[via triballaw]
The Southern Ute and Colorado Intergovernmental Agreement Implementation Act of 2004 was signed into law yesterday.
The Act contains language without precedent in the history of Federal Indian Law:
The Administrator is authorized to treat the Tribe as a State for the purpose of any air program applications submitted to the Administrator by the Tribe under section 301(d) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7601(d)) ...
Under the Act, the Southern Ute Tribe has the ability to issue air quality standards and to
issue civil enforcement orders for their violation.
The language quoted above is significantly different from the conditional language that is present in the Clean Air Act.
1980 Settlement Act Maine Tribes take notice. This is what you wanted, not jail time for contempt of a Maine court seeking to enforce Maine's FOIA for paper companies seeking to evade the Federal EPA's water quality controls.
In Federal Indian Law, jurisdiction is everything. This is the shape of a workable future.