Wyoming governor attempts to block public access, sale of private land

Jun 22, 2022

Issue: Outdoor Recreation

Subject: BLM, Wyoming

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon announced late Friday that he would seek to block the sale of Marton Ranch to the Bureau of Land Management, which purchased over 35,670 acres and opened access to 40,000 acres of previously inaccessible public land thanks to the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

“Once again, anti-conservation extremists have revealed their true agenda: keeping the public off of public land, and telling private landowners what they can and cannot do with their property,” said Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Jennifer Rokala in a statement. “Governor Gordon should be celebrating a sale that is a win for hunters, anglers, wildlife, and the Marton family, not trying to stop it.”

A report from the Center for Western Priorities this year identified Wyoming as the worst state in the West for public land protections, having protected no new acres of national public land over the last decade. In the 2022 Conservation in the West Poll from the Colorado College State of the Rockies Project, two thirds of Wyoming voters supported protecting 30 percent of American lands and waters by 2030, and 7 of 10 Wyoming voters supported creating new national parks, national monuments, national wildlife refuges, and tribal protected areas.

New report shows oil and gas executives are ripping off consumers and taxpayers

A report from Public Citizen used Interior Department data to calculate how much extra money oil and gas companies would have paid if a 18.75% royalty rate were in place when leases were sold instead of the outdated 12.5% rate. According to the report, the 20 U.S. oil and gas companies doing the most drilling on public lands would have returned up to $5.8 billion to U.S. taxpayers between 2013-2021 under an 18.75% royalty rate. The Biden administration announced it will use the 18.75% rate for the new lease sales later this month but has not made the higher rate permanent.

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Quote of the day

Like all national parks, we have a story. Our story is specific to a group of people who were mistreated, deprived of their constitutional rights, unjustly defined as an enemy when we had no part in that designation. Now, the story speaks to racism and how racism can be so dangerous.”