As voters head to the polls across the Mountain West, one of the most prominent and bipartisan throughlines in 2026 is protecting America’s public lands and natural resources. Broadly, we have already seen public lands serve as a salient and decisive issue across...
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Winning the West: Election 2024
Candidates who successfully balanced economic development with environmental stewardship often found favor with voters.
The National Monuments Disinformation Brigade
America’s loudest conservation opponents are anti-government extremists and conspiracy theorists Anti-public lands advocates have always relied on disinformation and fearmongering, and the National Monuments Disinformation Brigade identified in this report is no...
Conservation Gridlock: 2024 Update
Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming fall behind while Arizona and Nevada move up thanks to presidential action An updated analysis from the Center for Western Priorities finds that not every Western state is living up to its conservation legacy. Oregon in particular has a...
Conservation Gridlock
In the last decade, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, and Wyoming have conserved far fewer acres of public lands than neighboring Western states.
Winning the West: Election 2020
The Center for Western Priorities Winning the West: Election 2020 report reveals the growing trend of winning candidates highlighting their support for public lands and outdoor issues in order to connect with Mountain West voters in this year’s elections. Check out this report PDF to learn how public lands—how they are used, their importance to local economies, and the way they define life in the West—were a key component of winning campaigns in 2020.
Empty Enforcement
States play a critical role in protecting public health and the environment by inspecting oil and gas facilities, identifying violations, and, when appropriate, issuing financial penalties. However, the structure and success of oil and gas enforcement programs varies widely from state to state. CWP’s examination of Western state oil and gas enforcement finds that while some states have successful programs worth emulating, many have room to improve in order to adequately protect the health and safety of local communities and hold companies accountable.
Funding America’s Public Lands Future
Traditionally, Congress has provided funding for managing our public lands, bolstered in part by revenue from extractive industries operating on our public lands and waters. Companies leasing public lands are required to pay royalties, rent, and other fees in exchange for extracting publicly-owned resources and using the public’s land. In recent years, funding to manage and conserve our public lands has not kept pace with what’s necessary to take care of the public’s resources. This report examines the state of conservation funding for our public lands and recommends options to boost funding in the years to come.
The Drilling and Mining Industry Wish List
The Center for Western Priorities finds the Trump administration granted the wishes of oil, gas, coal, and uranium companies at a breathtaking pace. The report identifies 53 specific policy actions within the jurisdiction of the Interior Department requested or supported by energy interests. Of the 53 energy industry asks reviewed, Trump’s Interior Department had already completed 36 of them at time of publication, with another 12 policy actions in process. Just five industry policy goals identified were not yet addressed during the Trump presidency.
Winning the West: Election 2018
The Center for Western Priorities Winning the West: Election 2018 report reveals the growing trend of winning candidates highlighting their support for public lands and outdoor issues in order to connect with Mountain West voters in 2018’s elections. Public lands—how they are used, their importance to local economies, and the way they define life in the West—were often featured as a distinguishing issue by winning campaigns.