Nevada
Locals oppose 'insane' plan to sell 500K acres of public lands for housing in Nevada and Utah
Nevada’s congressional delegation, environmental groups, tribes and local officials see the late-night amendment to House Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill as a threat to the state’s water resources, tribal sovereignty and public engagement.
By Wyatt Myskow for Inside Climate News
For years, Nevada’s congressional delegation and leading Las Vegas officials have been pushing Congress to pass the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, which would allow tens of thousands of acres of public lands currently managed by the federal government to be sold at auction to cities and developers looking for space to expand.
So Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee might have expected some applause when the committee passed a late-night amendment to the budget reconciliation bill that would do just that.
But the amendment, intended to help the federal government afford the Trump administration’s tax cuts, had none of the existing bill’s stipulations to benefit Nevadans and conserve other areas. Instead of accolades, it has drawn the ire of nearly every group backing the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act. They have called the amendment a “land giveaway” to developers.
Reps. Mark Amodei (R-NV) and Celeste Maloy (R-UT) added amendments to the budget reconciliation bill just before midnight last Tuesday that would sell more than half a million acres of public land in Nevada and Utah for housing development in the two states. Opponents say the amendments would fuel unsustainable growth across Nevada and southern Utah that would not provide affordable housing, but would threaten tribal sovereignty by disposing of public lands bordering the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, take more water out of the already declining Colorado River and set a path for the federal government to begin the sell-off of public lands across the country.
The amendment for Nevada would pave the way for the development of thousands of acres up to the boundaries of national monuments Avi Kwa Ame and Gold Butte, in addition to the Pyramid Lake Reservation.
“Our two states are the test case,” said Mathilda Miller, the government relations director for Native Voters Alliance Nevada. “If this land grab goes through quietly, they’ll use the same exact playbook somewhere else. The amendment was dropped at midnight. It was dropped in a massive budget bill. And it was rushed through without meaningful public input. If they can do that near Avi Kwa Ame, Gold Butte and the boundaries of Pyramid Lake, then they can and they will do it to somebody else’s homelands.”
Amodei and Maloy, the amendment sponsors, did not respond to requests for comment.
Amodei told the Nevada Independent that he felt adding the amendment to the budget reconciliation bill was the only way to achieve the goals of the various Nevada lands bills, and that the House committee was excited about making money off sales of public lands.
“Not all federal lands have the same value,” Maloy said during the committee meeting before the bill advanced. “Some should not be available for disposal. We all agree on that. However, in both Democratic and Republican administrations, for decades, we’ve been disposing of appropriate lands in a manner that’s consistent with what I propose to do here.”
It’s the latest in attempts by some Republicans to transfer control of public lands managed by the federal government to states, a highly divisive political stance in the West, where most of those lands are located. Attempts to privatize public lands or give them to states date back decades, with the movements gaining momentum in the 1970s and 80s during the so-called “sagebrush rebellion.” The Trump administration and some Republicans in Congress have touted public-lands sales as a solution to the country’s housing shortage, but experts have disputed that claim. Even some Republican members of Congress have pushed back on recent attempts to sell off federal lands.
“We are not dealing with the same type of sagebrush rebel that we were dealing with in the 1970s,” said Kyle Roerink, the executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, a grassroots group that works in Nevada and Utah on freshwater issues and has opposed previous land bills. “The sagebrush rebels of today don’t drive cattle. They drive Porsches and Mercedes.”
“This continuous growth that we see year after year, day after day, decade after decade, does nothing to help preserve our souls, preserve our feelings and preserve the culture,” said Steven Wadsworth, chairman of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, during a press conference.
The proposed sell-off in Utah has drawn less scrutiny than the disposal of public lands in Nevada has, though environmental groups also oppose sales there. The bill would allow public lands to be sold for development in southern Utah, primarily for the fast-growing city of St. George.
But that land follows the pathway of the planned Lake Powell pipeline, a decades-long and highly controversial attempt by Utah to pipe water from the dwindling Colorado River’s second-largest reservoir, which is roughly 33 percent full, to fuel growth in the state. Attempts to build the pipeline in the past have drawn intense scrutiny from both environmentalists and other states that depend on Colorado River water.
