White House

 

Biden Wants More ‘Debt-For-Nature’ Swaps — “President Joe Biden wants more opportunities for countries to swap their debt in exchange for commitments on climate and biodiversity. The president views those ‘debt-for-nature’ swaps as ‘a ripe area for considerable growth,’ he said Friday as he hosted a summit of Western Hemisphere leaders at the White House. The United States is ‘working with the Inter American Development Bank to establish a fund for nature to seed more investment in nature-based climate solutions by debt-for-nature swaps and blue and green bonds,’ Biden said Friday. He’s supported such debt-for-nature swaps dating back to his days as a U.S. senator representing Delaware, the president said. ‘Investors are eager to support projects with demonstrated potential,’ Biden said. ‘And by providing early-stage funding and technical assistance, we will help more promising climate solutions get off the ground than ever before.’ He referred to a ‘trailblazing deal’ announced earlier this year to restructure Ecuador’s international debt.” [E&E News, 11/3/23 (=)]

 

 

Congress

 

Senate

 

Hearing To Examine Coal Mine Cleanups, Community Aid — “The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will examine the federal government’s program in cleaning up abandoned coal mines and a related effort to help distressed coal communities. The hearing Thursday will likely focus on work since the bipartisan infrastructure law reauthorized a fee on coal mining companies to clean up sites abandoned before the landmark 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. In addition to extending the Office of Surface Mining’s Abandoned Mine Land program, the law approved more than $11 billion to boost cleanups. The landmark reauthorization, years in the making, came after Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and ranking member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) crafted a bipartisan deal. The accord lowered the fee on mining companies, many of which are struggling to stay alive. Geography has also long been a factor in the debate. While many abandoned coal mine pollution is in the East, much of the nation’s coal is now produced in the West. ‘I cannot wait to see how this critical funding positively impacts the lives and futures of West Virginians while helping revive the land and nature we love in our beautiful state,’ Manchin said this summer when announcing the state would get more than $140 million in fiscal 2023.” [E&E News, 11/6/23 (=)]

 

Building The Wind Workforce — “On the heels of a bad news week for offshore wind, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Friday reintroduced a bill that would send $25 million a year to the Labor Department for a grant program aimed at growing the offshore wind workforce. The grant program would support training for new and current workers, tuition financing and apprenticeship programs. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) co-sponsored the bill.” [Politico, 11/6/23 (=)]

 

House

 

House Passes Interior-EPA Funding Bill With Steep Cuts — “The House on Friday voted 213-203 to approve a $25.4 billion fiscal 2024 funding bill for the EPA and Interior Department, a measure that would dramatically slash funds for the agencies and the Biden administration’s climate change priorities, but which has no hope of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed by President Joe Biden. Overall, the Republican bill is more than $21.3 billion below Biden’s budget request for the two agencies and would cut overall agency spending by more than $13.4 billion from the previous year’s allocation. Amendments attached to the bill would further reduce the departments’ budgets by tens of millions of dollars. … It would also require Interior to boost fossil fuel production and tamp down on renewable energy projects. Democrats lambasted the cuts, saying they would result in environmental degradation. ‘It’s not just a step backward,’ House Natural Resources ranking member Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said on the floor. ‘It’s a dismantling of basic public health and environmental’ policy.” [Politico, 11/3/23 (=)]

 

House Sends Interior-EPA Bill Off To Uncertain Future – “The bill, H.R. 4821, also would rescind $9.4 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding provided to EPA, the Presidio Trust and the Council on Environmental Quality. … But the amendments to reduce salaries to $1 for top-level officials including Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning all fell by large bipartisan margins. … A fluctuating group of 20 to 30 House Republicans joined unified House Democrats to turn back the amendments that also included bids to impose an additional 16 percent funding reduction, cut funds for EPA’s Clean School Bus Program and prohibit spending on the Antiquities Act of 1906, among other proposals. … The underlying bill also includes a number of policy riders, from one preventing the Fish and Wildlife Service from banning lead ammunition and fishing tackle on refuges unless certain conditions are met to one prohibiting the listing of the dunes sagebrush lizard under the Endangered Species Act.” [E&E News, 11/3/23 (=)]

 

