SCOTUS Case on Munitions in Guam Could Set Precedent for Indigenous Rights

https://murica.website/2026/03/scotus-case-on-munitions-in-guam-could-set-precedent-for-indigenous-rights/

The #Trump Administration exempts new #nuclear reactors from #environmental review

Geoff Brumfiel, February 2, 20263:09 PM ET

"The Trump Administration has created an exclusion for new experimental reactors being built at sites around the U.S. from a major environmental law. The law would have required them to disclose how their construction and operation might harm the environment, and it also typically required a written, public assessment of the possible consequences of a #NuclearAccident.

"The exclusion announcement comes just days after NPR revealed officials at the Department of Energy had secretly rewritten environmental, safety and security rules to make it easier for the reactors to be built.

"The Department of Energy announced the change Monday in a notice in the Federal Register. It said the department would begin excluding advanced nuclear reactors from the #NationalEnvironmentalPolicyAct. The act requires federal agencies to consider the environment when undertaking new projects and programs.

"The law also requires extensive reporting on how proposed programs might impact local ecosystems. That documentation, known as an #EnvironmentalImpactStatement, and a second lesser type of analysis, known as an #EnvironmentalAssessment, provide an opportunity for the public to review and comment on potential projects in their community."

Read more:
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/02/nx-s1-5696525/trump-nuclear-safety-regulations-environmental-review

#NoNukes #NoNewNukes #NuclearPlants #USPol #PublicReview #Secrecy #NuclearSafety #NuclearPollution #EnvironmentalImpact
#NoNukesWithoutConsent #EnvironmentalLaw #TrumpAdministration #NuclearPowerCorruptionAndLies

Public lands are #StolenLands! #LandBack! No cities for #TechBros!

"One proposed Freedom City site lies within the National #Conservation Area on the Utah–Colorado border, just west of Grand Junction, but local officials note that the area lacks adequate #water. Another target is the #Presidio, part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, in the heart of San Francisco, a rare urban parkland that offers green space, a trail system, historic buildings and museums, and beach access. The proposal would take this public #GreenSpace and convert it into a commercial and #RealEstate #SacrificeZone, robbing the city’s residents of a priceless natural amenity.

"Then there’s Rocky Mountain Arsenal, which despite its name, is no longer a military site but a a #NationalWildlifeRefuge — one of the largest to showcase High Plains grassland ecosystems. Ten miles from downtown Denver, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bills the area as 'a sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of busy urban life where time moves at nature’s pace.' Other areas identified for potential conversion include public lands near Boise, Idaho and Bend, Oregon.

"These groups are calling for congressional legislation, because without it, the core principles of the concept would probably be illegal. Waiving the #NationalEnvironmentalPolicyAct, granting tax incentives, waiving #CivilRights regulations, and fast-tracking #NuclearPlants are on the menu, a tempting prize for the pro-development #corporatists. To address this problem, legislation has already been proposed by Tom Bell, a libertarian legal consultant and tech entrepreneur, to create a Freedom Cities Board that would be empowered to waive state and federal laws within the bounds of lands carved out to become Freedom Cities. Senator #MikeLee’s (R-UT) recently-introduced HOUSES Act, which would authorize the sale of federal public lands for housing development, has also been trumpeted by Freedom Cities promoters as a possible avenue to advance their agenda.

"It should come as no surprise that the Freedom Cities initiative has its roots in communist China, where the government created #SpecialEconomicZones (#SEZ) to attract foreign investment through deregulation and tax incentives. The most prominent of these is Shenzhen, created by Deng Xiaoping as the ultimate experiment of unregulated capitalism, a place with special tax breaks and incentives, fewer labor protections, and greater freedom from regulation than was prevalent in mainland China. "

https://westernwatersheds.substack.com/p/freedom-cities-a-tech-bro-fantasy

#TechBrosSuck #NoNukes #WaterIsLife #NatureIsLife #CorporateColonialism

Communities Near Data Centers Struggle Now. Trump’s AI Plan Will Make It Worse.

The plan calls for reducing regulations and making federal lands available for constructing data centers.

https://murica.website/2025/07/communities-near-data-centers-struggle-now-trumps-ai-plan-will-make-it-worse/

HT @UsagiTsukino

#Indigenous and Green Groups Protest #ICE’s “#AlligatorAlcatraz” in the #Everglades

Florida’s attorney general announced that construction of the jail in the #BigCypressNationalPreserve had begun.

By Stephen Prager, June 30, 2025

"Florida’s government has said the site will have no environmental impact. Last week, Uthmeier described the area as a barren swampland. He said the site 'presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there’s not much waiting for ’em other than alligators and pythons,' he said in the video. 'Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.'

"But local #indigenous leaders have said that’s not true. Saturday’s protest was led by #NativeAmerican groups, who say that the site will destroy their sacred homelands. According to The Associated Press, #BigCypress is home to 15 traditional #Miccosukee and #Seminole villages, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites.

