Washington, D.C. (October 9th, 2015) – Today the U.S. House voted 261-159 to increase American energy production and spur economic growth by passing bipartisan legislation to lift the 40 year old ban on crude oil exports. The export ban was put in place in 1975 in response to the Arab oil embargo. Since then the U.S. has become a leading producer of oil in the world, but the policy has not changed, jeopardizing the ability of American production to stay globally competitive.
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Washington, D.C. (October 8th, 2015) – Today the U.S. House passed with a bipartisan vote H.R.538: the Native American Energy Act. This legislation empowers tribes to develop more of their natural resources and loosens federal bureaucratic restrictions which are often duplicative and can add years of delay.
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Washington, D.C. (October 8th, 2015) – Reports are in that yesterday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency caused a spill of 2,000 gallons while working on a cleanup site at the Standard Mine in central western Colorado. The EPA failed to notify federal officials including Rep. Scott Tipton (CO-03) and has yet to comment on the spill. Information from local officials indicates that roughly 2,000 gallons of gray wastewater was released from the site. Work had recently resumed from a temporary halt after the August 5 blowout at Gold King Mine.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its final rule for surface-level ozone. Senate Western Caucus Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY) and Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) released the following statements:
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Washington, D.C. (September 30, 2015) – Today a U.S. District Judge in the District Court of Wyoming upheld a preliminary injunction against the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) rule governing hydraulic fracturing on federal and tribal lands, finalized in March of this year. The judge found that the rule exceeded the BLM’s statutory authority.
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Denver, CO (September 22, 2015) – Today Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced that an Endangered Species Act listing of the greater sage grouse is not warranted at this time. Also this week, the Department of the Interior finalized nearly a hundred land use plans imposing sage grouse-based restrictions across the sage grouse’s 11 state range.
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Washington, D.C. (September 15, 2015) – Today the Obama Administration requested Congress change federal budget laws to address shortfalls in catastrophic wildfire funding.
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Washington, D.C. (September 11, 2015) – Today the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced its decision, after strong pushback by members of the Western Caucus, to drop its plan to merge the BLM state offices of New Mexico and Arizona into one regional office.
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Washington, D.C. (September 2, 2015) – Yesterday a U.S. District Court judge invalidated the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to list the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species, citing the agency’s failure to consider voluntary conservation efforts.
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Cheyenne, WY (August 28, 2015) – Yesterday a U.S. District Court judge in North Dakota issued a temporary injunction against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers’ Waters of the U.S (WOTUS) rule, calling it ‘exceptionally expansive’. The ruling blocks implementation of the rule in 13 states pending further judicial proceedings.
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