National News

 

Interior Chief's Former Client Among Firms That Secured COVID-19 Relief. According to The Hill, “Since April 1, the federal government has allowed Samson Resources to hit pause on at least 51 drilling leases belonging, at least in part, to the oil and gas company. Drilling operators can request suspended leases when oil and gas prices are low, allowing them to resume operations when the market is more favorable. The Samson lease suspensions were granted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is overseen by the Interior Department. The BLM says it has evaluated requests for lease suspensions on a case-by-case basis since the start of the pandemic. … Bernhardt worked as a lobbyist for many years and has been known to carry a card listing companies that could cause conflicts of interest so that he can recuse himself from agency dealings with those firms. He lobbied for Samson in 2012 and 2013 on matters relating to Interior and Congress.” [The Hill, 8/6/20 (=)]

 

Senate advances plans for Pendley confirmation hearing. “The Interior Department has submitted to Senate leaders key documents needed to hold a confirmation hearing on William Perry Pendley, President Trump's controversial nominee for director of the Bureau of Land Management. Interior submitted the documents and forms late yesterday to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and ranking member Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a Democratic committee staffer with knowledge of the issue confirmed to E&E News.” [E&E News, 8/6/20 (=)]

 

Bernhardt: Feds using social media to track down 'bad-doers' “Stepping up his defense of national monuments, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt warned that prison sentences await protesters who vandalize them and that federal authorities are monitoring social media feeds to track them down. "We are not messing around: We're not accepting this, and we are going to put these guys in jail," Bernhardt said in an interview on a conservative talk radio station in Wisconsin last week.” [E&E News, 8/6/20 (=)]

 

New BLM HQ quietly slides into full operation. “The Bureau of Land Management has completed its yearlong effort to relocate the bureau's headquarters out of Washington and is now conducting most of its day-to-day operations out of its new home in Grand Junction, Colo., according to a senior Interior Department official. Members of BLM's senior leadership, including Mike Nedd, BLM's deputy director of operations, who oversees the day-to-day operations of the bureau and its more than 9,000 employees, are working permanently at the new headquarters, according to Casey Hammond, the Interior Department's principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management.” [E&E News, 8/6/20 (=)]

 

Court rejects DOJ bid to retry Bundys for armed standoff. “Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his sons will not face a new trial over their armed standoff with federal agents in 2014, after a federal appeals court today rejected a request from the Justice Department to allow a new hearing in the case. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it will uphold a 2018 decision by U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada Chief Judge Gloria Navarro, who declared a mistrial after finding government attorneys withheld key information from defendants.” [E&E News, 8/6/20 (=)]

 

Conservation Jobs Program On The Table In Pandemic Talks. According to E&E News, “It’s far from a done deal: Congressional leaders and the Trump administration are still slogging through negotiations on the next phase of federal relief to address, among other things, the mass unemployment caused by the coronavirus pandemic (see related story). And as lawmakers continue to fight over how expansive the legislative package should be, there’s a chance that the only agreement that can be reached is something too narrow to accommodate more ambitious proposals. But those close to discussions insist there is momentum to include S. 3964, the ‘Cultivating Opportunity and Response to the Pandemic Through Service (CORPS) Act,’ as part of any agreement — with the Democratic majority in the House solidified and a bipartisan coalition in the process of solidifying in the Republican-controlled Senate.” [E&E News, 8/7/20 (=)]

 

Bundy's cattle will graze on after court ruling. “Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy expects to continue to graze his cattle on public lands without interference from the Bureau of Land Management following a court ruling that blocks the Justice Department from pursuing a new criminal trial against the anti-federal government activist. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld a 2018 decision from U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada Chief Judge Gloria Navarro, who declared a mistrial after finding government attorneys withheld key information from defendants (Greenwire, Aug. 6).” [E&E News, 8/6/20 (=)]

 

After A Year On Job, Public Lands Chief Overdue For Confirmation Hearing, Democrats Say. According to Roll Call, “‘After nearly a year as Acting Director, Mr. Pendley’s formal nomination is long overdue, and the public deserves the opportunity to hold him accountable for his record of undermining our public lands,’ nine Senate Democrats from Western states said in a July 21 letter to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and the panel’s top Democrat, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia. At Interior, heads of the BLM and the National Park Service have been operating without that approval but in acting capacities for months or years — practices that violate federal law, according to watchdog groups such as the nonpartisan Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Project on Government Oversight.” [Roll Call, 8/6/20 (=)]

 

State News

 

Nev. firm pauses gold mine expansion. “Nevada's largest gold miner has asked to halt the permitting process for a mine expansion project plagued by water use and endangered species concerns. Nevada Gold Mines asked the Bureau of Land Management to postpone permitting for its Long Canyon mine expansion while the firm studies how to reduce effects on hydrology in northeast Nevada.” [E&E News, 8/6/20 (=)]

 

Vermont Land Conservation Advocates Cheer 'Most Significant' Investment. According to WPTZ-TV, “Advocates for land conservation and public parks celebrated a new federal law they’re calling transformational. It establishes funding mechanisms that will deliver critical support for projects around the nation, many of which have been in the pipeline for years. Advertisement ‘This is a really big deal,’ said Shelby Semmes of The Trust for Public Land. ‘This is the most significant conservation and outdoor recreation investment in a generation, [or] 50 years.’ The Land and Water Conservation Fund has been used to support projects in communities all around the country, including last year’s purchase by the town of Williston, Vermont, of the Catamount Outdoor Family Center. The fund just got a big boost when President Donald Trump signed a law Tuesday that had broad bipartisan support.” [WPTZ-TV, 8/6/20 (=)]

