Latest news with #NativeAmericanTribes
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Resolution Copper welcomes the republication of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)
SUPERIOR, Ariz., June 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Resolution Copper welcomes today's republication of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS)—a positive step forward for the project. This republication allows the USFS to advance the congressionally mandated land exchange, enabling future underground mine development and placing thousands of acres of land into permanent conservation. For more than 10 years, the USFS, in consultation with Native American Tribes, local Copper Triangle communities, civil society organizations and a dozen federal and state agencies have shaped the Resolution Copper project through a rigorous, independent review under the National Environmental Policy Act. The process began in 2013 with the submittal of the Mine Plan of Operations, shortly before President Obama signed the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange Act in December 2014. The FEIS republication marks a significant milestone and documents the lengthy decade-long stakeholder process to co-design the underground mine and associated surface support facilities within the footprint of the historic Magma Copper Mine. "Through this process, we have deepened our relationships with local communities and Native American Tribes, including our senior leaders spending time with Tribal leaders to listen and build mutual understanding," said Vicky Peacey, General Manager of Resolution Copper. "We welcome the opportunity to continue these conversations as we move into the next phase of permitting. Working together, mining can co-exist with cultural heritage, recreation, and nature, while delivering new economic opportunities in rural Arizona." "This project has undergone one of the most comprehensive environmental and social reviews in U.S. history. The republication of the FEIS reflects the thorough work by the USFS, local communities, and Native American Tribes and the seriousness with which all stakeholders have approached this process," said Peacey. "We remain committed to earning trust through transparency, engagement, and responsible development as we move forward." As part of the land exchange, Resolution Copper has committed to initiatives that support cultural preservation, recreation, education, employment, economic development, and nature through long-term partnerships with Native American Tribes and local communities. This includes significant funding in a long-term Native American Trust Fund and Emory Oak restoration. Other commitments focus on conservation and monitoring of seeps and springs; restoration and preservation of creeks, rivers, and watersheds; and habitat enhancement for biodiversity. As one of the largest investments in rural Arizona's history, the project is expected to generate thousands of jobs and contribute $1 billion annually to the state's economy. Copper produced at the mine will support U.S. energy, infrastructure, clean technology, and national defense priorities, strengthening both Arizona's economy and the nation's long-term security. About Resolution Copper Resolution Copper is Arizona Copper. The Resolution Copper Project is operated by Resolution Copper Mining, a limited liability company owned 55 percent by Resolution Copper Company (a Rio Tinto PLC subsidiary) and 45 percent by BHP Copper Inc. (a BHP PLC subsidiary). Learn more at Contacts:Media Relations, Resolution Copper Tyson NanselM +1 520 827 9056E Media Relations, Rio Tinto USJesse RiseboroughM +1 202 394 9480E View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Resolution Copper Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Times
13-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Withdraws From Agreement With Tribes to Protect Salmon
President Trump moved on Thursday to withdraw from a Biden administration agreement that had brokered a truce in a decades-long legal battle with tribes in the Pacific Northwest. The federal government has been mired in legal battles for decades over the depletion of fish populations in the Columbia River Basin, caused by four hydroelectric dams in the lower Snake River. Native American tribes have argued in court that the federal government has violated longstanding treaties by failing to protect the salmon and other fish that have been prevented by the dams from spawning upstream of the river. That legal fight is now expected to resume, with no brokered agreement in place. In its statement announcing the withdrawal, the White House made no mention of the affected tribes and portrayed the issue falsely as revolving around 'speculative climate change concerns.' The tribes had called for the dams to be breached as a way to restore the salmon population, a proposal that has faced intense pushback because of the potential costs. A study found that removing the four dams was the most promising approach to restoring the salmon population, but also reported that replacing the electricity generated by the dams, shipping routes and irrigation water would cost between $10.3 billion and $27.2 billion. The 2023 agreement from the Biden administration, a memorandum of understanding with the tribes that brokered a 10-year truce in the legal battles, committed $300 million to Washington, Oregon and the tribes to restore the wild salmon population. The Biden administration allocated another $60 million to the effort last year. But the Biden administration did not take a position on the most contentious proposal of breaching the dams. The agreement called for additional study of the proposal and committed to supporting clean energy projects that could replace the power generated by the dams. However, the Biden White House noted in a statement that any decision and authority to breach the dams 'resides with Congress.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration says he has the authority to cancel national monuments that protect landscapes