" 'Rather than Miccosukee homelands being an uninhabited wasteland for alligators and pythons, as some have suggested, the Big Cypress is the Tribe’s traditional homelands. The landscape has protected the Miccosukee and Seminole people for generations,' Miccosukee Chairman Talbert Cypress wrote in a statement on social media last week.

"#EnvironmentalGroups, meanwhile, have disputed the state’s claims that the site will have no environmental impact. On Friday, the #CenterForBiologicalDiversity, #FriendsOfTheEverglades, and #Earthjustice sued the Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. They argued that the site was being constructed without any of the environmental reviews required by the #NationalEnvironmentalPolicyAct.

" 'The site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered #FloridaPanther and other iconic species. This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the #Everglades #ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect,' said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades.

"Governor #RonDeSantis used emergency powers to fast track the proposal, which the Center for Biological Diversity says has left no room for #PublicInput or #EnvironmentalReview required by federal law.

" 'This reckless attack on the Everglades — the lifeblood of Florida — risks polluting sensitive waters and turning more endangered Florida panthers into roadkill. It makes no sense to build what’s essentially a new development in the Everglades for any reason, but this reason is particularly despicable,' said Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity."

Read more:
https://truthout.org/articles/indigenous-and-green-groups-protest-ices-alligator-alcatraz-in-the-everglades/

#ACAB #ICESucks #ICEKidnapping #GatorGitmo #Fascism #Authoritarianism #DeSantisSucks

High Court Limits NEPA, Adds Momentum to Reform Efforts

"Bipartisan action on Capitol Hill and a unanimous Supreme Court ruling may suggest a growing ideological consensus on the need for changes in environmental reviews and concerns about the impact of lengthy reviews and litigation on issues from energy to housing."

#Politics #USPolitics #EnvironmentalReview #NationalEnvironmentalPolicyAct #NEPA #SCOTUS #EnvironmentalReviewsNarrowed #Streamlining #NEPALimited

https://www.planning.org/blog/9313419/high-court-limits-nepa-adds-momentum-to-reform-efforts/

Federal Judge #DianeHumetewa, #Hopi, is First to Halt Interior Sec. #DebHaaland's #Lithium Drilling Permits in #Native #Ceremonial Places

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Sept. 18, 2024

"Federal Judge Diane Humetewa, Hopi, is the first federal judge to halt the lithium permits being given out by Interior Sec. Deb Haaland. Humetewa granted a temporary restraining order halting an Australian company's lithium drilling at #Hualapai's Sacred Spring.

"Now, U.S. District Judge Humetewa will rule on whether to make it permanent. Humetewa is the first to ask attorneys to submit arguments concerning the federal laws that protect historic and archaeological sites and the environment.

"Judge Humetewa gave lawyers on both sides until next Tuesday to summarize their arguments and more specifically respond to questions she asked about the government’s compliance with the #NationalHistoricPreservationAct and the #NationalEnvironmentalPolicyAct.

"#Biden's Justice Dept attorneys joined the drillers in court to argue for the drilling to proceed. And the #NavajoTransitionalEnergyCompany, a tribal enterprise in Farmington, NM, plans to do the drilling. CEO #VernLund has joined the board of the Australian-owned company #Hawkstone / #ArizonaLithium of Perth, Australia.

"In a separate case, the #TohonoOodham and #SanCarlosApache have filed a lawsuit against Interior Sec. Haaland for the bulldozers now destroying ancient village sites, #burial places and #MedicineGrounds in southern #Arizona. A Tucson federal judge refused to halt the destruction by the #SunZia Transmission Lines, for a wind energy project that plans to take electricity from New Mexico to California. The wind energy company, #PattenEnergy, is owned by the #CanadianPensionFund.

"The lithium drilling continues at the #Paiute Massacre Site in northern Nevada by the Canadian-owned #LithiumAmericas / #LithiumNevada. #Paiute and #Shoshone elderly and mothers have been charged in a court case for defending the grounds where their ancestors remain. #Haaland said she supports the #LithiumMining.

"#ApacheStronghold filed a case before the U.S. #SupremeCourt [#SCOTUS] this week, to halt the planned destruction of their ceremonial place, #OakFlat in Arizona, targeted for a massive copper mine by Australia's #RioTinto and #BHP, and pushed by the Biden administration. Rio Tinto already blew up 46,000 years of sacred #Aboriginal teachings in caves in #Australia. Rio Tinto was forced to admit widespread sexual attacks in its mines, with the highest number in Australia and #SouthAfrica."

Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/09/federal-judge-humetewa-hopi-is-first-to.html

#DefendTheSacred #ReaderSupportedNews #NoMiningWithoutConsent #NoLithiumMining #EnvironmentalRacism #environment #Greenwashing #EVs #WaterIsLife #NoLithiumMiningWithoutConsent #HumanRights #WaterIsLife #HumanRightsDefenders #IndigenousActivists #CorporateColonialism #SaveOakFlat
#CulturalGenocide #EnvironmentalRacism #ExtractiveMining