Center for Biological Diversity: ST. GEORGE, Utah A U.S. District Court today partially granted conservation groups’ request to remand federal agencies’ 2021 approval of the Northern Corridor Highway right-of-way through Utah’s Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, which is home to threatened desert tortoises.
The Energy 202: Trump administration jams in environmental rollbacks in final days Dino Grandoni
with Alexandra Ellerbeck Even as they re packing their bags, President Trump s team is jamming in more rollbacks to energy and environmental restrictions.
As Juliet Eilperin and I report, the slew of new rules several of which will help the fossil fuel, logging and mining industries that have benefited from past Trump administration action sets up a clash with the incoming president. President-elect Joe Biden and his aides may spend months unwinding these policies as they gear up to cut greenhouse gas emissions unless congressional Democrats or federal judges step in to overturn them more quickly. Biden becomes president Wednesday.
The Trump administration went on a final spree of environmental rollbacks with just days left in office, scaling back standards for equipment Americans use to heat their homes, habitat for the northern spotted owl, and protections for conservation lands in California and Utah.
| Updated: 10:35 p.m.
With the end of the Trump administration less than a week away, federal agencies issued a string of decisions Thursday that will result in a paved highway through Utah’s Red Cliffs National Conservation Area.
The controversial project could fragment habitat set aside for Mojave desert tortoise and open space valued for outdoor recreation on the edge of St. George.
Local and state leaders have long embraced the so-called Northern Corridor as the key to solving traffic woes in one of the nation’s fastest-growing areas by allowing vehicles to cross Washington County without having to travel St. George’s congested streets. But critics see a costly and sprawl-generating boondoggle.