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Lawyers for President Donald Trump's administration say he has the authority to abolish national monuments meant to protect historical and archaeological sites across broad landscapes, including two in California created by his predecessor at the request of Native American tribes. A Justice Department legal opinion released Tuesday disavowed a 1938 determination that monuments created by previous presidents under the Antiquities Act can't be revoked. The department said presidents can cancel monument designations if protections aren't warranted. The finding comes as the Interior Department under Trump has been weighing changes to monuments across the nation as part of the administration's push to expand U.S. energy production. The Republican in his first term reduced the size of two Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments in Utah, calling them a 'massive land grab." He also lifted fishing restrictions within a sprawling marine monument off the New England Coast. Former President Joe Biden reversed the moves and restored the monuments. noting that Bears Ears was the first national monument to be established at the request of federally recognized tribes. The two monuments singled out in the new Justice Department opinion were designated by Biden in his final days in office: Chuckwalla National Monument, in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park, and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, in Northern California. The Democrat's declarations for the monuments barred oil and natural gas drilling and mining on the 624,000-acre (2,400-square-kilometer) Chuckwalla site, and the roughly 225,000 acres (800 square kilometers) Sáttítla Highlands site near the California-Oregon border. Chuckwalla has natural wonders including the Painted Canyon of Mecca Hills and Alligator Rock, and it is home to rare species of plants and animals like the desert bighorn sheep and the Chuckwalla lizard. The Sáttítla Highlands include the ancestral homelands of and are sacred to the Pit River Tribe and Modoc Peoples. All but three presidents have used the 1906 Antiquities Act to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources, and about half the national parks in the U.S. were first designated as monuments. But critics of monument designations under Biden and Obama say the protective boundaries were stretched too far, hindering mining for critical minerals. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora Pettit wrote in the Trump administration opinion that Biden's protections of Chuckwalla and the Sattítla Highlands were part of the Democrat's attempts to create for himself an environmental legacy that includes more places to hike, bike, camp or hunt. "Such activities are entirely expected in a park, but they are wholly unrelated to (if not outright incompatible with) the protection of scientific or historical monuments," Pettit wrote. Trump in April lifted commercial fishing prohibitions within an expansive marine monument in the Pacific Ocean created under former President Barack Obama. Environmental groups have anticipated more actions against monuments by Trump since his first days in office. They said Tuesday's Justice Department opinion doesn't give him the authority to shrink monuments at will. 'Americans overwhelmingly support our public lands and oppose seeing them dismantled or destroyed,' said Axie Navas with The Wilderness Society. Since 1912, presidents have issued more than a dozen proclamations that diminished monuments but did not outright revoke them, according to a National Park Service database. Dwight Eisenhower was most active in undoing the proclamations of his predecessors as he diminished six monuments, including Arches in Utah, Great Sand Dunes in Colorado and Glacier Bay in Alaska, which have all since become national parks. Trump's moves to shrink the Utah monuments in his first term were challenged by environmental groups that said protections for the sites safeguard water supplies and wildlife while preserving cultural sites. The reductions were reversed by Biden before the case was resolved, and it remains pending. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act after lobbying by educators and scientists who wanted to protect sites from artifact looting and haphazard collecting by individuals. It was the first law in the U.S. to establish legal protections for cultural and natural resources of historic or scientific interest on federal lands.
Reuters
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Trump can abolish national monuments, US Justice Department says
June 10 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has the power to abolish two national monuments in California established by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, as well as any others created by past presidents, according to a newly released legal opinion from a key adviser within the U.S. Department of Justice. The May 27 document, opens new tab, which was released on Tuesday, reversed a 1938 legal opinion and sets the stage for the Republican president to eliminate federal protections for potentially millions of acres of land previously designated as national monuments. National monuments are created by presidents in recognition of a site's cultural, historical or scientific importance, while national parks are created by Congress largely to protect outstanding scenic features or natural phenomena. Lanora Pettit, who heads the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, was asked by the White House to provide a new opinion as Trump considered whether to reverse Biden's decision in January in his final days in office to designate two California sites that hold significance to Native American tribes as national monuments. The Chuckwalla National Monument preserves more than 624,000 acres just south of Joshua Tree National Park. The Sattitla Highlands National Monument protects 224,000 acres where the dormant Medicine Lake volcano carved craters and lava tubes. Biden had relied on the Antiquities Act of 1906, a law that has been invoked by numerous presidents to designate over 100 national monuments. A 1938 opinion by Attorney General Homer Cummings, who served under Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt, has been long cited as constraining the ability of presidents to undo past designations. But in a 50-page legal opinion, Pettit concluded that the Antiquities Act gives presidents not only the power to establish national monuments on federal lands but also to determine that they never were or no longer are deserving of those protections. The White House has also asked Pettit to consider whether the Justice Department should disavow Cummings' prior opinion. She said it should, writing that the law's silence about whether a president could revoke a predecessor's designation of a monument should be understood as meaning he has such authority. "Thus, for the Antiquities Act, the power to declare carries with it the power to revoke," Pettit wrote. The legal opinion did note that since the earliest days of the Antiquities Act, presidents have 'from time to time diminished' the land set aside to protect monuments. Trump, in his first term, had reduced the size of the Bears Ears National Monument by 85% and the Grand Staircase-Escalante monument by half, both in Utah. Biden restored both monuments to their former size. But no president has abolished a national monument. It was unclear if and when Trump would revoke the monument status for the two California sites or any other monuments. Asked about the new legal opinion, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields in a statement cited the need to "liberate our federal lands and waters to oil, gas, coal, geothermal, and mineral leasing."
