Click the link to read the article on the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel website (Dennis Webb). Here’s an excerpt:
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has moved forward with proposing that nearly 225,000 acres stretching from the Glenwood Springs area south to Crested Butte and east of Crawford be withdrawn from new federal oil and gas leasing and mining claims for 20 years. Haaland acted on a petition announced by the Biden administration last week as President Biden also created the new Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument during a visit to the Camp Hale World War II training grounds outside Leadville. Haaland approved a petition by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to file the withdrawal application…
Her approval, announced in a Federal Register notice Monday [October 17, 2022], automatically kicks off a two-year period when new mining claims and new federal mineral leases will be prohibited on parts of the White River National Forest, the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, and BLM lands, while the agencies consider moving forward with the 20-year withdrawal in those same areas. Private lands and existing rights, including current oil and gas leases, aren’t affected by the two-year action, and the 20-year withdrawal likewise wouldn’t apply to them. Haaland’s action also kicks off a 90-day public comment period on the proposed withdrawal.