 

Editorial, Opinion, & Analysis

 

Editorial: Trump Picks An Environmental Saboteur To Lead The Bureau Of Land Management. According to Las Vegas Sun, “When President Donald Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act this week, he presented himself as a champion of the nation’s natural areas and the environment. He name-dropped Theodore Roosevelt, not-so-subtly comparing himself to the creator of the national park system. Don’t believe it. Trump hasn’t suddenly had a change of heart in his bid to serve up public lands to oil and gas developers, downsize national monuments and otherwise bespoil our outdoor areas.” [Las Vegas Sun, 8/7/20 (=)]

 

Editorial: A Long-Overdue Investment. According to The Salem News, “Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed into law the Great American Outdoors Act, which will pump roughly $9.5 billion toward repairs and upgrades across the park system, which counts 419 sites and roughly 85 million acres in all 50 states. The investment, which will be spread out over several years, will go a long toward addressing the national parks’ $12 billion maintenance backlog. Make no mistake, this is a remarkable achievement in this historically divided time. Conservationists have tried for decades without success to convince Democratic and Republican administrations that the investment was necessary, and given the partisan divide in Congress, it would have been no surprise if the trend continued. Instead, the measure passed by wide margins in both the House and Senate, and was signed into law earlier this week by President Trump.” [The Salem News, 8/6/20 (=)]

 

Op-Ed: The West’s Growing Outdoor Voting Bloc Poised To Shape 2020 Elections. According to an op-ed by Jennifer Rokala in Campaigns & Elections, “Life as we know it has changed dramatically in a mere five months. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as our daily lives are shifting, so too are the things we prioritize and value most. Our recent Winning the West 2020 poll shows in the midst of a global pandemic voters in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, and Nevada connection to the outdoors has never been deeper and support for public lands conservation is growing. … The positive responses for pro-conservation messages translate into support for policies to keep public lands protected, funded and safe, with two new conservation proposals already gaining popularity. The 30x30 plan to protect 30 percent of America’s land and water by 2030 receives support from 75 percent of Western voters. 64 percent support the goal of making public lands a net zero source of carbon pollution so the positive impacts of forests and land in creating clean air can outweigh the carbon pollution caused by oil, gas and coal extraction.” [Campaigns & Elections, 8/6/20 (+)]

 

Op-Ed: Trump Compares Himself To Theodore Roosevelt While Assaulting His Lifework. According to The Washington Post, “At Tuesday’s signing ceremony for the Great American Outdoors Act, President Trump just couldn’t resist repeatedly comparing himself to Theodore Roosevelt, calling himself ‘the same or almost as good’ as America’s greatest conservation president. This wasn’t the first time Trump and his team have invoked the 26th president. Vice President Pence has made gushing comparisons, as has Ivanka Trump. Interior Secretaries David Bernhardt and Ryan Zinke promised to ‘create a conservation stewardship legacy second only to Teddy Roosevelt.’ On July 3, the president delivered effusive remarks about Roosevelt at Mount Rushmore and afterward relocated his portrait to the Grand Foyer of the White House.” [The Washington Post, 8/6/20 (+)]

 

Op-Ed: Sportsmen Betrayed By Blackburn’s Vote Against Public Lands. According to Tennesseean, “While campaigning to become Tennessee’s next senator, Marsha Blackburn told Tennessee sportsmen she would go to Washington to fight for their best interests. However, when now-Sen. Blackburn had a chance to vote for the most important conservation bills in the last 50 years, she voted no. She was the only member of Tennessee’s congressional delegation to vote against the Great American Outdoors Act, a bill envisioned and championed by the senior senator from Tennessee, Lamar Alexander, and supported by every other member of the Tennessee congressional delegation and President Donald Trump.” [Tennesseean, 8/6/20 (+)]

 

Op-Ed:: Daines Has Abysmal Public Lands Record. According to Helena Independent Record, “Daines should get credit, along with Sen. Jon Tester, for passage of the Great American Outdoor Act, which includes full, permanent funding of LWCF. But Daines’ support for LWCF is but a blip in an abysmal public lands record, a record that includes voting twice against reauthorizing LWCF. Not until he was publicly held accountable for those 2015 LWCF votes did he eventually come around to supporting the program.” [Helena Independent Record, 8/6/20 (+)]

 

Op-Ed: More federal funding for national parks as people are using them more. “Here in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, partners are working hard to protect remaining forests and natural lands near our rivers so that we can limit the amount of pollution that reaches the bay and protect our wildlife. In a fast-growing region like the Washington, D.C. metro area, we need all the support we can get. Passing the Great American Outdoors Act is an enormous win for nature, for local economies, and for our people here in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and across the country.” [Baltimore Sun, 8/6/20 (+)]

 

Op-Ed: A ‘No’ Vote On U.S. House Public Lands Bill Was The Right Vote. According to Tri-City Herald, “President Trump this week signed the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), legislation that passed Congress comfortably and, in the tradition of beltway policymaking, is named as if it has the noblest of intentions. However, the Great American Outdoors Act contains a number of harmful provisions — including instituting new mandatory spending — and the members of Congress who voted against it made the right call. Sunnyside’s own Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse’s ‘no’ vote on the GAOA should be commended.” [Tri-City Herald, 8/6/20 (-)]

 

 

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