House Approves Funding Bill Slashing EPA Budget To 1990 Levels, Expanding Domestic Energy Production — “The House passed a sweeping appropriations bill Friday morning that would substantially slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget and ensure that the Department of the Interior (DOI) expands energy and mineral production on public lands. In a 213-203 vote Friday, the House approved the Fiscal Year 2024 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, a standalone bill to fund the DOI, its subagencies, the EPA and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The White House threatened this week to veto the legislation — which just one Democrat, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, voted for — and said Republicans were ‘wasting time’ with it. ‘I am pleased to see the House pass my Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, and I thank my colleagues for their support of this fiscally responsible legislation,’ said Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, the chairman of the House Appropriation Committee’s Interior and Environment Subcommittee. ‘As Chairman of this subcommittee, I vowed to create a bill that reduces unnecessary federal spending while prioritizing the critical needs and essential functions within these agencies,’ he continued. ‘This bill does just that by reining in the Environmental Protection Agency, fighting the misguided Obama-era Waters of the United States rule, and barring an Endangered Species Act listing of the greater sage grouse.’” [Fox News, 11/3/23 (-)]

 

Democrats Fear Shutdown As House Slashes EPA’s FY24 Spending Plan — “House Democrats are warning that the government will shut down when current spending approval expires Nov. 17 after Republicans, on a near-party-line vote, approved a bill that slashes EPA spending for fiscal year 2024 by nearly 40 percent from current levels, a cut that President Joe Biden has pledged to veto and the Senate will not consider. ‘Continuing to consider these extreme Republican bills only brings us closer to a shutdown. We continue to waste our time debating partisan policies instead of coming together to write bills that can earn the bipartisan, bicameral support needed to become law. It is past time for House Republicans to meet House Democrats at the negotiating table,’ Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a Nov. 3 statement. Her comments came shortly after the House voted 213-203 to approve H.R. 4821, the Interior-Environment Appropriations bill for FY24. Three Republicans -- Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Mike Lawler (NY) and Marc Molinaro (NY) -- voted against the bill, while Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) backed the bill.” [Inside EPA, 11/3/23 (=)]

 

Republican Calls Out GOP Colleague To His Face — “Representative Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, called out a fellow GOP lawmaker to his face on Thursday over his tactics against the Biden administration. Simpson, who represents Idaho’s Second Congressional District, slammed an amendment proposed by Representative Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican, aimed at lowering the salary of Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to only $1, raising questions about its constitutionality during remarks on the House floor Thursday night. Conservatives in recent weeks have deployed the tactic of introducing amendments to reduce Biden administration salaries to a single dollar over their opposition to their policies. Even if these amendments were to pass the House, where Republicans have a slight majority over Democrats, but do not appear united on the tactic, they would almost certainly fail in the Senate, where Democrats hold the majority. Norman explained the amendment was to provide Haaland, who is currently paid $221,400, a ‘chance for volunteerism and doing well for mankind.’ He defended the bill by pointing out her views on energy and environmental policy, such as past support for the Green New Deal, a massive piece of climate legislation embraced by progressives, and opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.” [Newsweek, 11/3/23 (+)]

 

GOPers Team Up With Dems To Block Amendments Sapping Salaries Of Key Biden Bureaucrats — “Numerous House Republicans joined Democratic representatives in voting down several bill amendments designed to strip the salaries of some of President Joe Biden’s most powerful bureaucrats, according to Just the News. Conservative members of the Republican caucus introduced the amendments to the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024, which appropriates funding to environment-related federal agencies, to effectively eliminate the salaries of key bureaucrats in agencies covered by the appropriations bill under the Holman Rule, according to Just the News. However, all of the attempts to do so were shot down by bipartisan voting blocks that easily outnumbered supporters of defunding the officials. Republican Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina proposed an amendment to cut the salary of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan to $1, but it failed by a 150-265 vote after 60 Republicans sided with Democrats to kill the amendment, according to Just the News. Norman also introduced two other amendments proposing to reduce the salaries of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning to $1 each, but those amendments also failed.” [The Daily Caller, 11/3/23 (-)]

 

