the Valley Corridor Preservation Act (H.R. 1708).
WASHINGTON,D.C. -- Today the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed the Restore Our Parks Act (S. 500), the Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act (S. 1081) and the Conservation of America’s Shoreline Terrain and Aquatic Life (COASTAL) Act out of committee.
Today, the Trump Administration directly threatened the future of Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, one of America’s iconic wilderness areas. Administration officials announced that the United States Forest Service will allow companies to pursue sulfide ore mining leases immediately adjacent to the Boundary Waters. Today’s announcement also included an abrupt end to an incomplete and never-released environmental study of sulfide mining impacts in the BWCA watershed that was started under the Obama Administration.
Washington, DC-- Moments ago, the Senate failed to pass a plan that addresses protection for immigrant youth in the wake of Donald Trump’s termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and threats to several other
Represented by Trustees for Alaska, Sierra Club and other conservation groups today challenged Interior Secretary Zinke’s recent approval of a land exchange to facilitate road construction through wilderness lands in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Zinke’s approval ignores deep flaws in the road building plan, including its exorbitant cost, high winter use risks, and detrimental impacts on the wildlife of the refuge and the Alaska Native subsistence it supports.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- According to reports, Sen. Murkowski has confirmed that a provision opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling is included in the final tax scheme proposal. The provision would effectively remove the sensitive coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the refuge system, opening the entire 1.5 million acres to drilling. The provision ignores the importance of the area to the Gwich’in Nation, as well as a host of environmental safeguards, and cost realities that make raising the estimated revenue from drilling in the Arctic Refuge nearly impossible.
Reporting by CNN today reveals that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is pushing for a road to be built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The road would be the first constructed through a Wilderness area, and marks the latest in a long string of decisions by the Interior Department to roll back protections for wild places.
Rally against Trump's announcement of reductions to Bears Ears, Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monuments.
WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a bill undermining bedrock environmental safeguards protecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, as well as the Superior and Chippewa National Forests. The bill, HR 3905, would automatically grant mineral leases near the Wilderness boundary in perpetuity, while undermining guarantees for public process and water quality among others.
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Today, Sierra Club joined Congressional and Gwich’in tribal leaders to decry the current attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling as part of the tax scheme. The effort would attempt to offsets tax cuts for the wealthy and corporate polluters with revenue from drilling in one of the country’s last wild places -- a move that the Senate Parliamentarian has said violates Senate rules.
WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. House of Representatives tonight passed a bill ordering public forest lands turned over to a private mining company. The bill, HR 3115, would expedite the exchange of National Forest land with PolyMet Mining Corporation for an open pit copper-nickel sulfide ore mine -- bypassing issues with the environmental analysis, value of the land appraisal, and ongoing public challenges.