Interior

 

Feds Consult Alaska Natives On Climate, Subsistence Food Link. According to Politico, “The Interior and Agriculture departments today dialed up new consultations with tribes and Alaska Natives regarding subsistence hunting and fishing that will include consideration of how climate change is affecting the traditional way of life. The increased nation-to-nation consultations over the Federal Subsistence Management Program will delve more broadly, as well, into Native harvesting of wildlife resources on federal lands, its impact on habitat and its relationship to the state’s own resource management. ‘As climate change continues to threaten our lands, waters, and ways of life, it is incumbent upon the federal government to support Alaska Native communities and ensure they have the resources they need to have sufficient subsistence harvest opportunities and to protect the surrounding habitat,’ Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. The consultations will include discussion of how the Federal Subsistence Board might adapt to better accommodate Native subsistence needs, according to Interior. Strong opinions are likely, as the board has its critics and the issues can hit home for Natives and non-Natives alike.” [Politico, 1/19/22 (=)]

 

Dept. Of The Interior To Host Listening Sessions On Infrastructure And Planning. According to Native News Online, “At the end of the month, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland will lead the first of several discussions with tribes on the implementation of the Infrastructure Bill, the Department of the Interior has announced. In a Jan. 31st consultation, Haaland, who co-chairs the White House Council on Native American Affairs (WHCNAA), will ask tribal leaders to advise the council on how each Nation wants the $13 billion set-aside in the bipartisan bill dedicated to improving roads, expand broadband access, and fund sanitation, water rights, and environmental reclamation projects in their specific area. The session will also focus on President Biden’s Executive Order on Improving Public Safety and Criminal Justice for Native Americans and Addressing the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, according to the Interior’s press release. ‘As we work to tackle public safety and criminal justice issues impacting Indigenous people or the implementation of the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, I’m proud to bring Tribal leaders and government officials together to further invest in our trust relationship,’ Haaland said in a statement.” [Native News Online, 1/19/22 (=)]

 

BLM

 

BLM Launches Foundation To Help Manage Federal Lands. According to Politico, “The Interior Department today launched an independent foundation designed to help the Bureau of Land Management partner with public and private organizations to better manage the 245 million acres it oversees. Former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) — previously BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning’s boss — and Neil Kornze, a former BLM director during President Obama’s second term in office, were named to the board of directors for the new Foundation for America’s Public Lands. The nonprofit foundation, authorized by Congress in 2017, will receive $3 million in seed money that it can use to hire a staff that will work with the bureau ‘to benefit our shared public lands managed by the BLM,’ Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said today during a Zoom conference with reporters. … BLM is the only major federal land management agency without such an affiliated foundation, such as existing foundations benefiting the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Forest Service.” [Politico, 1/19/22 (=)]

 

Governor Steve Bullock Named Founding Board Member In New Bureau Of Land Management Foundation. According to KULR-TV, “Secretary Deb Haaland, the Secretary of the Interior, is taking action to benefit the nation’s public lands with the launch of the Foundation for America’s Public Lands. Per her release this congressionally-chartered, non-profit foundation authorized by Congress in 2017 will help leverage public and private dollars to conserve, protect and restore lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management for the benefit of the American people. Haaland named four founding Board members to the board. Former Montana Governor Steve Bullock, Maite Arce, Neil Kornze, and Stacy Leeds. Bullock served two terms as Montana’s 24th governor from 2013 to 2021. Bullock created a state government position focused on opening up access to public lands, and launched the state’s first Office of Outdoor Recreation. One of the goals of this group will be to carry out activities that advance the purposes for which public land is administered.” [KULR-TV, 1/20/22 (=)]

 

FWS

 

MVP Secures Win From DOI. According to Politico, “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday filed a notice with FERC largely agreeing with the commission’s conclusion that the latest Mountain Valley Pipeline construction plan will not harm any endangered species along its route. The project had filed an amended proposal with the commission last February, and FERC had asked FWS to review its conclusions that the changes would not adversely affect endangered plants or animals in October. The notice comes as the project continues to face legal challenges. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments from the Sierra Club against the project’s proposed southern expansion on Wednesday, and the environmental group filed another lawsuit earlier this month against West Virginia regulators for granting the project a water quality certificate.” [Politico, 1/20/22 (=)]

 

NPS

 

