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Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) brandishes a firearm at a gun store in Rifle, Colorado on April 24, 2018. (Photo: Emily Kask/AFP via Getty Images)
Why Does Lauren Boebert Want to Annihilate the Sage-Grouse? Follow the Money
The GOP lawmaker called the threatened species a "mediocre bird," but one watchdog group says her husband's ties to a major oil and gas firm better explain it.
Feb 11, 2022
Earlier this week, far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert went on a diatribe against Greater sage-grouse conservation efforts but neglected to mention that her husband raked in nearly $1 million over a two-year period from a fossil fuel corporation that stands to lose out if the Biden administration strengthens federal protection of the threatened bird species' sagebrush habitat.
"Her behavior is the epitome of corruption."
"The Biden regime's sage-grouse landgrab policies are not about saving a mediocre bird that is legally hunted in seven states," Boebert (R-Colo.) said in a statement. "Rather, they are about locking up tens of millions of acres of land in the West, closing off mineral and energy development, expanding the federal government's power over rural Colorado, and destroying American jobs."
What went unsaid is that Jayson Boebert works as a consultant for Terra Energy Partners. The oil and gas firm paid him $460,601 in 2019 and $478,386 in 2020--information that Lauren Boebert failed to disclose during her congressional campaign and only reported in financial disclosure forms filed last August.
A new analsysis released Friday by government watchdog Accountable.US shows that Terra Energy has "extensive" lease holdings in Garfield and Rio Blanco Counties in northwest Colorado, precisely where the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering bolstered sage-grouse protections.
"Lauren Boebert would rather use her official position in Congress to go to bat for an energy company that has paid her husband nearly $1 million over the past two years, than to protect Colorado's iconic public lands and habitats for future generations to enjoy with their families," Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, said Friday in a statement. "Her behavior is the epitome of corruption."
According to Accountable.US, Terra Energy has 338 leases from the BLM in Garfield and Rio Blanco Counties, with 5,483 active wells in the former and 388 in the latter.
Approximately 120 of Terra Energy's leases and wells in northwest Colorado "are located in between the towns of Parachute, Rangley, and Meeker," which are home not only to sage-grouse ecosystems but also tens of thousands of acres of priority conservation areas, the watchdog noted. "More protections for sage-grouse in northwest Colorado could hurt Terra's bottom line."
\u201cRep. Boebert dismisses the greater sage-grouse, an indicator species for the West's sagebrush ecosystems, a "mediocre bird"\n\nworth pointing out that Terra Energy, an oil/gas company, pays Boebert's husband nearly half a million dollars per year\nhttps://t.co/rFgCGk5CCp\u201d— Chris D'Angelo (@Chris D'Angelo) 1644357349
Rep. Boebert implied in her statement that new federal protections are a done deal, saying: "By attempting to unilaterally ram through sage-grouse land landgrab (sic) policies, the Biden regime has picked up where the Obama regime left off and shut out the voices of local communities impacted by its one-size-fits-all, draconian overreach."
In fact, the BLM is still in the analysis and document preparation phase of amending its sage-grouse land use plans.
According to the agency:
In order to protect the long-term health of Greater sage-grouse populations, consider new science, and comply with court direction, the BLM is beginning to consider updates to the range-wide management plans for sagebrush habitat adopted in 2015 and amended in 2019. More than 70 resource management plans currently guide habitat conservation and restoration on 67 million acres of Greater sage-grouse habitat the bureau manages in 10 Western states.
In considering amendments to the 2015 and 2019 management plans, the BLM will examine new scientific information, including the effects of stressors like climate change, on Greater sage-grouse, to assess what management actions may best support habitat conservation and restoration on public lands to benefit sage-grouse, as well as the people who rely on sagebrush lands to support their livelihoods and traditions.
Earlier this week, a coalition of environmental groups called on the BLM "to use the best available science to conserve sagebrush habitat in the American West to stabilize and increase Greater sage-grouse populations."
The groups continued:
Sage-grouse are an indicator species, whose health reflects the overall condition of the sagebrush steppe. A functioning sagebrush country provides clean drinking water for Western communities, sequesters carbon, reduces wildfire intervals, and is home to more than 350 species of plants and wildlife of conservation concern.
