Congress

 

House

 

Republicans To Pick Apart Biden Offshore Drilling Plan — “House Republicans will hold a hearing this week to attack the Biden administration’s five-year offshore drilling plan, which includes a historically low number of expected lease sales. The Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will examine what Republicans are calling ‘the Biden Administration’s Unprecedented Obstruction’ of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s oil and gas leasing program. ‘This plan will go down as one of the great blunders of the Biden administration,’ Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) said ast week. ‘Families are struggling to keep gas in their tanks, yet President Biden refuses to access the abundant energy resources in our own backyard,’ he added. The Interior Department’s plan, released two weeks ago, includes three offshore drilling auctions between 2025 and 2029, satisfying Inflation Reduction Act language requiring the administration to hold at least one offshore oil sale within the year before any offshore wind auctions.” [E&E News, 10/16/23 (=)]

 

 

Department of the Interior (DOI)

 

Biden Admin Escapes Martha's Vineyard Wind Farm Suit — “The U.S. Department of the Interior is off the hook in a suit by Massachusetts fishers groups over a proposed wind farm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, ruling the groups failed to prove the government acted unlawfully. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani granted the government’s motion for summary judgment on Thursday while tossing a cross motion by the fishing groups led by Seafreeze Shoreside Inc. Judge Talwani ruled the groups have not established a strong enough connection between the development of the 800-watt wind farm, the alleged improper biological opinion of the project’s impact on endangered species and the claimed economic harm, for their claims to stand. The court also ruled the groups’ claims under the Endangered Species Act do not demonstrate injury directly from the project on any endangered species. ‘The relationship between the unquantified economic harm plaintiffs will suffer as a result of the project’s possible physical impacts on plaintiff’s preferred trawl fishing area and the agency actions plaintiffs are challenging ... is too attenuated to support either that plaintiff has demonstrated an appropriately particularized injury-in-fact or causation under Article III standing requirements,’ Judge Talwani said.” [Law360, 10/13/23 (=)]

 

 

Advocacy

 

Who Is Somah Haaland, The Activist Daughter Of Biden’s Interior Secretary? — “Radical activism has come to define the Biden administration, and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland could be the poster child. For instance, just last week, the former congresswoman participated in a bizarre video with a drag queen to promote the false narrative that ‘queer rights are more under attack than ever.’ Meanwhile, the connections of Haaland’s activist 29-year-old daughter, Somah, have become a major cause for concern, leading to multiple ethics complaints against the secretary over fears of undue influence. In September, the bilingual Hispanic website ADN America documented Somah Haaland’s relationship with a Cuban solidarity group linked to the communist regime’s intelligence apparatus. The connection stems from Somah’s work for the Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA), a far-left, Albuquerque-based climate group that often advocates issues on behalf of the Laguna Pueblo. As a member of the federally recognized tribe, Secretary Haaland became the first American Indian to lead the agency responsible for U.S.-tribal relations.” [The Federalist, 10/13/23 (-)]

 

 

States & Local

 

Alaska

 

Interior Puts Out Draft Review Of Alaska Mining Road — “The Interior Department has finished a draft of a key environmental review for the Ambler mining road in Alaska, potentially paving the way for final federal approval. Why it matters: If President Biden approves work on the road, it would be a massive win for the global mining industry and the Alaska congressional delegation — but he’d be at odds with allies in environmentalist camps. Driving the news: The Bureau of Land Management just dropped the draft supplemental environmental impact statement for the 211-mile access road. The project, which could enable new mineral exploration in the region, was previously approved under the Trump administration. Interior agreed to complete this extra review after activists challenged the legality of previous analyses. Public comments will be accepted on the draft document through Dec. 19. BLM will also hold public meetings and hearings in Alaska Native communities potentially affected by the project. Between the lines: BLM released the draft shortly after Sen. Lisa Murkowski told Axios she believed Interior Secretary Deb Haaland may have intentionally misled the Energy and Natural Resources Committee about the agency’s timetable for completing it. ‘She was either misleading or she didn’t have the information or she gave me the answer she thought I wanted to hear, rather than what she knew was going to happen, and we’ve not been able to determine which it actually is,’ she said.” [Axios, 10/13/23 (=)]

 

Interior Scrutinizes Proposed Alaska Mining Road In Review — “Ambler Road, a proposed access road to one of the most remote and contentious copper and critical minerals mining districts in Alaska, came a step closer to approval Friday. But the Bureau of Land Management’s draft supplemental environmental review for the Ambler Industrial Access Project says the road would take a toll on the Arctic, including harming caribou herds that Alaska Natives rely upon for survival. The proposed road would stretch about 211 miles across the south flank of Alaska’s Brooks Range. The bureau is expected to make a final decision on whether to build the road near the end ...” [Bloomberg Law, 10/13/23 (=)]

