The new Biden administration could take action on the Colorado River that would go well beyond the president-elect’s term in office.
The week of Dec. 14, the seven states that are part of the Colorado River Compact began the first step for renegotiating guidelines that will decide how much water the three lower basin states and Mexico will get from Lake Mead, on the Arizona-Nevada border, and from Mead’s source, the Colorado River.
The guidelines are interim, signed in April 2007, and are due to expire in 2026. Among the most significant, the guidelines provide long-term stable management of the river and also determine the circumstances under which the Interior secretary could reduce the annual amount of water available from Lake Mead to the Colorado River lower basin states. The guidelines also are a way for the basin states to avoid litigation, part of what prompted the 2007 interim guidelines.
Credit Bureau of Land Management
The U.S. Department of the Interior has issued a record of decision allowing the Converse County Oil and Gas Project to move forward.
The decision paves the way for 5,000 new oil and gas wells to be drilled, though not immediately. Construction and development will require site-specific review and approval.
The record of decision will allow the new wells to be drilled on 1,500 multi-well pads across 1.5 million acres over a period of 10 years. The total estimated new surface disturbance for the proposed action would be about 53,000 acres of 3.5 percent of the project area. The action also specifies year-round development with exceptions to time limitation restrictions that serve to protect non-eagle raptors.
Congresswoman-elect Lauren Boebert has tapped Trump administration officials and staff members for Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., for senior positions in her office.
Jeff Small, a presidential appointee currently serving as a senior adviser to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, will be Boebertâs chief of staff, according to a news release from Boebert this week.
Paige Agostin, a presidential appointee currently serving in Vice President Mike Penceâs office as associate director for domestic policy, will be Boebertâs legislative director. Clarice Navarro, a former Colorado state lawmaker appointed by the Trump administration in 2017 as Colorado executive director for the Department of Agricultureâs Farm Service Agency, has been selected Boebertâs district director.
Congresswoman-elect appoints outgoing Trump, Gardner staff
December 23, 2020 GMT
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) Congresswoman-elect Lauren Boebert of Colorado has appointed Trump administration officials and staffers for outgoing Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner to top positions in her office.
Jeff Small, current senior adviser to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, will be Boebert’s chief of staff, the Daily Sentinel reported Wednesday.
Paige Agostin will be Boebert’s legislative director. She is currently associate director of domestic policy in Vice President Mike Pence’s office. Clarice Navarro, who was appointed by the Trump administration to be Colorado executive director for the Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, has been selected as Boebert’s district director.
Judge taps brakes on drilling in Utah wilderness on eve of federal OK
Construction crews are poised to start work in the newly designated wilderness preserve but a judge will decide whether they can fire up their engines.
(Courtesy photo by Ray Bloxham, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance) An energy company hoped to begin drilling for helium starting Wednesday on this site in the newly designated Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness. Environmentalists have gone to court to prevent the Bureau of Land Management from approving the Bowknot helium project, proposed by Twin Bridges Resources. | Updated: 12:17 a.m.
Labyrinth Canyon is among Utah’s most quiet and remote red rock locales, where the Green River has incised deep into the San Rafael Desert, leaving a broad loop in the river channel called Bowknot Bend.