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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Analysis: 95 Percent of BLM Land in WYO Available to Oil and Gas

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Monday, October 20, 2014   

LANDER, Wyo. - Ninety-five percent for oil and gas, 5 percent for everything else.

An analysis from The Wilderness Society shows that the Bureau of Land Management has made almost all its land within Wyoming available for development. Nada Culver, director of the society's BLM Action Center, said the stats prove that the oil and gas industry has an unfair advantage.

"If you want to manage for conservation, for recreation, for wildlife, all of those things are really difficult when we're faced with such an unbalanced situation in current management," she said.

BLM Resource Management Plans in western states were examined for the report, which found that the agency has strict standards for deciding which lands should be managed for recreation or the environment, but the same standards are not applied to oil and gas leasing decisions.

Culver said the BLM should address imbalances, identify areas for conservation and recreation, incorporate Master Leasing Plans - which the agency is beginning to do - and pre-screen which areas might be best for oil and gas.

"Time to update the status quo and be smarter about this," Culver said. "Let's put leasing and development where it will be most successful - high-potential areas; low-conflict as much as possible. Let's take a better approach."

She cited another detail from the report: Of the 36 million acres of BLM land under oil and gas leases throughout the West, only about 12.5 million are in production. In addition, thousands of drilling permits have been issued but have not been used.

The report, "Open for Business," is online at wilderness.org.


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