President Trump Gives Green Light to Dakota Access

The news from the Army Corps, in letters to Congress and a federal filing, comes after President Trump ordered the agency to quickly approve the pipeline.

Army officials said they would issue the easement necessary to build a stretch of the pipeline in North Dakota, and not complete a lengthy environmental impact statement on the project, something the Obama administration ordered last year.

The decision is a victory for Dakota Access developers and the oil industry, which strongly opposed Obama administration efforts to slow down and eventually delay the project.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe opposes the pipeline, which runs close to its reservation land in North Dakota. The tribe’s attorney, Earthjustice lawyer Jan Hasselman, said Tuesday that the administration’s action is illegal and he threatened further court action over it.

“Trump and his administration will be held accountable in court,” he said.

Read more here.

“Legitimate science should underlie all actions at the agency, from research to regulations, and be an integral part of justifying their actions,” Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said during a Tuesday hearing that he dubbed “Making EPA Great Again.”

“Unfortunately, over the last eight years, the EPA has pursued a political agenda, not a scientific one,” he added.

Smith said he would push for legislation to provide more public scrutiny of the science underpinning EPA rules, something the GOP has long sought, but a measure opposed by Democrats.

“I’m disappointed, but not really surprised, that the very first hearing of this [committee] will be focused on attacking the Environmental Protection Agency, as was so often the theme of our hearings the last Congress,” said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (Texas), the Science Committee’s top Democrat.

The hearing comes as lawmakers prepare to debate the future of the EPA under Trump and his pick for administrator, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R). The GOP hopes the pair will rein in agency regulations expanded during the Obama administration. Trump advisers have also pushed for deep spending cuts at the EPA.

Read more here.

Members voted 234-186 to use the Congressional Review Act to stop the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Planning 2.0 rule in its tracks.

The BLM finalized the rule in December as a way to reorganize the federal government’s land planning and management strategies.

Its detractors, though, say the rule blocks input from local officials and landowners and marginalizes their voices in land decisions.

“This rule takes authority away from those who know best what we need to do to manage and sustain our resources and it puts it in the hands of the federal government and bureaucrats here in Washington, D.C.,” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the resolution’s sponsor, said during floor debate Tuesday.

Supporters of the rule say that’s an exaggeration. The floor debate over the rule on Tuesday was something of a proxy for the broader fight over federal land policy.

“It’s time to face the facts: congressional Republicans do not value our nation’s public lands the way everyday Americans do,” Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said.

“The American public does not support erasing the planning rule and they certainly don’t support the broad, anti-public land agenda being pushed by Republicans.”

Read more here.

Chaffetz talks Bears Ears with Trump: One simmering public lands fight was a topic of conversation during a meeting between Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R) and Trump on Tuesday.

Chaffetz told Trump he opposes Obama’s December designation of a national monument in the Bears Ears region of Utah, Chaffetz shared with reporters after the meeting.

Chaffetz said Obama abused the Antiquities Act, especially late in his presidency, and he said he “hopes” Congress will repeal — or Trump will overturn — the Bears Ears designation and other national monument actions.

“I thought it was an abuse of arrogant power within my district. It was devastating,” Chaffetz said.

“There is not a single elected official at any level of government that represents that area that supports the monument. So I took the first five minutes or so to talk about our desire from the delegation to have that repealed.”

A crack in one of Antarctica’s largest ice shelves grew dramatically in recent months, leading scientists to fear it will break off from the continent, the New York Times reports.

California regulators have begun pondering the question of how to spend more of their cap-and-trade revenue on low-income areas, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Federal transportation officials say an axle defect led to the explosive 2013 derailment of an oil train in North Dakota, the Fargo Forum reports.

Check out Tuesday’s stories …

-House passes bill to block Obama land planning rule
-Trump administration gives final green light to Dakota Access pipeline
-GOP chairman: Trump can ‘right the ship’ at EPA
-Study: Solar industry jobs surged in 2016