XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.politics.trump, alt.politics.republicans   
   XPost: sac.politics, misc.survivalism   
   From: nospam@gmail.net   
      
   WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Republicans have voted to roll back   
   restrictions on mining, drilling and other development in three Western   
   states, advancing President Donald Trump’s ambitions to expand energy   
   production from public lands.   
      
   Senators voted 50-46 Thursday to repeal a land management plan for a   
   large swath of Alaska that was adopted in the final weeks of Democratic   
   President Joe Biden’s administration. Lawmakers voted to roll back   
   similar plans for land in Montana and North Dakota earlier this week.   
      
   The timing of Biden’s actions made the plans vulnerable to the   
   Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to terminate rules that   
   are finalized near the end of a president’s term. The resolutions   
   require a simple majority in each chamber and take effect upon the   
   president’s signature.   
      
   The House approved the repeals last month in votes largely along party   
   lines. Trump is expected to sign the measures, which will boost a   
   proposed 211-mile road through an Alaska wilderness to allow mining of   
   copper, cobalt, gold and other minerals.   
      
   Trump ordered approval of the Ambler Road project earlier this week,   
   saying it will unlock access to copper, cobalt and other critical   
   minerals that the United States needs to compete with China on   
   artificial intelligence and other resource development. Copper is used   
   in the production of cars, electronics and even renewable energy   
   technologies such as wind turbines.   
      
   The road was approved in Trump’s first term, but was later blocked by   
   Biden after an analysis determined the project would threaten caribou   
   and other wildlife and harm Alaska Native tribes that rely on hunting   
   and fishing.   
      
      
   The Biden-era restrictions also included a block on new mining leases in   
   the nation’s most productive coal-producing region, the Powder River   
   Basin in Montana and Wyoming. On Monday, the Trump administration held   
   the biggest coal sale in that area in more than a decade, drawing a   
   single bid of $186,000 for 167.5 million tons of coal, or about a tenth   
   of a penny per ton.   
      
   Trump has largely cast aside Biden’s goal to reduce climate-warming   
   emissions from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels extracted from   
   federal land. Instead, he and congressional Republicans have moved to   
   open more taxpayer-owned land to fossil fuel development, hoping to   
   create more jobs and revenue. The Republican administration also has   
   pushed to develop critical minerals, including copper, cobalt, gold and   
   zinc.   
      
   A decision on whether to accept the recent bid from the Navajo   
   Transitional Energy Co. is pending, and the lease cannot be issued until   
   the Montana land plan is altered. The dirt-cheap value reflects dampened   
   industry interest in coal despite Trump’s efforts. Many utilities have   
   switched to cheaper natural gas or renewables such as wind and solar power.   
      
   Administration officials expressed disappointment that they did not   
   receive “stronger participation” in the Montana sale. In a statement,   
   Interior Department spokesperson Aubrie Spady blamed a “decades long war   
   on coal” by Biden and former Democratic President Barack Obama.   
      
   Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana said the repeal of the   
   land-management plan in his state was “putting an end to disastrous   
   Biden-era regulations that put our resource economy on life support.”   
      
   Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska called the Biden-era plan for 13   
   million acres in the central Yukon region “a clear case of federal   
   overreach that locks up Alaska’s lands, ignores Alaska Native voices ...   
   and blocks access to critical energy, gravel & mineral resources.”   
      
   The GOP legislation “restores balance, strengthens U.S. energy & mineral   
   security and upholds the law,” Sullivan said in a statement.   
      
   Democrats urged rejection of the repeals, arguing that Trump’s fossil   
   fuel-friendly agenda is driving up energy prices because renewable   
   sources are being sidelined even as the tech industry’s power demands   
   soar for data centers and other projects.   
      
   “We are seeing dramatic increases in the price of energy for American   
   consumers and businesses and the slashing of American jobs, so that   
   Donald Trump can give an easy pass to the fossil fuel industry,”   
   Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said Wednesday on the Senate floor.   
      
   Last week, the administration canceled almost $8 billion in grants for   
   clean energy projects in 16 states that Democratic presidential   
   candidate Kamala Harris won in the 2024 election.   
      
   Ashley Nunes, public lands specialist at the Center for Biological   
   Diversity, an environmental group, said Republicans were unleashing “a   
   wholesale assault on America’s public lands.” Using the Congressional   
   Review Act to erase land management plans “will sow chaos across the   
   country and turn our most cherished places into playgrounds for coal   
   barons and industry polluters,” she said.   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/public-lands-mining-drilling-restrict   
   ons-repealed-571eef997a5f5c092c0eadd620537259   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)