Mixed feelings on proposed federal land sell-off

SANTA FE, N.M. — A Republican-sponsored proposal before Congress to mandate the sale of federal public lands received a mixed reception Monday from the governors of Western states.

A budget proposal from Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee would mandate the sale of more than 2 million acres of federal lands to state or other entities. It was included recently in a draft provision of the GOP’s sweeping tax cut package.

At a summit Monday of Western state governors, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the approach is problematic in New Mexico because of the close relationship residents have with those public lands.

“I’m open” to the idea, said Lujan Grisham, a second-term Democratic governor and former congresswoman. “Except here.”

“Our public lands, we have a very strong relationship with the openness, and they belong to all of us,” said Lujan Grisham, who was announcing written recommendations Monday on affordable housing strategies from the Western Governors’ Association. “And selling that to the private sector without a process, without putting New Mexicans first, is, for at least for me as a governor, going to be problematic.”

Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum is among the leaders from several federal agencies scheduled to attend the meeting of the association on Monday and Tuesday. Conservation groups vowed to stage public protests over plans to cede public land to development.

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon voiced qualified support for plans to tap federal land for development.

“On a piece-by-piece basis where states have the opportunity to craft policies that make sense … we can actually allow for some responsible growth in areas with communities that are landlocked at this point,” he told a news conference outside the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in downtown Santa Fe. “There may be value there.”

Lee has said federal land sales under his proposal would target “isolated parcels” that could be used for housing or infrastructure, and would not include national parks, national monuments or wilderness.

Land in 11 Western states from Alaska to New Mexico would be eligible for sale. Montana was carved out of the proposal after its lawmakers objected.

New York governor seeks to build new nuclear plant

NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s governor on Monday proposed the construction of the state’s first new nuclear power plant in decades.

Gov. Kathy Hochul directed the state’s power authority to develop an advanced, “zero-emission” facility in upstate New York that she hopes will help create a clean, reliable and affordable electric grid for the state.

She said the state power authority will seek to develop “at least” one new nuclear energy facility with a combined capacity of no less than one gigawatt of electricity. That would increase the state’s total nuclear capacity to about 4.3 gigawatts.

The governor said the state hasn’t decided on a potential location, but that upstate communities appear receptive, given the potential for creating 1,600 construction jobs and 1,200 permanent jobs once the facility is operational.

Among those likely in the running is the Nine Mile Point nuclear plant in Oswego. Hochul’s administration has been supportive of Maryland power company Constellation’s bid to build a new nuclear reactor at the two-reactor facility.

New York currently has three active nuclear plants, all located upstate along Lake Ontario and owned by Constellation. The Nine Mile Point, Robert Emmett Ginna and James A. FitzPatrick plants provide about 3.3 gigawatts of power, or roughly 20% of the state’s electricity, according to Hochul’s office.

The last nuclear power plant built in the state was Unit 2 at Nine Mile Point in 1989. At its peak, nuclear power provided about 5.4 gigawatts, or roughly one-third of the state’s electrical supply, according to the advocacy group Nuclear New York.

The Associated Press