Committee To Vote On Rice’s Whale, Fracking, Drought Bills — “The House Natural Resources Committee will vote on legislation Wednesday against greater protections for the endangered Rice’s whale. Other legislation set to be considered is a pro-fracking bill and a bipartisan drought relief plan. H.R. 6008, from Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), would prevent more stringent whale conservation requirements for oil and gas companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Litigation surrounding Biden administration efforts to protect the animal delayed a major offshore oil and gas drilling auction, enraging fossil fuel champions in Congress. ‘[The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management] is once again blaming the courts for delaying the sale, but the delays are entirely the Administration’s fault,’ said Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in a statement last week. Green groups say the House bill would leave the endangered mammals unprotected from oil spills and vessel strikes.” [E&E News, 11/6/23 (=)]

 

House Sets Vote On Pumped Storage, Monuments Bills — “The House this week will vote on a bipartisan bill to expand pumped storage energy production in Arizona, along with a host of other public lands legislation. The chamber is set to take up H.R. 1607, a bill co-sponsored by Arizona Reps. David Schweikert (R) and Greg Stanton (D), to expand the Salt River Project’s pumped-storage hydropower facilities. The vote will come under an expedited procedure for noncontroversial bills, known as suspension of the rules, requiring a two-thirds margin. The measure, which earned an endorsement from the Bureau of Reclamation during a House hearing earlier this year, would allow the Biden administration to withdraw National Forest System lands for the project’s footprint.” [E&E News, 11/6/23 (=)]

 

House Passes Measure Blocking Biden Administration Ban On Plastic Straws — “The House advanced a measure that would prohibit the Biden administration from implementing a ban on plastic straws as part of a provision in a larger spending bill that could get struck down in the Senate. Lawmakers passed its seventh appropriations bill on Friday, advancing a $34.8 billion measure to fund the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and a number of related agencies. Included in that bill is an amendment proposed by Rep. John Rose (R-TN) that would prevent the Interior Department from banning the sale of plastic straws on public lands and in national parks. ‘On every issue, the Biden Administration puts progressive politics over science,’ Rose said in a statement. ‘Whether it be electric vehicles or plastic straws, President Biden is committed to advancing his progressive priorities at the cost of their ineffectiveness and unpopularity. In Congress through the appropriations process, I will work to ensure these draconian, heavy-handed approaches never see the light of day.’ The legislation comes in response to an announcement from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in June that the Biden administration would implement a plan to phase out single-use plastics on public lands by 2032. The department finalized that plan in September, detailing different ways to cut down on the distribution of single-use plastic on department-managed lands.” [Washington Examiner, 11/3/23 (-)]

 

 

Department of the Interior (DOI)

 

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

 

Stone-Manning: Collaboration To Play Large Role In BLM Efforts — “When diverse groups collaborate, they can solve parts of their own problems, and sometimes, they can also help out struggling agencies like the Bureau of Land Management. On Thursday, that’s what BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning told about 130 participants who gathered at the Hilton Garden Inn for a two-day workshop sponsored by the Montana Forest Collaboration Network and the Idaho Forest Restoration Partnership. The Montana Forest Collaboration Network includes 23 w0rking groups from the Yaak in the northwest to the Custer-Gallatin in south-central Montana. ‘It is safe to say that (the BLM) has more than enough to keep us busy and a relatively small team with which to do them. Which is why our agency leans heavily on the good work of partners, like many of you, who want to work on improving the health of our public lands,’ Stone-Manning said. Stone-Manning was the keynote speaker of the 8th annual workshop on collaboration and the 3rd that brought together land agencies, county commissioners and nonprofit groups from both Montana and Idaho to develop better relationships and methods to achieve collaboration on various issues although the emphasis is on forest management.” [Missoula Current, 11/3/23 (=)]

 

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)

 

BOEM Postpones Gulf Of Mexico Lease Sale — “In a statement posted on its website on Thursday, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced that it is postponing Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 261, ‘as a result of the order issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on October 26, 2023, in Louisiana v. Haaland (Case No. 23-30666)’. ‘Until the court rules, BOEM cannot be certain of which areas or stipulations may be included in the sale notice,’ BOEM noted in the statement, adding that potential bidders in Lease Sale 261 should not submit bids until BOEM provides additional instruction. ‘BOEM will hold any bids already received and will hold the sale after it receives further direction from the Court of Appeals,’ the organization said in the statement. Lease Sale 261 was originally scheduled for September 27, then scheduled for November 8, in response to judicial orders, BOEM highlighted in the statement.” [Rigzone, 11/3/23 (=)]

