U.S. Department of the Interior

Arizona’s U.S. senators are urging federal officials to classify copper as a critical mineral amid growing demand. They say it’s necessary for national security and water and clean energy infrastructure.

The U.S. Department of the Interior will allocate tens of millions of dollars in funding for tribal water rights settlements in Arizona and elsewhere.

California released a plan Tuesday detailing how Western states reliant on the Colorado River should save more water. It came a day after the six other states in the river basin made a competing proposal.

Six out of the seven western states that depend on the Colorado River have submitted a plan to cut usage. Federal officials had set a Tuesday deadline amid historically low levels in reservoirs.

Thursday's changes come as part of a yearlong process in which the historically offensive word has been removed from the names of geographic sites across the country.

The word “crisis” ended a Colorado River conference that drew representatives from Southwest U.S. states, tribes and Mexico to Las Vegas this week.

The Biden administration has announced a new fund to assist tribal communities that’ve been severely impacted by climate change.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving a long-running water dispute between the Navajo Nation and the federal government. The tribe says officials have failed to protect their water rights.

The Biden administration's approval of oil leases in a corner of New Mexico that has become a battleground over increased development and the preservation of Native American sites has prompted another legal challenge.

U.S. Interior Department officials say a study designed to mitigate sediment in two reservoirs on the Verde River is among several projects set to receive federal funding from last year’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.