 

BLM Weighs New Routes For Alaska Mining Road — “The Bureau of Land Management is weighing multiple options for how to best route a more than 200-mile road through remote and pristine areas of Alaska to access the Ambler Mining District, but has not ruled out rejecting the project outright, according to an analysis released Friday. In 2022, BLM pulled back a previous approval made during the Trump administration for rights of way for the proposed Ambler Road — a private road for transporting minerals like copper, cobalt and zinc — in order to conduct a supplemental environmental impact statement. In a nearly 1,300-page, four volume draft EIS published Friday afternoon, BLM officials revealed they are weighing the original 211-mile road, as well as two alternate routes and a ‘no action alternative’ that would reject access to federal lands for the road. ‘The decision to be made from this Supplemental EIS process is whether the BLM will reissue, amend, or deny, in whole or in part, authorization of the project,’ wrote BLM Alaska state Director Steven Cohn.” [E&E News, 10/13/23 (=)]

 

Biden’s BLM Issues Grim Report That Is Unfavorable To Ambler Mining Road — “The supplemental environmental impact statement for the Ambler Road to the Ambler Mining District was not favorable. The report was released today by the Bureau of Land Management, a division of the Department of Interior. The road project is proposed by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA). A district court judge sent the matter back for an additional environmental review after the original environmental impact statement in 2020, saying there was inadequate analysis of subsistence impacts under the terms of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. Ambler Mining District is a mineral-rich area that would be able to provide the rare earth and other minerals needed for the Biden Administration’s electric future. Without it, the country will still rely on slave-mined minerals from China. Rep. Mary Peltola has indicated she opposes the road and the mine itself.” [Must Read Alaska, 10/13/23 (-)]

 

Road To Ambler Gets Tougher — “The Interior Department on Friday released its much-anticipated draft supplemental environmental impact statement for the Ambler Road project in Alaska. The new review draws a bleaker picture of the project’s effects on the fragile tundra and local subsistence hunting than the Trump-era review it replaces. That could throw up another roadblock to a project that the developers argue is key to sourcing the minerals needed to meet the Biden administration’s clean energy goals. Interior evaluated three possible alignments for the 200-mile road that’s needed to access to vast reserves of copper and other critical minerals in the isolated Northwest Alaska district, as well as a no-action alternative. Each of the alignments ‘may significantly restrict subsistence uses’ for dozens of small Native American communities due to a decrease in caribou, fish and vegetation, the review found. Interior is expected to issue a final decision in the second quarter of 2024. Ambler Metals, the developer behind the project, is ‘confident we can address any issues raised,’ CEO Ramzi Fawaz said in a statement. ‘This project has been unnecessarily bogged down in federal bureaucracy for years and I urge the Department of the Interior to avoid any further delays in the review process,’ he said. ‘This project is urgent, as it provides access to critical mineral deposits across the region.’” [Politico, 10/16/23 (=)]

 

Giant Open-Pit Mine Near Two National Parks Dealt A Blow By Biden Administration — “A road critical to operating a proposed open-pit mine in a remote part of Alaska hit a new hurdle Friday when the Biden administration issued a finding that the road could threaten Alaska Native communities and their lifestyle more than previously estimated. The Interior Department analysis is not a final decision on the fate of Ambler Road, one of the most high-profile environmental issues in the state. But it poses a setback for a planned 211-mile transportation corridor that would run through one of the largest roadless areas in the country — intersecting Gates of the Arctic National Park — to help a mining company access an estimated $7.5 billion worth of copper north of the Arctic Circle. Originally approved under former president Donald Trump, the road right-of-way was suspended by the Biden administration last year. The Interior Department said it found ‘significant deficiencies’ in the prior environmental review and ordered additional analysis.” [The Washington Post, 10/13/23 (=)]

 

Alaska Federation Of Natives Joins Feds In Case Against State Over Subsistence Rights — “The state’s largest Alaska Native organization this week intervened on the side of the federal government and other groups in a battle with the state of Alaska over subsistence rights and salmon fishing on a Southwest Alaska river. The federal government brought the case against the state last year, after a dispute with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game over which entity has management authority of 180 miles of the Kuskokwim River as it flows through the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. AFN and other groups that have intervened in the case on the side of the federal government have argued that the implications of the case extend well beyond the Southwest Alaska river. They say the state is threatening the legal underpinning of federal subsistence fishing rights that give priority to rural subsistence families in times of shortage.” [Anchorage Daily News, 10/15/23 (=)]