“It’s just another signifier that nobody actually wants to respect the signs that Mother Nature is sending to us, and that’s that our snowfalls are changing, our precipitation patterns are changing, our runoffs are changing,” Roerink said. “But we have people who want to continue doing business like it’s 1999 and everything’s peachy, and the reservoirs are full.”
The bill will be considered by the full House of Representatives in the coming weeks.
Public lands are managed by the federal government for the benefit of all Americans, allowing for the creation of national parks and wilderness areas, and for extraction of resources by logging, mining and energy companies. But in some cases, they can be disposed of—meaning sold—typically to developers for housing or extraction projects.
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Growth in Las Vegas, for example, has long relied on bills that dispose of public lands to expand, as the federal government owns roughly 85 percent of the land within the state’s borders, far more than in any other state. But those bills had conservation requirements, and the funds generated by the land sales were earmarked for conservation and local schools. The latest Clark County lands bill—the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act—would also give land back to the Moapa Band of Paiutes and provide further protection for other public lands in Nevada.
Money from the sale of public lands authorized by the new amendment would go to the U.S. Treasury, rather than to local communities.
While Amodei’s amendment to sell off public lands in Nevada pulls from existing land bill proposals, it leaves out the conservation components. In a statement, U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), who proposed the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, called Amodei’s amendment “an insane plan that cuts funding from water conservation and public schools across Nevada.”
“This is a land grab to fund Republicans’ billionaire giveaway tax bill, and I’ll fight it with everything I have,” she said.
Even Clark County, home to Las Vegas, which would be a major beneficiary of the amendment, opposes it. Jennifer Cooper, a spokeswoman for the county, said in a statement that county officials “are concerned that this bill does not reflect the [Clark County Commission’s] priorities to facilitate responsible future development, especially as it relates to environmental conservation, water and public infrastructure.”
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The Nevada Wildlife Federation has supported Nevada lands bills in the past, but opposes Amodei’s amendment. “You get all the land sales and nothing to secure that wildlife conservation in the future,” said Russell Kuhlman, executive director of the nonprofit organization. “So now we essentially lost our bargaining chip, right? Why would developers who now have what they want out of the deal come back to the table to discuss conservation?”
Not every environmental group in Nevada has supported land bills in the past. OIivia Tanager, the director of the Sierra Club’s Toiyabe Chapter, said the Clark County bill has divided Nevada’s environmental groups, with her group, the Great Basin Water Network and the Center for Biological Diversity opposing it.
There are no guarantees in either the lands bills or Amodei’s amendment that housing developed on disposed public lands will actually be affordable. On top of that, building on public lands, often in remote areas away from major urban centers, like the lands proposed near Las Vegas, would expand sprawl, forcing more people to commute long distances to and from work, Tanager said. That means more air pollution in communities of color or low-income areas along congested highways, on top of disruptions to wildlife, increasing water demand in an arid region and the buildout of more energy infrastructure to power homes—likely in the form of natural gas plants that increase ratepayers’ bills, she said.
“I hope this is the dawn of a new day,” Tanager said of the opposition to Amodei’s amendment, “where we all come together and refuse to sell off our public lands for corporate greed and at the expense of communities across the entire state of Nevada, but also across the country.”
Campaign Action
The U.S. House passed a bill Thursday put forward by Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei that would reinvigorate mining activity on federal lands.
Amodei, a Republican who represents the state’s top half, described the bill as strengthening the nation’s mineral supply chain and helping to counter China’s dominance with minerals.
“Western states are sitting on a wealth of resources and a critical opportunity to break our dangerous reliance on foreign adversaries while powering our own economy,” he said in a statement.
“The Mining Regulatory Clarity Act … gives domestic mining operations the certainty they need to compete aggressively and win.”
The bill passed 219 to 198. Republicans voted 210 in favor, 1 opposed and 9 not voting. Democrats voted 9 in favor, 197 opposed and 7 not voting. It was one of the House’s last actions before adjourning for the year.
