A new documentary - “Stewart Udall and the Politics of Beauty” - paints the former Interior secretary, who died in 2010, as a uniting force revered for pushing forward the environmentalist movement in addition to promoting desegregation and tribal sovereignty. Read more»

President Joe Biden's plan to protect 30% of U.S. land and water, over 720 million acres, by 2030 - what’s become known as the “30 by 30 plan” - has lofty ambitions, but what’s happening on the ground tells a different story of how it might play out. Read more»

Republicans on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday previewed their objections to the Biden administration’s still-unreleased “30 by 30 plan” to conserve 30% of U.S. land and water by 2030, calling it “the radical 30 by 30 land grab initiative.” Read more»

President Joe Biden intends to nominate National Wildlife Federation senior adviser and veteran Montana Democrat Tracy Stone-Manning to direct the Bureau of Land Management, an individual familiar with the process confirmed to States Newsroom Wednesday. Read more»

In a preview of the arguments likely to be repeated as the Biden administration and Congress work toward conservation goals, Democrats on a U.S. House panel Tuesday outlined what they say is a need for aggressive action on climate. Read more»

In a bitter and at times high-decibel round of questioning at her confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Interior nominee Rep. Deb Haaland again fielded questions from Senate Republicans from oil and gas-producing states about the Biden administration’s energy policies. If confirmed by the Senate, Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, would run the $21 billion agency that oversees more than 450 million acres of public land. Read more»

While Senate Republicans used the Interior confirmation hearing for Rep. Debra Haaland to air their grievances about the Biden administration’s energy policies, supporters at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing focused mostly on the historic nature of the nomination. Read more»

President Trump has turned efficiency standards into symbols of intrusive government. His latest target: showerheads. Read more»

President-elect Joe Biden made a campaign promise to stop building Donald Trump’s border wall. But how will the incoming administration will repair the damage — environmental, cultural and political — the wall’s already done? Read more»

In 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated 764,207 acres of land in Arizona and the southwest corner of New Mexico as critical habitat for a jaguar population concentrated 130 miles south in Mexico, but the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau argued before the 10th Circuit last Wednesday that land designated in the state for the predators isn’t essential to their conservation. Read more»

Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday that would repeal rules the Trump administration used to reduce protections under the Endangered Species Act. Read more»

The Bill Williams River Water Rights Settlement Act of 2014 would guarantee some water rights for the Hualapai Tribe, allow Freeport Minerals Corp. to continue operating its Bagdad copper mine and provide the state with lands for wildlife protection, supporters said. Read more»

State Land Commissioner Vanessa Hickman told a House panel that a bill to streamline public-land exchanges in the West could make for more sensible and environmentally sensitive development. And that could mean more trust land money to go to local schools, she said. Read more» 1

A new survey claims that Latino voters in Western states believe the government should protect public lands and they want to be consulted on land-policy issues. Pollsters attributed that sentiment to the generations-long ties many Hispanic families have to the region Read more»

Former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt called for more active land preservation by the federal government Tuesday, criticizing what he called Washington’s neglect of public lands. Read more»