Government Shutdown

Deluge of trash, poop creates 'worst-case scenario’ “Sitting near a large pile of garbage not far from the Washington Monument yesterday, Debbie Driggers said she understood why National Park Service employees wouldn't bother to haul out the trash during a government shutdown. "They're not going to get paid, so why would they be out here picking it up?" asked Driggers, of Winter Haven, Fla., who was visiting the nation's capital for the first time with her daughter, son-in-law and three granddaughters. At national parks across the country, visitors celebrated the new year by leaving behind a flood of garbage and human waste, prompting health worries and yielding the most tangible evidence yet of the damage inflicted on public lands during the government shutdown now in its 12th day.” [E&E News, 1/2/19 (=)]

Disturbing photos show national parks and monuments overflowing with garbage as the US government shutdown continues. “As the US endures the second week of a partial government shutdown, national parks have taken a major hit. With few rangers or staffers to clean toilets or pick up trash, parks in the American West have started to overflow with garbage and feces.” [Business Insider, 1/2/19 (=)]

How National Parks and Museums Are Affected by the Shutdown. “The answer differs by state. Some states have stepped up to keep parks and monuments functioning: New York state is spending $65,000 a day to operate the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island; Arizona is paying to keep the Grand Canyon open, Puerto Rico agreed to provide up to $80,000 for two weeks of services at the San Juan National Historic Site; Utah has kept visitors’ centers open at Arches, Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks.” [New York Times, 1/2/19 (=)]

Old Post Office Tower at Trump hotel to open during shutdown. “President Trump's last-minute demands for billions in border wall funding triggered the partial federal government shutdown that closed national parks and facilities late last month — but his namesake hotel in the nation's capital will see its own National Park Service site reopen this week. The Old Post Office Tower, which shares facilities with the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, is slated to reopen by Friday thanks to funding from the General Services Administration.” [E&E News, 1/2/19 (=)]

Shutdown disrupts enviro review of future oil development. “At a time when the Trump administration is opening vast swaths of public land for oil and gas leasing, conservationists are raising concerns the government shutdown could stymie mandated environmental review of the March oil lease sales. The 30-day public comment period on most oil lease sales in Western states ended just days before the government shutdown began on Dec. 22. And in some regions in Nevada, the public period ended yesterday and today, creating fears among conservationists that their input would go unnoticed.” [E&E News, 1/3/19 (=)]

National

Interior Secretary Zinke’s parting note has critics seeing red. “Critics say he increased access to public lands for the benefit of the oil and gas industry. Under Zinke, Interior also sought to overturn bans that prevented hunters from killing bears and their cubs as they slept in dens, baiting animals with sweets and shooting them from boats and airplanes. He rejected studies that sought to improve the safety of oil production platforms and probe the health of residents who live near mountains where the tops are blasted off for coal. Responses to Zinke’s tweet with the letter attached, posted at noon, were not kind.” [Washington Post, 1/2/19 (+)]

Ryan Zinke’s Farewell Letter To Trump Gets Brutally Mocked On Twitter. “Ryan Zinke’s farewell letter to the Trump administration has a lot of people seeing red. The outgoing secretary of the interior posted a copy of the letter on Twitter Wednesday, and it looks like he wrote it with what Twitter user Splinter suspects was “a Crayola washable marker.”” [HuffPost, 1/2/19 (+)]

‘Swamp Creature’ Takes Interior Department Reins From Ryan Zinke. “David Bernhardt, the Interior Department’s No. 2 official and a former fossil fuel lobbyist, took over Wednesday as acting secretary after the resignation of scandal-plagued agency chief Ryan Zinke.  With Democrats on Thursday taking back control of the House of Representatives — and the powerful subpoena authority that comes with it — they have vowed to investigate Zinke’s conduct and policy decisions. ” [HuffPost, 1/2/19 (+)]

Trump touts Utah rollbacks in row with Romney. “President Trump today fired back at criticism leveled by Utah Sen.-elect Mitt Romney (R), arguing the former GOP presidential nominee should be a "team player" in the new Congress. Trump, who made the remarks during a televised Cabinet meeting on border security issues, also argued that he maintains "great popularity in Utah" because of his 2017 decision to roll back federal monument protections from more than 2 million acres in the Beehive State (E&E News PM, Dec. 4, 2017). The president's comments came in response to an op-ed Romney authored in The Washington Post yesterday.” [E&E News, 1/2/19 (=)]

Op-Ed, Editorial, and Analysis

Op-Ed: If we take care of the land, it will take care of us. “The executive order rightly identifies the condition of our public lands as a national priority. By taking meaningful action now we can hope to avert tragic and costly disasters, increase water supplies, put carbon back in the ground, create jobs, restore agricultural productivity and improve rural economies. We must take care of the land if we want it to take care of us.” [The Hill, 1/2/19 (+)]

Op-Ed: Ryan Zinke accomplished much during his short tenure. “Under Zinke’s tenure, the Interior Department has also allowed hunting and fishing on more than 5 million acres of federal land. Additionally, Zinke proposed the Public Lands Infrastructure Fund to build much-needed access roads and other projects on public lands. Furthermore, the agency has finally ended its cold war with ranchers across the West. Zinke, unlike his predecessors, has fought to open public lands for cattle grazing. Although Secretary Zinke’s tenure is over, Americans everywhere should be thankful for the numerous free-market, pro-liberty reforms he instituted during his time in office.” [Washington Examiner, 1/2/19 (-)]