Nevada delegation split on mining bill
Amodei was joined by Las Vegas Democrat Steven Horsford, who co-sponsored the bill in the House.
“Streamlining the hardrock mining process will create good jobs and strengthen our energy sector,” Horsford said.
The state’s other two House members — Democrats Susie Lee and Dina Titus — voted in opposition.
Titus spokesperson Dick Cooper told the Reno Gazette Journal that the congresswoman voted no because the bill would allow for increased dumping of mine waste on public lands.
“It would also allow mining companies to gain permanent rights to occupy public lands and preclude other uses including recreational and cultural uses,” he added.
It now heads to the Senate, where Nevada Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto will work to get it passed.
“This bill is common sense, and it’s key for communities across Nevada that count on mining for their livelihoods,” Cortez Masto said in a social media post.
Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada, a Democrat, also supports it. She helped introduce the Senate companion version of Amodei’s bill.
“Nevada is one of the few places in the United States with an abundance of critical minerals and a robust hardrock mining industry,” Rosen said. “The responsible mining of these minerals supports thousands of jobs and will help to strengthen our domestic manufacturing and clean energy supply chains.”
What does Amodei’s Mining Regulatory Clarity Act do?
The bill is a response to a 2022 decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals involving the Rosemont Copper Mine in Arizona.
The decision basically meant that mining companies must prove valuable minerals exist on a piece of land before they can dump waste material on it. Called the “mineral validity” requirement, it disrupted decades of precedent.
Amodei’s bill would reverse that and allow the practice to resume of using nearby land for mining waste without proving the land contains commercial deposits — something mining companies say is essential for operating on federal land.
“This legislation ensures the fundamental ability to conduct responsible mining activities on federal lands,” said Rich Nolan, National Mining Association president and CEO, in a statement. “Regulatory certainty, or the lack thereof, will either underpin or undermine efforts to decisively confront our minerals crisis.”
The bill also creates an “Abandoned Hardrock Mine Fund.” Some fees related to mining claims will be used to fund a program to inventory, assess and clean up abandoned hardrock mines.
Environmental groups blast House vote on Mining Regulatory Clarity Act
Some environmental groups campaigned against the bill and described it as choosing corporate interests over people, Native Americans’ rights and the environment.
Lauren Pagel, policy director for Earthworks, said the bill “will remove already-scarce protections for natural resources and sacred cultural sites in U.S. mining law.”
The Center for Biological Diversity said the bill surrenders public lands to mining conglomerates.
“The so-called Mining Regulatory Clarity Act would bypass the validity requirement and grant mining companies — including foreign companies — the statutory right to permanently occupy and indiscriminately use public lands upon approval of a company’s self-written plan of operations,” said the nonprofit conservation organization in an online post.
Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to mrobison@rgj.com or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page.
Nevada
California school district near Nevada caught up in a dispute over transgender athlete policies – WTOP News
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Lake Tahoe school district is caught between California and Nevada’s competing policies on transgender student…
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Lake Tahoe school district is caught between California and Nevada’s competing policies on transgender student athletes, a dispute that’s poised to reorder where the district’s students compete.
High schools in California’s Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District, set in a mountainous, snow-prone area near the border with Nevada, have for decades competed in the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, or NIAA. That has allowed sports teams to avoid making frequent and potentially hazardous trips in poor winter weather to competitions farther to the west, district officials say.
But the Nevada association voted in April to require students in sex-segregated sports programs to play on teams that align with their sex assigned at birth — a departure from a previous approach allowing individual schools to set their own standards. The move raised questions for how the Tahoe-Truckee district would remain in the Nevada association while following California law, which says students can play on teams consistent with their gender identity.
Now, California’s Department of Education is requiring the district to join the California Interscholastic Federation, or CIF, by the start of next school year.
District Superintendent Kerstin Kramer said at a school board meeting this week the demand puts the district in a difficult position.
“No matter which authority we’re complying with we are leaving students behind,” she said. “So we have been stuck.”