Sage-grouse populations and sagebrush habitat have been in decline for more than five decades. A 2021 report by the U.S. Geological Survey found that sage-grouse populations have declined across the West by more than 80% since 1965, including a 37% decline since 2002. This report came on the heels of another report released by USGS highlighting the loss and degradation of lands in the sagebrush ecosystem. This new information makes review of federal land management plans imperative.
The coalition expects the BLM to present draft habitat management plans for public comment in late 2022.
An Unconstitutional Rampage
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
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Kenny Stancil
Kenny Stancil is senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project and a former staff writer for Common Dreams.
Earlier this week, far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert went on a diatribe against Greater sage-grouse conservation efforts but neglected to mention that her husband raked in nearly $1 million over a two-year period from a fossil fuel corporation that stands to lose out if the Biden administration strengthens federal protection of the threatened bird species' sagebrush habitat.
"Her behavior is the epitome of corruption."
"The Biden regime's sage-grouse landgrab policies are not about saving a mediocre bird that is legally hunted in seven states," Boebert (R-Colo.) said in a statement. "Rather, they are about locking up tens of millions of acres of land in the West, closing off mineral and energy development, expanding the federal government's power over rural Colorado, and destroying American jobs."
What went unsaid is that Jayson Boebert works as a consultant for Terra Energy Partners. The oil and gas firm paid him $460,601 in 2019 and $478,386 in 2020--information that Lauren Boebert failed to disclose during her congressional campaign and only reported in financial disclosure forms filed last August.
A new analsysis released Friday by government watchdog Accountable.US shows that Terra Energy has "extensive" lease holdings in Garfield and Rio Blanco Counties in northwest Colorado, precisely where the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering bolstered sage-grouse protections.
"Lauren Boebert would rather use her official position in Congress to go to bat for an energy company that has paid her husband nearly $1 million over the past two years, than to protect Colorado's iconic public lands and habitats for future generations to enjoy with their families," Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, said Friday in a statement. "Her behavior is the epitome of corruption."
According to Accountable.US, Terra Energy has 338 leases from the BLM in Garfield and Rio Blanco Counties, with 5,483 active wells in the former and 388 in the latter.
Approximately 120 of Terra Energy's leases and wells in northwest Colorado "are located in between the towns of Parachute, Rangley, and Meeker," which are home not only to sage-grouse ecosystems but also tens of thousands of acres of priority conservation areas, the watchdog noted. "More protections for sage-grouse in northwest Colorado could hurt Terra's bottom line."
\u201cRep. Boebert dismisses the greater sage-grouse, an indicator species for the West's sagebrush ecosystems, a "mediocre bird"\n\nworth pointing out that Terra Energy, an oil/gas company, pays Boebert's husband nearly half a million dollars per year\nhttps://t.co/rFgCGk5CCp\u201d— Chris D'Angelo (@Chris D'Angelo) 1644357349
Rep. Boebert implied in her statement that new federal protections are a done deal, saying: "By attempting to unilaterally ram through sage-grouse land landgrab (sic) policies, the Biden regime has picked up where the Obama regime left off and shut out the voices of local communities impacted by its one-size-fits-all, draconian overreach."
In fact, the BLM is still in the analysis and document preparation phase of amending its sage-grouse land use plans.
According to the agency:
In order to protect the long-term health of Greater sage-grouse populations, consider new science, and comply with court direction, the BLM is beginning to consider updates to the range-wide management plans for sagebrush habitat adopted in 2015 and amended in 2019. More than 70 resource management plans currently guide habitat conservation and restoration on 67 million acres of Greater sage-grouse habitat the bureau manages in 10 Western states.
In considering amendments to the 2015 and 2019 management plans, the BLM will examine new scientific information, including the effects of stressors like climate change, on Greater sage-grouse, to assess what management actions may best support habitat conservation and restoration on public lands to benefit sage-grouse, as well as the people who rely on sagebrush lands to support their livelihoods and traditions.
