UTAH

Trump fast-tracks uranium mine

SALT LAKE CITY — Hundreds of abandoned uranium mines dot the West’s arid landscapes, hazardous reminders of the promise and peril of nuclear power during the Cold War. Now, one mine that the Trump administration fast-tracked for regulatory approval could reopen for the first time since the 1980s.

Normally it would have taken months, if not years, for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to review plans to reopen a project like Anfield Energy’s Velvet-Wood mine 35 miles south of Moab. But the bureau’s regulators green-lit the project in just 11 days under a “national energy emergency” Trump has declared that allows expedited environmental reviews for energy projects.

More permits and approvals will be needed, plus site work to get the mine operating again. And the price of uranium would have to rise enough to make domestic production financially sustainable. If that happens, it would mean revival — and jobs — to an industry that locally has been moribund since the Ronald Reagan era.

Trump’s order also applies to oil, gas, coal, biofuel and hydropower projects — but not renewable energy — on federal lands.

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Less government regulation won’t spur more U.S. uranium mining by itself. The market matters. And while spot-market prices are up from several years ago, they’re down about a third from their recent high in early 2024.

While some new uranium mining and processing projects have been announced, their number falls far short of a surge. That suggests prices need to rise — and stay there — for a true industry revival, said John Uhrie, a former uranium executive who now works in the cement industry.

With prices higher, almost 700,000 pounds of yellowcake was produced in the U.S. in 2024 — up more than a dozen-fold from the year before but still far short of the 32 million pounds imported into the U.S.

“Re-establishing a viable uranium industry from soup to nuts — meaning from mining through processing to yellow cake production, to conversion, to enrichment to produce nuclear fuel — remains a huge lift,” Uhrie said.

ARIZONA

Tribes’ transmission line challenge revived

A federal appeals court has sided with Native American tribes in their fight against the federal government over a $10 billion energy transmission line designed to carry wind-generated electricity from New Mexico to customers as far away as California.

The Tohono O’odham Nation — along with the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Center for Biological Diversity and Archaeology Southwest — sued the U.S. Interior Department and then-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in 2024. They argued that the agency failed to properly consult with the tribes on a historic property designation for southern Arizona’s San Pedro Valley.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on May 27 that a lower court erred in dismissing the case last year and ordered the matter to be reconsidered.

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The panel concluded the plaintiffs raised a plausible claim that a proper consultation would have resulted in the valley being designated as a historic property and that the agency was required to identify historic properties that would be affected and ensure any adverse effects would be avoided, minimized or mitigated before authorizing construction.

The valley represents a 50-mile stretch of the planned 550-mile conduit. The route is expected to carry electricity from wind farms in central New Mexico to existing transmission lines in Arizona to serve populated areas as far away as California. The project was among those touted as an important part of former President Joe Biden’s goal for a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Tribe declares emergency over crime

SIOUX FALLS — The Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota has declared a public safety state of emergency on its reservation, asking for more law enforcement resources from the federal government.

It’s the tribe’s third emergency declaration in six years as members contend with methamphetamine and other illicit drug use, trafficking and gun violence on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. The tribe previously declared states of emergency in 2019 and 2024.

Kathleen Wooden Knife, president of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, wrote in the declaration on on May 27 that the emergency is due to “pervasive law and order and public health issues … creating threats to public safety, the health and welfare of the general public.”

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The Rosebud Indian Reservation has a dozen law enforcement officers for an area that stretches nearly 1 million acres across five counties, said Lewis Good Voice Eagle, chief of staff to Wooden Knife. Low staffing is partially due to 2016 budget cuts, as well as difficulty retaining officers who don’t receive the same benefits as they would working elsewhere.

Crime on South Dakota’s nine Native American reservations has been a longstanding issue and the subject of tense relations with former South Dakota governor and current Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The nine tribes in the state banned her from tribal lands last year for saying publicly that tribal leaders were catering to drug cartels on the reservations.

OKLAHOMA

‘ChiefsAholic’ sentenced to 32 years

TULSA — A Kansas City Chiefs superfan known as “ChiefsAholic” was sentenced Monday in an Oklahoma courtroom to serve 32 years in state prison for robbing a Tulsa-area bank, a sentence that will be carried out after he finishes serving time in federal prison.

Xaviar Babudar, 30, appeared in a Tulsa courtroom and apologized to the court and to the victims of the December 2022 robbery of the Tulsa Teachers Credit Union in Bixby, Oklahoma, said Babudar’s attorney, Jay-Michael Swab.

Babudar already was serving more than 17 years in federal prison for a string of 11 bank robberies across seven states where he stole nearly $850,000 to finance his social media stardom. Swab said the robberies also were the result of a gambling addiction.

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Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler had sought life in prison for Babudar.

Tulsa County District Judge Michelle Keely ordered Babudar’s 32-year sentence to run concurrently to his federal sentence, which means after he is released from federal prison he will be transferred to state custody to serve his remaining 14 years.

Babudar developed a following on his @ChiefsAholic account on the social platform X after attending games dressed as a wolf in Chiefs gear. His avid support of the Chiefs became well known on social media.

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