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On November 9^th, a federal judge upheld the Biden Administration’s approval of the Willow Project in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A). This order by the court is related to two cases challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s March 2023 Record of Decision (ROD) for the Willow Project, which approved oil production on leases held by ConocoPhillips Alaska.

Rural counties have been pushing for groundwater protection programs for several years, as unchecked groundwater pumping has threatened some smaller communities’ opportunity to grow. Despite momentum from the public in support of groundwater regulation, the Arizona Legislature faced significant pushback from private water companies’ interests, agricultural associations, and homebuilders which led to the regulation not being included in the water bill.

In April 2009, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) published a rule establishing the boundaries of the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf population and removing federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections from the gray wolf populations in the Northern Rocky Mountain region for all states except Wyoming.

With the exception of the more recent rule change in Wyoming, for over a decade the management of the gray wolf population in the Northern Rocky Mountain region has been left to the individual states.

Environmental justice, or the question of unequal distribution of benefits and burdens across certain communities, has become a focus of many politicians in recent years. Without federal legislation, state legislatures have considered their own environmental justice statutes, often using input from affected communities.

American youth are approaching the issue of government responsibility for climate destruction from several angles. These innovative approaches might provide an avenue to holding the government accountable through judicial review in the absence of the United States’ involvement in international environmental law.

Amid the national commentary surrounding proposals contained in the Bureau of Reclamation’s 476-page Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS)—there are four concepts to remember regarding its role in the future of the Colorado River.

Last month, both the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Arizona Court of Appeals issued decisions that continue to delay the development of a copper mine on the Tonto National Forest. The mine would provide significant economic benefits to Superior, the town closest to the proposed mine that was founded as a mining town for silver and eventually copper deposits. The proposed location of the mine is known as Oak Flat, or Chi’chil Biłdagoteel in Western Apache, and contains spiritual sites that are sacred to Apache and other Arizona tribes. The mine proposal has been plagued with questions about both land rights and environmental impact.

With the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the future of solar energy in Arizona has changed dramatically. Various companies, local and national, have recently started developing or have already developed projects in the state. Solar energy development will create more economic incentives toward green energy, advance diversity in energy capture, and establish a more community- and tribal-based approach to natural resources while prioritizing renewable energy as a primary source of the state’s power. 

Overall, solar power in the American West is generating popularity. In Arizona, the sun is a valuable future asset to renewable energy and will continue to be a promising resource with respect to developing projects and plans in the state. 

Theodore Roosevelt once labeled the gray wolf “the beast of waste and destruction.” This label, and other similar labels, led to the nationwide overhunting of gray wolves in the United States. By 1960, the wolf population had quickly dwindled from near 2 million, to as little as 300 wolves in the lower 48 states. This started the rather tumultuous protection journey for the gray wolves.

A new trend in grazing litigation appears to have emerged which requires additional effort by the land management agency to limit cattle grazing on riparian areas home to endangered and threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). The three recent settlement agreements discussed below are groundbreaking for land management agencies: all three agreements require the agencies to be held directly accountable for the results of grazing. The agencies are required to monitor riparian areas, maintain and repair fencing, and remove trespass cattle. This development is important because it requires the agencies to take more of an immediate role in the conservation of riparian areas.

November 24th marked the 100^th anniversary of the Colorado River Compact, the framework that governs the vital water source among the Tribes and seven basin states (Lower Basin: Arizona, California, Nevada; Upper Basin: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) that rely on it. But the compact’s centennial marks a moment of extreme uncertainty for the river’s management.

Colorado River Indian Tribes’ (CRIT) potential ability to lease its water rights to off-reservation users would be a significant departure from the first 100 years of Colorado River management. It would carry the benefit of giving CRIT more influence in the future of the river. The potential outcome behooves all those dependent on the Colorado River to consider what responsible use means in the coming decades of shortage.

What’s been called the “the most significant federal court decision on federal mining law in several decades,” could have broad implications for federal mining law and the future of the domestic mining industry. In May 2022, the Ninth Circuit affirmed District Court Judge James Soto’s order temporarily blocking the proposed Rosemont Copper mine in the Santa Rita mountains of southern Arizona. As the world economy transitions away from fossil fuels and adopts electric vehicles and other clean technologies, the demand for cobalt, lithium, nickel, and other minerals is soaring. The development and manufacture of renewable energy technologies, the United States’ lengthy permitting process, which averages seven to ten years, and the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) tax incentives for domestically sourced minerals create a unique environment in which both sides of the political aisle have an appetite for mining law and permitting reform.