The Independent
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump administration says he has the authority to cancel national monuments that protect landscapes
Lawyers for President Donald Trump 's administration say he has the authority to abolish national monuments meant to protect historical and archaeological sites across broad landscapes, including two in California created by his predecessor at the request of Native American tribes. A Justice Department legal opinion released Tuesday disavowed a 1938 determination that monuments created by previous presidents under the Antiquities Act can't be revoked. The department said presidents can cancel monument designations if protections aren't warranted. The finding comes as the Interior Department under Trump has been weighing changes to monuments across the nation as part of the administration's push to expand U.S. energy production. The Republican in his first term reduced the size of two Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments in Utah, calling them a 'massive land grab." He also lifted fishing restrictions within a sprawling marine monument off the New England Coast. Former President Joe Biden reversed the moves and restored the monuments. noting that Bears Ears was the first national monument to be established at the request of federally recognized tribes. The two monuments singled out in the new Justice Department opinion were designated by Biden in his final days in office: Chuckwalla National Monument, in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park, and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, in Northern California. The Democrat's declarations for the monuments barred oil and natural gas drilling and mining on the 624,000-acre (2,400-square-kilometer) Chuckwalla site, and the roughly 225,000 acres (800 square kilometers) Sáttítla Highlands site near the California-Oregon border. Chuckwalla has natural wonders including the Painted Canyon of Mecca Hills and Alligator Rock, and it is home to rare species of plants and animals like the desert bighorn sheep and the Chuckwalla lizard. The Sáttítla Highlands include the ancestral homelands of and are sacred to the Pit River Tribe and Modoc Peoples. All but three presidents have used the 1906 Antiquities Act to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources, and about half the national parks in the U.S. were first designated as monuments. But critics of monument designations under Biden and Obama say the protective boundaries were stretched too far, hindering mining for critical minerals. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora Pettit wrote in the Trump administration opinion that Biden's protections of Chuckwalla and the Sattítla Highlands were part of the Democrat's attempts to create for himself an environmental legacy that includes more places to hike, bike, camp or hunt. "Such activities are entirely expected in a park, but they are wholly unrelated to (if not outright incompatible with) the protection of scientific or historical monuments," Pettit wrote. Trump in April lifted commercial fishing prohibitions within an expansive marine monument in the Pacific Ocean created under former President Barack Obama. Environmental groups have anticipated more actions against monuments by Trump since his first days in office. They said Tuesday's Justice Department opinion doesn't give him the authority to shrink monuments at will. 'Americans overwhelmingly support our public lands and oppose seeing them dismantled or destroyed,' said Axie Navas with The Wilderness Society. Since 1912, presidents have issued more than a dozen proclamations that diminished monuments but did not outright revoke them, according to a National Park Service database. Dwight Eisenhower was most active in undoing the proclamations of his predecessors as he diminished six monuments, including Arches in Utah, Great Sand Dunes in Colorado and Glacier Bay in Alaska, which have all since become national parks. Trump's moves to shrink the Utah monuments in his first term were challenged by environmental groups that said protections for the sites safeguard water supplies and wildlife while preserving cultural sites. The reductions were reversed by Biden before the case was resolved, and it remains pending. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act after lobbying by educators and scientists who wanted to protect sites from artifact looting and haphazard collecting by individuals. It was the first law in the U.S. to establish legal protections for cultural and natural resources of historic or scientific interest on federal lands.