Senators Want NPS To Yank Plaque Honoring White Supremacist. According to Politico, “Maryland’s Democratic senators yesterday introduced a bill that would direct the Interior secretary to remove a bronze plaque and concrete block bearing the name of segregationist Francis Newlands at the Chevy Chase Circle on the border of Maryland and Washington. Newlands created the Chevy Chase Land Co. in the 1890s, seeking to build a neighborhood that would have no Black or Jewish people. After becoming a Democratic senator from Nevada in 1903, Newlands called for the repeal of the 15th Amendment, which gave Black men the right to vote, writing that Black people were ‘a race of children requiring guidance, industrial training and the development of self-control.’ ‘Francis Newlands — who developed Chevy Chase — was a white supremacist who worked to actively ensure his developments were inaccessible to Black, Jewish and working-class families,’ said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who introduced the bill along with Sen. Ben Cardin.” [Politico, 1/19/22 (=)]

 

Congress

 

House

 

Committee OKs Wildlife Bill, But Partisan Divisions Remain. According to Politico, “A committee debate yesterday on a sweeping wildlife conservation bill exposed deep partisan divisions that could stymie success on an otherwise bipartisan proposal. At a markup of the House Natural Resources Committee, Republicans praised the ‘Recovering America’s Wildlife Act,’ H.R. 2773, as necessary to combat the biodiversity crisis and prevent future additions to the list of endangered species. But they also proposed multiple amendments designed to undermine the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act — federal programs Democrats hold dear. The two parties similarly got no closer to an agreement on a suitable offset for the measure’s nearly $1.4 billion in annual spending, a sticking point a majority of Republicans on the committee said they needed in order to ultimately support the legislation. ‘I take the need for offsets very seriously,’ the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), said. It’s unclear what’s next for a bill that supporters have been pushing for more than five years. Advocates on and off Capitol Hill say it would, if passed, constitute one of the most consequential acts of conservation policy in the last century.” [Politico, 1/20/22 (=)]

 

Science Committee Approves Abandoned Well, Energy Bills. According to Politico, “The House Science, Space and Technology Committee approved legislation yesterday to establish a Department of Energy program to study abandoned oil and gas wells and their carbon footprint. The ‘Abandoned Well Remediation Research and Development Act,’ H.R. 4270, would strengthen efforts to find abandoned wells, track their emissions and drive down costs of plugging them. It passed unanimously. The proposal echoes several efforts from this Congress to address national orphaned oil and gas infrastructure and to account for the scale of their methane leakage. That includes a $4.7 billion orphan well section in last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law. But the infrastructure package doesn’t address a ‘knowledge gap’ on orphans across the country, such as how to drive down the cost of cleanup, said one of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.). H.R. 4270 could narrow that gap, she said. Science Committee Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) and ranking member Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) are co-sponsors, along with Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), whose state had a drilling rush in the 1800s and numerous abandoned wells. Lamb said there is an ‘enormous range of uncertainty’ in the orphan well count nationally. ‘One of the big problems with plugging abandoned oil and gas wells is of course locating where they are and how many of them,’ he said.” [Politico, 1/20/22 (=)]

 

DeFazio 'Disappointed' Interior Secretary Won't Give Gray Wolf Emergency Protections. According to KPIC-TV, “Rep. Peter DeFazio said he was ‘disappointed’ after talking to the Biden Administration’s Interior Secretary Deb Haaland about emergency reinstatement of Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf. ‘Secretary Haaland has the power to immediately relist the gray wolf using emergency authority, and I strongly urged her to take this action,’ said the Democrat from Springfield, who is not seeking re-election this year. ‘I am disappointed she has chosen to delay this vital action to stop the slaughter.’ DeFazio and other lawmakers have argued wolf recovery has been endangered by the lifting of protections under the Trump administration - and the current administration’s failure to restore those protections. ‘While I appreciate that Secretary Haaland took the time today to discuss the survival of the gray wolf, I came away from the discussion disappointed,’ DeFazio said in a statement Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022.” [KPIC-TV, 1/19/22 (=)]

 

Analysis

 

Environmental Groups: Biden Administration Has Legal Authority To End Oil And Gas Leasing On Public Land. According to The Hill , “A coalition of more than 300 environmental and tribal organizations on Wednesday issued a legal petition calling on the Biden administration to fully phase out oil and gas production on federal land by 2035. In the petition, participating organizations argued the administration has the legal authority to phase out such activity. The framework they offer argues that the oil and gas industry has already acknowledged the Interior Department’s authority in the matter through the language in the leases they sign. Similarly, the petition notes, ‘for all offshore oil and gas operations, every fossil fuel company has already consented in each signed lease to only produce oil and gas only ‘at rates consistent with any rule or order issued’ by the president.’ It goes on to argue that the industry has already demonstrated its capacity to alter its rate of production at will, as demonstrated by the practice of turning off valves amid Gulf hurricanes, as well as reduced production during the COVID-19 pandemic. The phaseout outlined in the petition calls for a 10 percent annual decline in production over eight years, beginning in 2022, followed by a 3 percent reduction for each year after.” [The Hill , 1/19/22 (=)]

 

 

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