Wyoming Black Hills at Risk to Trump Organization: OST

In January of 2016, the US Forest Service suspended the Draft Environmental Impact Study for a Wyoming Black Hills mountaintop-removal mine that would extract more minerals containing lanthanides like neodymium and praseodymium from the Belle Fourche watershed. 

In 2017 Rare Element Resources said its mine just upstream of the South Dakota border in the headwaters of the Redwater River, a tributary of the Belle Fourche/Cheyenne, announced financial backing from General Atomics and applied for enough water for the mineral separation process despite widespread contamination in Crook County wells. 

As its demo plant at Upton enters operation, Rare Element Resources (RER) announced that its planned rare earth mine in the Bearlodge Mountains has entered a fast-track version of the permitting process but Crook County residents fear RER will destroy roads then walk away after its mine peters out. 

Scientists don't want to live in Wyoming's red state cultural wasteland but in January Crook County Earth hater Ogden Driskill asked the red state legislature $16 million for the Upton plant and in February the state lent the money to RER. The facility has already received over $50 million including $24.2 million from the US Department of Energy and $4.4 million from the Wyoming Energy Authority. 

At least 23 prehistoric sites near Devils Tower National Monument in the Wyoming Black Hills, some of which are archaeological treasures eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, are also at risk to an 8000-acre expansion of Australia’s largest US aquifer uranium mining operation.

Oglala Sioux Tribal Chairman Frank Star Comes Out submitted nine pages of scoping comments Aug. 28 challenging aspects of the proposed Bear Lodge Rare Earth Project in northeastern Wyoming and demanding formal government-to-government consultation before the project advances further through the federal environmental review process. “They have the right to do that because of the 1851 Treaty,” Oglala attorney Mario Gonzalez said. Unlike the normal Forest Service process, no draft EIS will be published and there will be no project-level administrative objections process because the decision will be made by the USDA Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment. In its conclusion, OST demands formal consultation, a full examination of treaty water rights, air quality, cultural and sacred sites and public-health effects, while expressly preserving its ability to challenge the eventual Environmental Impact Statement or Record of Decision. [Oglala Sioux Tribe challenges Bear Lodge rare earth project]

Earth hater Mike Rounds declines debate chance

Unaffiliated US Senate candidate, Brian Bengs took the opportunity to expose short guy career politician and Earth hater, Reich Mike Rounds on Bill Janklow's idea of public teevee.

Sunday, I wrote about how I would participate in a one-man debate on South Dakota Public Broadcasting. I say “one-man” because my opponent, incumbent Senator Mike Rounds, refused to accept the invitation and refused to work out an alternative date.

Fortunately, his absence moved the debate into more of a conversation, which I am much more familiar with from my time standing at the front of classrooms speaking to a hundred or more people. It was a great conversation, and I appreciate the opportunity SDPB provided through their invitation.

In most of my Substack articles, I try to focus on a specific subject. Today will be a little different. I got to make the case for my candidacy to the people of South Dakota. Now, I’d like to make that same case to you. If you happened to tune in to the “debate” last night, this will all sound familiar.

Readers who have kept up with the campaign know that I try to keep a wide view of all issues, because the role of U.S. Senator is an important job that impacts millions of people, not just the constituents in my home state. However, I have four main priorities right now, shaped by the concerns I’ve been hearing on the campaign trail for the last several months:

1. Get Big Money out of politics.

2. Halt new data center construction.

3. Establish term limits.

4. End this forever war with Iran.

Some of these priorities are sweeping issues in our political system that I am running to address, and some are more recent developments that have taken shape over the course of this campaign. However, it all ties into one concept: Corruption.

Corruption has seeped into our politics and planted roots in our government. It is causing our career politicians to focus their attention on interests that do not share the same priorities as regular folks back home.The most clear and plain corruption is the legalized bribery we see through our campaign finance system. Wealthy interests and individuals can write checks for huge sums of money to candidates, while regular people’s voices are crowded out of the room. It needs to be stopped.

It ties into the next point about data centers. As I wrote on Sunday, my opponent has accepted more contributions from Big Tech data center interests than he’s gotten from South Dakotans. They don’t spend that kind of money without a goal in mind, so I think it’s simply logical to pump the brakes on data center construction until we can get a strong, reliable framework of guardrails up to protect local communities. That is the job of a U.S. Senator, and my incumbent opponent isn’t doing it.

Next, term limits. I know this is one of my more contentious position. Many folks argue that with experience comes better governance, but we haven’t seen that in reality. Despite the widespread adoption of the internet decades ago, most of Congress has no idea how it works. With AI on the horizon and the nationwide push from Big Tech for more data centers, do we really want the same career politicians who can’t keep up with the times? I certainly don’t think so.

Finally, this forever war with Iran. It shouldn’t have started in the first place. Congress didn’t fulfill its Constitutional responsibility to approve or disapprove of military action beforehand. It didn’t ask questions like “what are the objectives?” or “what does victory look like?” Now, we’re apparently stuck in an endless war, with diesel prices climbing and pushing up the cost of everything else regular folks need. You might have thought the “Endless War” lesson would have been learned long ago by Washington politicians. You would be wrong.

It all goes back to corruption. Career politicians like my opponent have grown too comfortable in their positions, as their campaigns rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars from Big Money. They’ve abandoned their duties in favor of power, but I’m running to put a stop to it.

South Dakotans want something new. They are as furious as I am that Washington is fueled by corruption. I’ve spoken to thousands and thousands of people who have said so. What started as a little idea to be an Independent voice for South Dakota has grown into a full-blown movement. This November, we’re going to start delivering some real change.

Thank you for reading.

Brian L. Bengs, Lt Col (Ret)

Independent Candidate for U.S. Senate

Mike Rounds thinks it’s appropriate to have a META data center lobbyist on his staff receiving a salary funded by South Dakotan taxpayers.

I’m calling on him to terminate this staffer, release the paperwork that allegedly approved this arrangement, and commit to a ban on… pic.twitter.com/YYLBQ1qRTf

— Brian Bengs (@BrianBengs) September 14, 2026