Earlier this week, a coalition of environmental groups called on the BLM "to use the best available science to conserve sagebrush habitat in the American West to stabilize and increase Greater sage-grouse populations."
The groups continued:
Sage-grouse are an indicator species, whose health reflects the overall condition of the sagebrush steppe. A functioning sagebrush country provides clean drinking water for Western communities, sequesters carbon, reduces wildfire intervals, and is home to more than 350 species of plants and wildlife of conservation concern.
Sage-grouse populations and sagebrush habitat have been in decline for more than five decades. A 2021 report by the U.S. Geological Survey found that sage-grouse populations have declined across the West by more than 80% since 1965, including a 37% decline since 2002. This report came on the heels of another report released by USGS highlighting the loss and degradation of lands in the sagebrush ecosystem. This new information makes review of federal land management plans imperative.
The coalition expects the BLM to present draft habitat management plans for public comment in late 2022.
From Your Site Articles
Kenny Stancil
Kenny Stancil is senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project and a former staff writer for Common Dreams.
Earlier this week, far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert went on a diatribe against Greater sage-grouse conservation efforts but neglected to mention that her husband raked in nearly $1 million over a two-year period from a fossil fuel corporation that stands to lose out if the Biden administration strengthens federal protection of the threatened bird species' sagebrush habitat.
"Her behavior is the epitome of corruption."
"The Biden regime's sage-grouse landgrab policies are not about saving a mediocre bird that is legally hunted in seven states," Boebert (R-Colo.) said in a statement. "Rather, they are about locking up tens of millions of acres of land in the West, closing off mineral and energy development, expanding the federal government's power over rural Colorado, and destroying American jobs."
What went unsaid is that Jayson Boebert works as a consultant for Terra Energy Partners. The oil and gas firm paid him $460,601 in 2019 and $478,386 in 2020--information that Lauren Boebert failed to disclose during her congressional campaign and only reported in financial disclosure forms filed last August.
A new analsysis released Friday by government watchdog Accountable.US shows that Terra Energy has "extensive" lease holdings in Garfield and Rio Blanco Counties in northwest Colorado, precisely where the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering bolstered sage-grouse protections.
"Lauren Boebert would rather use her official position in Congress to go to bat for an energy company that has paid her husband nearly $1 million over the past two years, than to protect Colorado's iconic public lands and habitats for future generations to enjoy with their families," Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, said Friday in a statement. "Her behavior is the epitome of corruption."
According to Accountable.US, Terra Energy has 338 leases from the BLM in Garfield and Rio Blanco Counties, with 5,483 active wells in the former and 388 in the latter.
Approximately 120 of Terra Energy's leases and wells in northwest Colorado "are located in between the towns of Parachute, Rangley, and Meeker," which are home not only to sage-grouse ecosystems but also tens of thousands of acres of priority conservation areas, the watchdog noted. "More protections for sage-grouse in northwest Colorado could hurt Terra's bottom line."
\u201cRep. Boebert dismisses the greater sage-grouse, an indicator species for the West's sagebrush ecosystems, a "mediocre bird"\n\nworth pointing out that Terra Energy, an oil/gas company, pays Boebert's husband nearly half a million dollars per year\nhttps://t.co/rFgCGk5CCp\u201d— Chris D'Angelo (@Chris D'Angelo) 1644357349
Rep. Boebert implied in her statement that new federal protections are a done deal, saying: "By attempting to unilaterally ram through sage-grouse land landgrab (sic) policies, the Biden regime has picked up where the Obama regime left off and shut out the voices of local communities impacted by its one-size-fits-all, draconian overreach."
In fact, the BLM is still in the analysis and document preparation phase of amending its sage-grouse land use plans.
According to the agency:
In order to protect the long-term health of Greater sage-grouse populations, consider new science, and comply with court direction, the BLM is beginning to consider updates to the range-wide management plans for sagebrush habitat adopted in 2015 and amended in 2019. More than 70 resource management plans currently guide habitat conservation and restoration on 67 million acres of Greater sage-grouse habitat the bureau manages in 10 Western states.