 

Arizona

 

Exclusive: Letter Shows Tribal Talks Advancing Over Ariz. Mine — “The Biden administration is pushing to advance and define consultation with the San Carlos Apache Tribe around a contentious copper mine in Arizona that the tribe says would destroy sacred Apache land, according to a letter obtained by E&E News. Those talks could play a significant role around the timing and outcome of a federal land swap and, ultimately, Resolution Copper’s plan to tap into one of the world’s largest copper deposits in the Tonto National Forest, about 60 miles east of Phoenix. Developers of the project have argued they’ve tweaked the mine plan to protect large swaths of the 4,600-acre area known as Oak Flat, including permanent protections for Apache Leap, where legend says a group of Apaches leapt to their death rather than surrender to the U.S. Cavalry. But members of the San Carlos Apache say the proposal — a joint venture of Anglo-Australian firms Rio Tinto and BHP — would still cause widespread desecration of an area considered sacred and important for coming-of-age rituals and ceremonies, in particular the Oak Flat campground at the forest. The Biden administration, which has vowed to elevate and strengthen tribal consultation, appears to be moving forward carefully.” [E&E News, 10/13/23 (=)]

 

An Unromantic Message From The Grand Canyon: Stop Leaving Your Love Locks — “National Park Service rangers scoured the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in recent weeks, bolt cutters in hand, and took aim at their targets. Hanging from fences were love locks, etched with the names or initials of partners who, perhaps, had seen the vast, everlasting expanse of mudstone beyond the precipice and believed that their love, too, would be as endless. Except the padlocks these visitors had placed were not emblems of passion but simply man-made litter, officials said. ‘Love is strong,’ the Grand Canyon National Park said on Facebook this week. ‘But it is not as strong as our bolt cutters.’ By Friday, rangers had removed dozens of love locks from fences at the Grand Canyon, one of the country’s most beloved national parks and, since around 2006, a magnet for romantic gestures involving the locks.” [The New York Times, 10/14/23 (=)]

 

California

 

‘Every Square Inch Is Covered In Life’: The Ageing Oil Rigs That Became Marine Oases — “On a recent August afternoon, Ann Scarborough Bull motored out two miles from the coast of Santa Barbara aboard a research vessel called the Danny C. The marine biologist and her colleagues had an unusual destination in their sights: a disused oil platform that loomed ahead like a forgotten skyscraper reaching up from the horizon. The team wasn’t interested in the platform itself, but what lurked beneath. When they reached the ageing structure, named Holly, they lowered a car-sized remote- controlled vehicle under the waves. There, they saw hundreds of thousands of juvenile rockfish finding shelter amid the hulking metal structure, alongside waving white anemones, clusters of mussels, and silver jack mackerel. The seasoned marine biologists have been observing this remarkable spectacle for years. Holly, which was put out of use in 2015, is one of 27 oil rigs built off the coast of California decades ago that have become hotbeds of biological activity.” [The Guardian, 10/15/23 (=)]

 

Nevada

 

Tiny Snails Versus Lithium Mine: Environmentalist’s Plan To Sue Over Nevada Mine To Save The Snail — “In an ongoing legal battle with the Biden administration over a Nevada lithium mine, environmentalists are poised to return to court with a new approach accusing U.S. wildlife officials of dragging their feet on a year-old petition seeking endangered species status for a tiny snail that lives nearby. The said in its formal notice of intent to sue that the government’s failure to list the Kings River pyrg as a threatened or endangered species could push it to the brink of extinction. It says the only place the snail is known to exist is in 13 shallow springs near where Lithium Americas is building its Thacker Pass Mine near the Oregon line. President Joe Biden has made ramped-up domestic production of lithium a key part of his blueprint for a greener future. Worldwide demand for the critical element in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries is projected to increase six-fold by 2030 compared with 2020.” [The Washington Times, 10/14/23 (=)]

 

Oregon

 

Oregon Sending Some Of Its Wolves To Colorado — “A shipment of gray wolves is headed from Oregon to Colorado. Gray wolves were native to Colorado, but were hunted to near extinction in the 1940s. Colorado is working to reintroduce them on public lands. Thanks to an agreement between Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the state is capturing and sending up to 10 wolves to Colorado starting in December. OPB reports that the wolves will come from northeastern Oregon. Wildlife officials reportedly say wolf populations are so high there, removing some won’t hurt conservation efforts. The Cowboy State Daily reported that Wyoming and other neighboring states declined to transfer their wolves to Colorado.” [Central Oregon Daily News, 10/11/23 (=)]

 

 

 

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