 

‘Overtures To Dictators And Despots’: NOIA President Slams US Gulf Lease Sale Latest Postponement — “‘Until the court rules, BOEM cannot be certain of which areas or stipulations may be included in the sale notice. Potential bidders in Lease Sale 261 should not submit bids until we provide additional instruction,’ the bureau said on Thursday. ‘BOEM will hold any bids already received and will hold the sale after it receives further direction from the Court of Appeals.’ The move was slammed by NOIA president Erik Milito. ‘Once again, the Administration is standing against domestic oil and gas production. The Administration is simply choosing to delay this lease sale, which follows in their pattern of opposing new domestic oil and gas lease opportunities,’ Milito said. ‘There are zero legal or operational constraints preventing Interior from proceeding with the lease sale pursuant to the 5 October Final Notice of Sale. The delay is especially concerning in light of the geopolitical upheaval and fragility in oil markets due to burgeoning armed conflicts in multiple oil-producing regions,’ he added.” [Upstream, 11/3/23 (-)]

 

Op-Ed: BLM Should Strengthen Its Methane Waste Prevention Rule — According to Sandra McCardell, “As business owners and longtime residents of New Mexico communities, we know of the impacts of methane waste and pollution on our state and the people who live near well sites. The Bureau of Land Management’s draft methane waste rule has implications for everyone, and it is crucial that the agency strengthens this rule to better protect taxpayers, communities, and our environment. Thousands of Americans, including community, faith, and tribal leaders, as well as elected officials across the West, have submitted comments to the BLM urging the agency to strengthen its draft rule. While the proposed rule takes steps to reduce oil and gas waste, it falls short of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s duty to eliminate the waste of public and tribal resources from routine venting and flaring and ensure a fair return to taxpayers. In 2019 alone, oil and gas companies wasted over $500 million worth of gas on public and tribal lands.” [Albuquerque Journal, 11/4/23 (+)]

 

Bureau of Reclamation (BOR)

 

New Colorado River Cuts — “The Interior Department on Friday announced $63 million in new water conservation agreements along the shrinking Colorado River in Arizona. The new agreements with seven water users along the Colorado — including the Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drainage District and San Carlos Apache Tribe — will conserve up to 162,710-acre feet of water in Lake Mead through 2026 in exchange for money from the Inflation Reduction Act, Interior said. The contracts are part of states’ short-term voluntary agreement in May to conserve 10 percent of their river water over four years in exchange for $1.2 billion in federal funding. Interior still has yet to sign several contracts with major water users to implement the cuts, including with the Imperial Irrigation District in California, which uses more water than the states of Arizona and Nevada combined.” [Politico, 11/6/23 (=)]

 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)

 

Op-Ed: Endangered Species Act Lacks Clarity, Has Low Success Rate — According to Rachel Gabel, “The Endangered Species Act was established in 1973 in response to declining populations of species of plants and animals, and this year marks its 50th anniversary. The Act is stringent in its language, but it lacks a clear path and clear thresholds for species to be considered recovered and to be delisted. An ESA listing ought not be one for perpetuity. The 1970s ushered in not only the ESA, but also the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. Kaitlynn Glover, executive vice president of the Public Lands Council said the Acts all brought forth statutory requirements for the landscapes around the country and their management. Though these are applied nationwide, the West tends to be particularly affected based on the vast number of federal lands acres and the presence of some of the iconic species on the ESA list like the bald eagle, grizzlies, and wolves. Though it is the species listed via ESA, the mechanism for protection and recovery is management of the habitat.” [Greeley Tribune, 11/4/23 (-)]

 

 

Courts & Legal

 

