What the proposal said, and what the decision did

No figure from the proposal has been checked against the decision on this fight yet. What the record does hold is the issues ledger below.

The Department of the Interior has received a proposed Tribal Energy Resource Agreement (TERA) from the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in Colorado. If approved, it'll allow the Tribe to independently enter into energy leases, business agreements, and rights-of-way on their own lands without needing the Secretary of the Interior's sign-off on each deal. This affects tribal lands within the Southern Ute Reservation and shifts decision-making authority directly to the Tribe.

In the agency’s own words

This notice advises the public that the Department of the Interior (DOI) received a final proposed Tribal Energy Resource Agreement (TERA) for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern Ute Reservation, Colorado (Tribe) to enter into energy-related leases, business agreements, and rights-of-way on Tribal lands, at the Tribe's discretion and without further Secretary's review and approval.

Federal Register 2026-03309 ↗

The groups on this fight

4 groups predicted likely to care in Colorado

Predicted likely to care is a guess from the group's sourced work in Colorado, with no link to this decision. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.

• Rocky Mountain Wild

  Predicted likely to care · a guess

  Colorado BLM Lease Sale, Colorado: Joined the formal challenge to the January 2026 replacement lease sale and previously sued BLM over the Roan Plateau leases.

• San Juan Citizens Alliance

  Predicted likely to care · a guess

  Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Colorado: Shaped the 2010 management plan, has fought oil and gas leasing decisions inside the monument for two decades, mobilized against the 2017 monument review, and states it continues to defend CANM.

• Thompson Divide Coalition

  Predicted likely to care · a guess

  Thompson Divide, Colorado: A conservation group working on Thompson Divide.

• WildEarth Guardians

  Predicted likely to care · a guess

  Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado: Named petitioner against the Uinta Basin Railway over habitat destruction in the basin.

Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.

Who signs it

The notice names no signer PLAN could read. PLAN names a decision-maker only when the document names one.

The ground

The window has closed, so there’s no watch to set on it here.

The photograph on this page: Pronghorn in sagebrush steppe. It’s the country this decision sits in, not the site itself. More Than Just Parks.

In court on this ground

This fight isn’t bound to a land unit in PLAN’s record yet, so there are no court cases to show for its ground.

Who holds the vote

PLAN’s record doesn’t tie a member of Congress to this fight yet. The scorecard grades the votes and bills that decide public lands; nothing joins a vote or a bill to this decision, so there’s no member to name here without guessing.