Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Top Interior official has ties to controversial lithium mine
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Thursday, December 11, 2025
Associate Deputy Secretary of the Interior Karen Budd-Falen (left) with Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, December 6, 2025. Photo: @SenLummis ([link removed])

Karen Budd-Falen, the third-highest ranking official at the Interior department under the Trump administration, has long-standing ties to the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada. In a story co-published with High Country News ([link removed]) , Jimmy Tobias and Chris D'Angelo of Public Domain revealed ([link removed]) that in 2018, after Budd-Falen joined the Interior solicitor's office during the first Trump administration, a Nevada ranch co-owned by Budd-Falen and her husband signed a contract to sell water rights to the developer of the Thacker Pass mine for an undisclosed amount of money.

One year after signing the contract, Budd-Falen's Interior department calendar shows she was scheduled to have "Lunch with Lithium Nevada" at Interior headquarters in Washington. The topic of the meeting was redacted by Interior officials. The Interior department ultimately approved the Thacker Pass mine in the final week of the first Trump administration.

Last week, Public Domain obtained Budd-Falen's financial disclosure form ([link removed]) , which had been subject to unexplained delays before Interior finally released it in response to public records requests. Interior has still not released any ethics agreements signed by Budd-Falen, which could shine more light on whether she was permitted to meet with the mine developers.

Last month, E&E News revealed that Interior's new Chief Information Officer, who joined the agency from SpaceX, was granted an ethics waiver to work on some issues that will benefit SpaceX ([link removed]) , even though he holds a financial stake in Elon Musk's company.

Durango Herald: Reject Pearce

The Durango Herald editorial board joined the growing chorus of voices calling on Congress to reject President Trump's nomination of Steve Pearce ([link removed]) to run the Bureau of Land Management. The editorial warns that Pearce's lengthy record of supporting land sell-off ([link removed]) would have serious consequences.

"Under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the BLM director does have disposal authority – significant authority," the editorial board wrote ([link removed]) . "In the hands of someone who believes public lands should be 'returned' to states, bulldozed by counties, or auctioned for drilling, the risk is immediate."


** Quick hits
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Idaho congressman: Public land disposal is "imminent"

Idaho Statesman ([link removed])

Lawsuit challenges Trump's face on national parks pass

The Hill ([link removed]) | Our Public Lands ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed]) | New York Times ([link removed]) | NBC News ([link removed])

Fracking waste threatens Permian Basin water supplies, imperils oil industry plans

E&E News ([link removed])

Lithium exploration project in southern Oregon gets federal approval

OPB News ([link removed])

Interior gives Navy control over 760 acres of public land for militarized zone

Fox News ([link removed]) | Axios ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])

Wind and solar frozen out of Trump's permitting push

Reuters ([link removed])

Colorado regulators delay approval of 32 controversial oil wells near Aurora

CPR News ([link removed])

Opinion: Protect what is wild before we lose these lands for good

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel ([link removed])


** Quote of the day
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” ‘Local management’ sounds good until you realize that wealthy private interests are inevitably going to have a bigger voice than you do. Transferring ownership risks losing our voice to monied interests who don’t value public lands the same ways we do. You shouldn’t have to know the right politicians or wealthy private property owners to enjoy the public lands you currently own.”

—John Robison, Idaho Conservation League, Idaho Statesman ([link removed])


** Picture This
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@arizonapubliclands ([link removed])
How many arms can you count? This saguaro cactus was spotted in the Ironwood Forest National Monument.

Mighty saguaros are an iconic symbol of the Sonoran Desert. They develop their upturned arms at 75 to 100 years of age.

Photo by Ralph Burrillo/Bureau of Land Management Arizona.

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