There are currently no known transgender student athletes competing in high school sports in Tahoe-Truckee Unified, district officials told the education department in a letter. But a former student filed a complaint with the state in June after the board decided to stick with Nevada athletics, Kramer said.
A national debate
The dispute comes amid a nationwide battle over the rights of transgender youth in which states have restricted transgender girls from participating on girls sports teams, barred gender-affirming surgeries for minors and required parents to be notified if a child changes their pronouns at school. At least 24 states have laws barring transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports competitions. Some of the policies have been blocked in court.
Meanwhile, California is fighting the Trump administration in court over transgender athlete policies. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February aimed at banning transgender women and girls from participating in female athletics. The U.S. Justice Department also sued the California Department of Education in July, alleging its policy allowing transgender girls to compete on girls sports teams violates federal law.
And Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has signedlaws aimed at protecting trans youth, shocked party allies in March when he raised questions on his podcast about the fairness of trans women and girls competing against other female athletes. His office did not comment on the Tahoe-Truckee Unified case, but said Newsom “rejects the right wing’s cynical attempt to weaponize this debate as an excuse to vilify individual kids.”
The state education department said in a statement that all California districts must follow the law regardless of which state’s athletic association they join.
At the Tahoe-Truckee school board meeting this week, some parents and one student said they opposed allowing trans girls to participate on girls teams.
“I don’t see how it would be fair for female athletes to compete against a biological male because they’re stronger, they’re taller, they’re faster,” said Ava Cockrum, a Truckee High School student on the track and field team. “It’s just not fair.”
But Beth Curtis, a civil rights attorney whose children attended schools in Tahoe-Truckee Unified, said the district should fight NIAA from implementing its trans student athlete policy as violating the Nevada Constitution.
Asking for more time
The district has drafted a plan to transition to the California federation by the 2028-2029 school year after state officials ordered it to take action. It’s awaiting the education department’s response.
Curtis doesn’t think the state will allow the district to delay joining CIF, the California federation, another two years, noting the education department is vigorously defending its law against the Trump administration: “They’re not going to fight to uphold the law and say to you at the same time, ‘Okay, you can ignore it for two years.’”
Tahoe-Truckee Unified’s two high schools with athletic programs, which are located about 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) in elevation, compete against both California and Nevada teams in nearby mountain towns — and others more distant and closer to sea level. If the district moves to the California federation, Tahoe-Truckee Unified teams may have to travel more often in bad weather across a risky mountain pass — about 7,000 feet (2,100 meters) in elevation above a lake — to reach schools farther from state lines.
Coleville High School, a small California school in the Eastern Sierra near the Nevada border, has also long been a member of the Nevada association, said Heidi Torix, superintendent of the Eastern Sierra Unified School District. The school abides by California law regarding transgender athletes, Torix said.
The school has not been similarly ordered by California to switch where it competes. The California Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment on whether it’s warned any other districts not in the California federation about possible noncompliance with state policy.
State Assemblymember Heather Hadwick, a Republican representing a large region of northern California bordering Nevada, said Tahoe-Truckee Unified shouldn’t be forced to join the CIF.
“I urge California Department of Education and state officials to fully consider the real-world consequences of this decision—not in theory, but on the ground—where weather, geography, and safety matter,” Hadwick said.
Copyright
© 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – Because of heightened fire weather conditions forecast for northwestern Nevada, a proactive outage is slated for Friday, Dec. 19, in Carson City, Clear Creek, Jack’s Valley, Genoa and Glenbrook from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to a NV Energy news release.
The outage would affect about 715 customers, the release said.
During a Public Safety Outage Management event, the utility proactively de-energizes power for customers in high-risk zones to help protect the community and environment from wildfires, the release said.
If weather conditions change, the potential proactive outage will be adjusted or cancelled.
Customers potentially impacted have been notified via phone, text messages and email.
NV Energy will continue to monitor conditions and provide updates.
The outage timeframe includes the duration of the weather event and an estimated time for crews to inspect the lines for damage, vegetation or debris to begin safely restoring power.
The restoration time may change based on weather conditions or if repairs to equipment need to be made.
Copyright 2025 KOLO. All rights reserved.
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