The Interior Department will consider whether to ban new oil, gas and geothermal leases for 20 years in a remote Western Mountain range dubbed Nevada’s “Swiss Alps.”
The high alpine Ruby Mountains lie in the state’s northeastern corner, about 3½ hours from Salt Lake City in Utah. They are the ancestral lands of the Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada and sit adjacent to the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge, a sweeping wetlands region in the Ruby Valley.
The Biden administration’s move to potentially protect 264,000 acres of the Ruby mountain region from drilling announced Monday is one of its final actions to boost conservation and limit oil and gas drilling auctions across public lands.
The ultimate decision on whether to approve a long-term leasing ban in the Ruby Mountains will be made by officials appointed by President-elect Donald Trump, who has committed to slashing rules that limit drilling on federal lands. Environmental groups, meanwhile, say the Ruby Mountains need to be protected from mining claims, which will not be blocked by the Interior move.