In considering amendments to the 2015 and 2019 management plans, the BLM will examine new scientific information, including the effects of stressors like climate change, on Greater sage-grouse, to assess what management actions may best support habitat conservation and restoration on public lands to benefit sage-grouse, as well as the people who rely on sagebrush lands to support their livelihoods and traditions.
Earlier this week, a coalition of environmental groups called on the BLM "to use the best available science to conserve sagebrush habitat in the American West to stabilize and increase Greater sage-grouse populations."
The groups continued:
Sage-grouse are an indicator species, whose health reflects the overall condition of the sagebrush steppe. A functioning sagebrush country provides clean drinking water for Western communities, sequesters carbon, reduces wildfire intervals, and is home to more than 350 species of plants and wildlife of conservation concern.
Sage-grouse populations and sagebrush habitat have been in decline for more than five decades. A 2021 report by the U.S. Geological Survey found that sage-grouse populations have declined across the West by more than 80% since 1965, including a 37% decline since 2002. This report came on the heels of another report released by USGS highlighting the loss and degradation of lands in the sagebrush ecosystem. This new information makes review of federal land management plans imperative.
The coalition expects the BLM to present draft habitat management plans for public comment in late 2022.
From Your Site Articles
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
LATEST NEWS
New Projected Cost of Trump-GOP Tax Cuts for the Rich: 'Staggering' $7 Trillion
"What Republicans are trying to jam through Congress right now is a level of economic recklessness we’ve never seen before," said a group of Democratic lawmakers.
Apr 04, 2025
A new analysis indicates Republicans' plan to extend soon-to-expire provisions of their party's 2017 tax law, as well as their push to tack on additional tax breaks largely benefitting the rich and big corporations, would cost $7 trillion over the next decade, a figure that a group of congressional Democrats called "staggering."
The analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), published on Thursday, updates previous estimates that suggested the GOP effort to extend expiring provisions of the 2017 law would cost $4.6 trillion over a 10-year period. The new assessment shows that extending the law's temporary provisions—which disproportionately favored the wealthy—would cost $5.5 trillion over the next decade.
The projected cost of the GOP agenda balloons to $7 trillion after adding Senate Republicans' call for $1.5 trillion in additional tax cuts in the budget resolution they advanced in a party-line vote on Thursday. The GOP has come under fire for using an accounting trick to claim their proposed tax cuts would have no budgetary impact.
"The Republican handouts to billionaires and corporations will come at a staggering cost, and it's unconscionable that their plan to pay for those handouts includes kicking millions of Americans off their health insurance, hiking the cost of living with tariffs, and driving up child hunger," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) said in a joint statement issued in response to the CBO figures.
"Even after making painful cuts that will inflict hardship on typical American families, Republicans will still risk sending us into a catastrophic debt spiral that does permanent harm to our economy," the Democrats added. "What Republicans are trying to jam through Congress right now is a level of economic recklessness we've never seen before."
The CBO's updated cost analysis came as President Donald Trump plowed ahead with what's been characterized as the biggest tax hike in U.S. history, one that will hit working-class Americans in the form of price increases on household staples and other goods.
Trump administration officials, not known for providing reliable numbers, have claimed the president's sweeping new tariffs could produce roughly $6 trillion in federal revenue over the next decade. The Trump tariffs have sent financial markets into a tailspin, heightened recession fears, and prompted swift retaliation from targeted nations, including China.
In an appearance on MSNBC on Thursday, Boyle—the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee—said Trump's tariffs represent "the single largest tax increase in American history."
"It's a tax that everyone will pay in this country, based on the goods that they buy," said Boyle. "However, it's also a tax that is highly regressive—the poorest amongst us will end up paying a higher percentage of their income."
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The new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator joins "a team of snake oil salesmen and anti-science flunkies that have already shown disdain for the American people and their health," said one critic.
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Echoing a party-line vote by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee last week, the chamber's Republicans on Thursday confirmed President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, former televison host Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Since Trump nominated Oz—who previously ran as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania—a wide range of critics have argued that the celebrity cardiothoracic surgeon "is profoundly unqualified to lead any part of our healthcare system, let alone an agency as important as CMS," in the words of Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
After Thursday's 53-45 vote to confirm Oz, Weissman declared that "Republicans in the Senate continued to just be a rubber stamp for a dangerous agenda that threatens to turn back the clock on healthcare in America."
