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Increasingly many tribal communities are working to develop renewables on tribal lands because it will save them money, provide good-paying jobs, and also fight the climate crisis.
Why This Matters: Native American tribes are infrastructure poor and have struggled with affordable electricity on reservations that are often isolated — far from the grid.
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On Tuesday, a federal judge in Washinton ordered the Treasury Department to disburse the $679 million in COVID relief funding the agency had set aside for certain Alaskan native businesses while awaiting a decision in another case to determine whether those businesses, which are not tribal governments, are eligible for the funding. In addition, an appeals court in Washington invalidated the final oil and gas leases on Blackfeet Tribe sacred lands in Montana’s Badger-Two Medicine region adjacent to Glacier National Park.
Why This Matters: Native American tribal governments must be treated fairly under the law.
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Tomorrow is the deadline for a deal among the seven states that share water from the Colorado River, and one state, Arizona, is holding out. The water plan agreed to by the other states back in December, confronts the long-running drought in the region, the resulting dwindling supply of water from the River, and how the states can ensure river water does not get overused. Arizona was the only state that required the plan be approved by its Legislature, which according to the Associated Press, has made the negotiations on the drought contingency plan more complex. What if Arizona does not meet the deadline? Then the Department of Interior will allegedly ask the other states for their views on how to divide the limited pool of water, and then the federal government will rule unilaterally.
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