The final plan <\/a>approved by Pendley was the first resource management plan approved under the Trump Administration\u2019s \u201cenergy dominance\u201d agenda to bolster domestic oil, gas and coal industries. It did not limit drilling in the North Fork Valley and expanded energy development across 675,800 acres of land and 971,200 acres of mineral estate in Montrose, Gunnison, Ouray, Mesa, Delta and San Miguel counties. And it did not weigh the state\u2019s concerns about energy projects potentially injuring wildlife, habitat and air quality.<\/p>\nThe preferred plan that was on track in the fall of 2019 \u2014 crafted after many years of BLM meetings and work with local communities \u2014 was replaced by a new Trump Administration alternative in the spring of 2020 that identified energy and mineral development as key planning issues alongside reducing regulatory burdens for extractive industries and economic development. The BLM said the plan would contribute $2.5 billion in economic activity to the region and support 950 jobs a year for the next two decades.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month the BLM approved two oil and gas drilling projects in the North Fork Valley that allow up to 226 wells.<\/p>\n
Colorado\u2019s lawsuit, being handled by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, says the plan\u2019s conflicts with state laws were never resolved, so the approval should be overturned.<\/p>\n
The argument challenging Pendley\u2019s authority is similar to the lawsuit filed last year by the governor of Montana that led a U.S. District Court in Helena to strike down a trio of RMP approvals. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in October ruled that Pendley did not have the authority to approve resource management plans as the so-called \u201cacting director\u201d of the BLM. (A month earlier, Morris ruled that Pendley had \u201cserved unlawfully as the Acting BLM Director for 424 days,\u201d effectively removing him from the director role.)<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just an attempt to discredit the Trump Administration. It\u2019s sad. It\u2019s disappointing,\u201d Pendley said in a statement from BLM responding to the Montana court decision in October. The agency argued the Interior Secretary has \u201cclear legal authority to delegate authority to manage the department and its bureaus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colorado, noting that the Western Slope RMP would hurt the state\u2019s $34.5 billion outdoor recreation economy \u2014 including $41 million from 186,000 hunter days in the six counties covered by the plan \u2014 argued the Trump administration\u2019s failure to nominate a BLM director negates Pendley\u2019s approval of the management plan.<\/p>\n
The agency has operated without a Senate-confirmed director since 2017, with former Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke and then Sec. Bernhardt delegating the authority of agency director to a succession of four men, including Pendley in July 2019. President Donald Trump nominated Pendley as BLM director in June but withdrew the nomination in August.<\/p>\n
Colorado Department of Natural Resources Executive Director Dan Gibbs said in a statement that the complaint demonstrates the state\u2019s concerns about wildlife and air quality were not addressed in the final plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the approval of the plan by Pendley\u2019s BLM was invalid,\u201d Gibbs said. \u201cWe are hopeful that the uncertainty caused by the questionable appointment can be clarified by the court so that Western Slope and Southwest Colorado communities can reliably plan for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
State argues \u2018acting director\u2019 did not have the authority to approve anything<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49252"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}