Weissman warned that "in addition to having significant conflicts of interest, Oz is now poised to help enact the Trump administration's dangerous agenda, which seeks to strip crucial healthcare services through Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act from hundreds of millions of Americans and to use that money to give tax breaks to billionaires."
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CMS is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, now led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who, like Oz, came under fire for his record of dubious claims during the confirmation process. Weissman said that "Dr. Oz is joining a team of snake oil salesmen and anti-science flunkies that have already shown disdain for the American people and their health. This is yet another dark day for healthcare in America under Trump."
In the middle of Trump's tariff disaster, the Senate is voting to confirm quack grifter Dr. Oz to lead the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services.
[image or embed]
— Jen Bendery (@jbendery.bsky.social) April 3, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Oz's confirmation came a day after Trump announced globally disruptive tariffs and Senate Republicans unveiled a budget plan that would give the wealthy trillions of dollars in tax cuts at the expense of federal food assistance and healthcare programs.
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Israel Bombs More Gaza Schools, Killing Dozens, Including Many Women and Children
"While your kids are getting ready for school, kids in Gaza were once against just massacred in one," said one observer.
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Israeli airstrikes targeted at least three more school shelters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing dozens of Palestinians and wounding scores of others on a day when local officials said that more than 100 people were slain by occupation forces.
Gaza's Government Media Office said that at least 29 people—including 14 children and five women—were killed and over 100 others were wounded when at least four missiles struck the Dar al-Arqam school complex in the Tuffah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, where hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering after being forcibly displaced from other parts of the embattled coastal enclave by Israel's 535-day assault.
Al Jazeera reported that "when terrified men, women, and children fled from one school building to another, the bombs followed them," and "when bystanders rushed to help, they too became victims."
A first responder from the Palestine Red Crescent Society—which is reeling from this week's discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of eight of its members, some of whom had allegedly been bound and executed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops—told Al Jazeera that "we were absolutely shocked by the scale of this massacre," whose victims were "mostly women and children."
Warning: Video contains graphic images of death.
Horrifying scenes following the Dar Al-Arqam School Massacre!#Gaza pic.twitter.com/xOvuq3Zztx
— Dr. Zain Al-Abbadi (@ZainAbbadi11) April 3, 2025
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Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Zaher al-Wahidi said that the death toll was likely to rise, as some survivors were critically injured.
Dozens of victims were reportedly trapped beneath rubble of Thursday's airstrikes, but they could not be rescued due to a lack of equipment.
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"While your kids are getting ready for school, kids in Gaza were once against just massacred in one," Australian journalist, activist, and progressive politician Sophie McNeill wrote on social media. "We must sanction Israel now!"
There were other IDF massacres on Thursday, with local officials reporting that more than 100 people were killed in Israeli attacks since dawn. Al-Wahidi said more than 30 people were killed in strikes on homes in Gaza City's Shejaya neighborhood, citing records at al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza.
Al Jazeera reported that al-Ahli's emergency room "is overwhelmed with casualties and, as is so often the case over the past 18 months, the victims are Gaza's youngest."
Thursday's intensified airstrikes came as Israeli forces pushed into the ruins of the southern city of Rafah. Local and international media reported that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families fled from the area, which Israel said it will seize as part of a new "security zone."
Human rights defenders around the world condemned U.S.-backed killing and mass displacement, with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—whose bid to block some sAmerican arms sales to Israel was rejected by the Senate on Thursday—saying: "There is a name and a term for forcibly expelling people from where they live. It is called ethnic cleansing. It is illegal. It is a war crime."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, are fugitives from the International Criminal Court, which last year issued arrest warrants for the pair over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel is also facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
According to Gaza officials, Israeli forces have killed or wounded at least 175,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including upward of 14,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Almost everyone in Gaza has been forcibly displaced at least once, and the "complete siege" imposed by Israel has fueled widespread and sometimes deadly starvation and disease.
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