Slight Change To Dakota Access Pipeline Comment Meeting Format, Army Corps Says After Complaints — “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the wake of complaints, changed the format of oral testimony for public comments on a draft environmental review of the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline. The Corps held two meetings in Bismarck, on Wednesday and Thursday, for public comments on the document that will help determine whether the federal government grants the easement for the pipeline’s crossing under the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The tribe has long opposed the pipeline due to the risk of an oil spill. Pipeline opponents had criticized the Wednesday meeting because oral testimony was only accepted in private to stenographers in a curtained area in a hotel ballroom. Many people spoke to the room outside of the curtained area, but what they said was not included as official testimony. For example, one man made a demonstration of challenging Corps officials to drink from a cup in which he had poured oil and water. On Thursday, attendees were given the option to include what they said to the public as their official comment, The Bismarck Tribune reported.” [Associated Press, 11/4/23 (=)]

 

 

Energy Industry

 

Offshore Wind Projects Face Economic Storm. Cancellations Jeopardize Biden Clean Energy Goals — “The cancellation of two large offshore wind projects in New Jersey is the latest in a series of setbacks for the nascent U.S. offshore wind industry, jeopardizing the Biden administration’s goals of powering 10 million homes from towering ocean-based turbines by 2030 and establishing a carbon-free electric grid five years later. The Danish wind energy developer Ørsted said this week it’s scrapping its Ocean Wind I and II projects off southern New Jersey due to problems with supply chains, higher interest rates and a failure to obtain the amount of tax credits the company wanted. Together, the projects were supposed to deliver over 2.2 gigawatts of power. The news comes after developers in New England canceled power contacts for three projects that would have provided another 3.2 gigawatts of wind power to Massachusetts and Connecticut. They said their projects were no longer financially feasible. In total, the cancellations equate to nearly one-fifth of President Joe Biden’s goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030.” [Associated Press, 11/4/23 (=)]

 

 

States & Local

 

Arizona

 

Interior Pays $63M For Arizona Water Conservation — “The Interior Department unveiled $63.4 million in new agreements to conserve Colorado River water flowing through Arizona, as the Biden administration continues to negotiate the future of the shrinking waterway. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton visited Arizona to meet with Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) and other state and tribal leaders to announce the agreements that will save nearly 163,000 acre-feet of water for storage in Lake Mead through 2026. An acre-foot of water is equal to about 326,000 gallons of water, or enough to support two to three families for a year. That same amount of water could fill more than 65,000 5-gallon utility buckets. The deals include payments to the Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drainage District, Mohave Valley Irrigation and Drainage District, San Carlos Apache Tribe, Hopi Tribe, Cibola Valley Irrigation and Drainage District, Spanish Trail Water, and Cathcart Farms. ‘Addressing the drought crisis requires an all-hands-on-deck moment, and close collaboration among federal, state, Tribal and local communities. We are excited to see so many Arizona entities committing to system conservation and partnership,’ Touton said in a statement.” [Bloomberg, 11/3/23 (=)]

 

Lawsuit Targets Grazing Impacts To Sensitive Arizona Birds — “Environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Bureau of Land Management and Fish and Wildlife Service of allowing cattle grazing to degrade habitat for two endangered birds along Arizona’s Gila River. Specifically, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Maricopa Audubon Society lawsuit targets seven federal grazing allotments stretching along 15 miles of the Gila River that are home to the federally listed southwestern willow flycatcher and the western yellow-billed cuckoo. BLM and FWS, during Endangered Species Act consultation, had previously ‘determined that the effects of domestic livestock grazing are not likely to adversely impact these species or adversely modify their designated critical habitat’ as long as livestock were excluded from grazing along these sections of the river during most of the spring and summer, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. But the Center for Biological Diversity says in the complaint that it conducted field surveys last year of ‘cattle impacts in riparian critical habitat for the Flycatcher and the Cuckoo on BLM-managed grazing lands’ and found ‘cattle present in Flycatcher and Cuckoo critical habitat during the non-grazing season.’” [E&E News, 11/3/23 (=)]

 

California

 

Southern California Just Secured A Lot Of Power From The US’s Largest Clean Energy Transmission Project — “Clean Power Alliance, California’s fourth-largest electricity provider, is going to source power from SunZia, the US’s largest clean energy transmission project. Clean Power Alliance (CPA) supplies electricity to 30 cities across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and it’s signed a 15-year power purchase agreement with SunZia’s developer, Pattern Energy Group. The SunZia project is made up of two arms: SunZia Wind and SunZia Transmission. It will provide CPA with 575 megawatts (MW) of wind energy, which is 16% of SunZia’s overall capacity and enough to power 265,834 homes in Southern California annually. The wind power will be carried over the SunZia Transmission line, enabling power delivery from SunZia Wind directly into the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) energy market. SunZia Wind is the largest wind project in the Western Hemisphere. The 3,500-MW wind farm sprawls across New Mexico’s Torrance, Lincoln, and San Miguel counties.” [Electrek, 11/3/23 (+)]

