The announcement of two new national monuments formed the centerpiece of the White House Conservation in Action Summit on March 21, 2023. Biden designated Avi Kwa Ame and Castner Range national monuments using his authority under the Antiquities Act, protecting over half a million acres in perpetuity.

Center for Western Priorities Campaigns and Special Projects Director Lauren Bogard and Executive Director Jen Rokala join Kate to talk about the new monuments and what made the campaigns to protect both Avi Kwa Ame and Castner Range so successful.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss

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Music: Purple Planet

(Featured image: Castner Range in bloom, Mark Clune)

The post Biden designates two new national monuments appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Aaron and Kate are joined by author and professor Natalie Koch, whose new book—Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia—explores the ways in which Arizona and Saudi Arabia have worked together to promote desert agriculture, and how that work is connected to a global obsession with engineering our way out of ecosystem collapse. Koch is a professor of geography and the environment at Syracuse University.

Aaron and Kate also talk to Jenny Rowland-Shea, public lands director at the Center for American Progress, about three major Biden administration announcements affecting Alaska, including the Willow Project decision.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

(Featured image: A cotton field outside Phoenix, near Goodyear, AZ; Jennifer A. Johnson, Wikimedia)

The post The tangled fates of Arizona and Arabia appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Kate and Aaron are joined by pollsters Lori Weigel and Dave Metz to talk about the most interesting and important statistics from the recently released 2023 Colorado College State of the Rockies Conservation in the West poll. The poll found that voters care just as much about protecting public lands and waters, as well as about transitioning to renewable energy, as ever—despite feeling the pressures of inflation and high gas prices.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Ear Mountain Conservation Mgmt Area, Lewistown, Montana; Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management

The post What Western voters think about conservation appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Kate and Aaron are joined by water scientist Brad Udall to talk about the current state of the Colorado River. Water levels are dropping and something has to give or the river’s main reservoirs—Lake Powell and Lake Mead— are going to run dry. But states aren’t anywhere close to an agreement on how much each one is going to cut back.

Udall, who teaches at Colorado State University and researches the impact of climate change on the Colorado River, is here to explain what’s going on, how dire the situation is, and what could happen next.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Grand Canyon National Park, Flickr

The post What’s going on with the Colorado River? appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Aaron and Kate are joined by two mining reform experts to talk about the need to update our century-old mining laws and regulations in order to protect vulnerable communities and public lands as interest in mining grows thanks to electric vehicles and renewable energy needs.

Roger Flynn is the director and managing attorney at Western Mining Action Project, a nonprofit law project working on hard rock mining. He also teaches mining law at the University of Colorado law school. Aaron Mintzes is senior policy counsel at Earthworks where he works on transforming hard rock mining, oil, and gas policy.

*This is the second episode in our two-part series on critical minerals and mining in the West.*

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: arbyreed, Flickr

The post Why we need mining reform on public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Mining expert Ian Lange joins Kate and Aaron to talk about critical minerals and mining in the West. Lange directs the mineral and energy economics program at the Colorado School of Mines and is an expert in mining economics. He discusses what’s going on in the world of critical minerals—specifically those used in electric vehicle batteries. These include cobalt, copper, lithium, and nickel and are mostly mined overseas, but we do have some of them here in the U.S. And we could see a big increase in domestic mining for them thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, which included subsidies aimed at stimulating mining at home.

*This episode is the first in a two-part series on mining in the West. The next episode will air in approximately two weeks and feature mining reform advocates.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Ken Lund, Flickr

The post Are we about to see a mining boom for EV minerals in the West? appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

On this episode of The Landscape, Kate and Aaron are joined by Grand Canyon Trust staff attorney Michael Toll to discuss a plan to mine hundreds of thousands of barrels of waxy crude oil in Utah near Dinosaur National Monument, using billions of gallons of Colorado River Water.

A loophole in Utah law enabled an Estonian state-owned company called Enefit to buy 3.2 billion gallons of Colorado River water for just $10 in 2015. Now, Enefit wants to use that water to extract oil in the Uinta Basin using a novel method that is around 75 percent more carbon-intensive than traditional fossil fuel drilling. Toll discusses how Enefit acquired its massive water right and how the Grand Canyon Trust is fighting Enefit’s plan.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Staplegunther, Wikimedia Commons

The post Fighting a plan to mine oil in Utah using billions of gallons of Colorado River water appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

On this episode of The Landscape, Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Jennifer Rokala and CWP Director of Campaigns and Special Projects Lauren Bogard join Aaron and Kate to go over the past year in public lands. From the passage of the largest climate bill in U.S. history (which includes major oil and gas leasing reforms) to a new national monument to the launch of a new conservation funding program, 2022 was a big year for public lands. The CWP team talks about what all of these developments mean and how they will continue playing out in 2023.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Aaron Weiss/Center for Western Priorities

The post The past year in public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Renowned nature photographer Pete McBride joins Aaron and CWP’s Director of Campaigns and Special Projects Lauren Bogard on the pod to discuss his work documenting the Colorado River.

Pete is a photographer, filmmaker, and writer who has been to more than 75 countries on assignment for clients ranging from the National Geographic Society to the Smithsonian. After a decade documenting expeditions from Everest to Antarctica, he turned his cameras to his own backyard—the Colorado River—which turned into a book, three documentaries, and a PBS show. His National Geographic Channel documentary “Into the Grand Canyon” was nominated for an Emmy in 2020.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Ken Lund/Flickr

The post Photographer Pete McBride on the Colorado River appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

This week on The Landscape, Aaron and Kate talk to Drew McConville and Sam Zeno from the Center for American Progress about their new report, which identifies the top 8 actions Biden can take to meet his America the Beautiful goal of protecting 30 percent of American lands and waters by 2030.

Drew McConville is a senior fellow at CAP and a former member of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he helped develop and implement President Obama’s climate action plan. Sam Zeno is a conservation Research Assistant at CAP who worked on the report.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management

The post The top 8 actions Biden can take to protect 30×30 appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.