Earlier this week, a Native American tribe criticized the Biden administration’s order to stop agency approvals for oil, gas, and coal permitting on federal lands and tribal lands.
The Washington Times reported Friday:
The Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, which has run an oil-and-gas operation on its 4.5 million-acre reservation for more than 70 years, requested Thursday an exemption for tribal lands from the Interior Department order that halts agencies from issuing permits and leases on mineral production for 60 days.
Chairman of the Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee Luke Duncan wrote in a letter Thursday, “The Ute Indian Tribe and other energy producing tribes rely on energy development to fund our governments and provide services to our members.”
https://twitter.com/MeganBloomgren/status/1352762679392399360
Duncan called it “a direct attack on our economy, sovereignty, and our right to self-determination,” adding, “Indian lands are not federal public lands. Any action on our lands and interests can only be taken after effective tribal consultation.”
Mining oil and natural gas is “big business on the reservation”, according to the tribe’s website.
“The Utes have a tribal membership of 2,970 and over half of its membership lives on the Reservation. They operate their own tribal government and oversee approximately 1.3 million acres of trust land,” the site continued.
President Joe Biden had revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office.
Breitbart News’s Joel B. Pollak wrote:
In so doing, he killed some 11,000 direct jobs that the pipeline’s construction was to have created, and an estimated 60,000 indirect jobs in secondary, related industries. Over 1,000 workers already on the job — mostly union workers — will be laid off as a result of the decision, even if it is litigated, as many expect it will be, in the courts.
Duncan said in a letter Thursday, the order “must be withdrawn or amended to comply with Federal law and policies.”
