Releases

News Releases

October 16, 2020 by

Joshua Tree National Park

Trump Denies Relief Funds for California Devastated by Wildfires

CNN is reporting today that Trump has rejected California’s request for disaster relief funds following the record-breaking destructive wildfires. Western Values Project’s research has found that President Trump has repeatedly cut federal funding dedicated to preventing and mitigating the spread of wildfires. 

The report shows that Trump has often rebuked experts within his administration and withheld funding for political reasons. And he’s blamed state officials in an attempt to shirk responsibility – even though most of the fires are occurring on federal lands – all while padding the pockets of logging companies.  

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News Releases

October 12, 2020 by

On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a Reminder of Trump’s Disastrous Record and Land Manager’s Overt Racism

Critical legal cases and rulings that impact Indigenous peoples’ rights, tribal sovereignty and their lands could also take a dark turn if Trump places corporate activist Judge Amy Coney Barrett onto the nation’s top judicial court. Barrett is a professed disciple of the late Justice Scalia. The former justice sided against Tribal interests 86% of the time, according to an analysis by the Native American Rights Fund.

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News Releases

October 7, 2020 by

mountains

Full Remarks from House Subcommittee Hearing on Royalty Rate Cuts for Oil and Gas Corporations 

Today, Western Values Project Director Jayson O’Neill testified before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources’ virtual hearing: Interior’s Royalty Cuts: Thoughtful Policy or Industry Giveaway? The hearing focused on the public costs and lack of public benefits of the royalty cuts the Trump administration has offered oil and gas drillers operating on public lands during the coronavirus pandemic 

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News Releases

October 6, 2020 by

Burnt money

TODAY: Western Values Project to Join House Natural Resources Hearing on Royalty Cuts

Today, the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources is holding a virtual hearing: Interior’s Royalty Cuts: Thoughtful Policy or Industry Giveaway? The hearing will focus on the public costs and lack of public benefits of the royalty cuts the Trump administration has offered oil and gas drillers operating on public lands during the coronavirus pandemic. Western Values Project published a detailed report on the program prior to the hearing. 

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News Releases

October 6, 2020 by

Zion National Park

Court Denies Corrupt Decision by Trump Admin That Delayed Tribal Relief Funds

Last year, the top three Alaska Native Corporations (ANC) — two of which are either a former employer or a current client of the Sweeneys — have gross revenues in the billions. In just the past year, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation took in $3.7 billion in gross revenues, Bristol Bay Regional Corporation grossed $1.7 billion, and NANA took in $1.6 billion according to new reporting by Indian News Today. 

Many of the same ANCs that the Trump administration tried to deem eligible for tribal nation government funds received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding.  

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News Releases

October 2, 2020 by

Oil and gas sitting good

Oil Company with Millions in Unpaid Taxes Awarded Bailout by Trump Administration

The Bureau of Land Management has once again provided a bailout to a Big Oil corporation in deep financial trouble. Reporting in the Buffalo Bulletin, based in part on Western Values Project’s research, found that the bureau awarded US Realm Powder River a staggering 96% discount on 23 federal leases in Wyoming despite owing some $4 million in unpaid federal royalties and failing to pay local taxes for the last three years.  

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News Releases

September 29, 2020 by

Chaco National Park

Environmental Protections Could Be in Danger With Trump’s SCOTUS Pick  

President Trump officially nominated Amy Coney Barrett to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. Since Barrett has only been a federal judge since 2017, not much is known yet about her environmental record. But from her views on corporations to women’s reproductive rights and health care, it’s fair to call her a devotee of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she clerked in the late 1990s — far from a pro-environmental champion. 

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News Releases

September 29, 2020 by

Acting BLM Director William Perry Pendley

Trump’s Interior to Needlessly Appeal Illegal Land Manager’s Ousting

Late last week, a federal judge in Montana clearly rebuked nearly four years of Trump’s temporary acting official’s legal charade that could have major implications across the administration. The judge removed Bureau of Land Management Acting Director William Perry Pendley’s authority and indicated that actions under his reign could be voided.  

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News Releases

September 25, 2020 by

Acting BLM Director William Perry Pendley

Court Rejects Trump’s Public Lands Managers Illegal Tenure; Avoids All Actions

One day was too long for an extremist like Pendley at the helm of America’s public lands and natural resources. It’s been four years of the Trump administration and corrupt Interior Secretary Bernhardt violating the law and ignoring the Constitution. While it’s a strong affirmation of the rule of law, it’s truly disappointing to see the majority in the U.S. Senate stand idly by as this administration flaunts it.

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News Releases

September 25, 2020 by

Acting BLM Director William Perry Pendley

New Polling Reveals Constitutional Conundrum for Key Senators Over Trump’s Former Top Land Manager

Voters in Six States Resoundingly Reject Acting Public Lands Manager Pendley’s Illegal Tenure New polling commissioned by Western Values Project, an Accountable.US project focused on public lands accountability, found that voters across six […]

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