 

A California Town Was Leveled By A Wildfire. Three Years On, It Feels The World Has Forgotten — “An eight-mile wall of flames. Nearly 200,000 acres burned in 24 hours. Sixteen deaths. In any other modern decade, the events that unfolded in and around Berry Creek, California, in 2020 would have stood apart for their sheer devastation. But that year, the American west was grappling with a hellish barrage of wildfires that turned the skies an eerie orange, sent tens of thousands fleeing and killed groves of California’s iconic trees. Berry Creek became yet another casualty of the state’s largest recorded fire season. Three years on, the hamlet, a hardy but impoverished community two hours north of Sacramento, has struggled to recover. Massive financial support never came. The schoolhouse and gas station have not returned. Many residents did not have insurance and are living in trailers and RVs until they can afford permanent housing. ‘We haven’t honestly had very much help,’ said Tami DePalma, a 57-year-old caretaker who has lived on the mountain for about seven years. Her house burned down in the fire and she’s camping on her land in a fifth-wheel trailer while saving money to cover the cost of a new building permit. ‘We are the forgotten fire,’ she said.” [The Guardian, 11/6/23 (=)]

 

Maine

 

House Republicans Rebuff Move By Golden To Block Offshore Wind In Gulf Of Maine Lobster Area — “Majority Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives rejected an attempt by Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, to use federal spending to block offshore wind development in a lobster fishing area of the Gulf of Maine. Golden, who tried to amend 2024 appropriations legislation for the Department of Interior, said he will try again to bar offshore wind development in what’s known as Lobster Management Area 1. His measure sought to prevent funding to lease, license, permit or provide any authorization to develop offshore wind energy that could jeopardize lobster fishing. ‘Offshore wind development in the Gulf’s most productive fishing grounds is a threat to Maine fishermen’s way of life,’ he said Thursday in a prepared statement. ‘House GOP members say they are opposed to offshore wind, but given this opportunity to close these fishing grounds to offshore wind, they failed to deliver.’ Rep. Michael Simpson, R-Idaho, and chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Department of the Interior and other agencies, said the legislation ‘prioritizes critical needs’ within reduced spending guidelines and addresses ‘interests and concerns’ in more than 8,000 requests by House members.” [Portland Press Herald, 11/2/23 (=)]

 

Minnesota

 

Twin Metals Fights For Minnesota Copper/Nickel Leases — “The US Interior Department cancelled the leases for an underground mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Antofagasta-owned Twin Metals has moved to defend its mineral leases in north-east Minnesota from ‘unlawful federal agency action’. The company on Friday filed a notice of appeal in the US Court of Appeals, following the dismissal of its lawsuit by a US District Court judge last month. Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, DC, in September dismissed Twin Metals’ 2022 lawsuit, which challenged the US Interior Department’s earlier decision to cancel leases for an underground mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The Interior Department cancelled the leases and other mining approvals after determining they were illegally renewed despite US Forest Service objections related to concerns that mining could pollute the wilderness’s streams and lakes with potentially toxic waste.” [Mining Weekly, 11/4/23 (=)]

 

Nevada

 

Billionaire Proposes Massive Nevada Land Trade With Federal Government — “In the 19th century, the federal government, looking to boost railway construction across the relatively undeveloped West, offered railroad companies an incentive: Expand the rail lines and receive alternating sections of land along the railway corridor. The railway companies delivered, laying thousands of miles of track, and in return they received square-mile plots surrounding the tracks. Decades later, portions of the West are a mishmash of public and private land. Known by the ‘checkerboard’ appearance it creates on a map, the intermingling of public and private land has resulted in some parcels that are landlocked and inaccessible, frustrating public land users. In Nevada, more than 2 million acres of public land are landlocked and inaccessible. For public land managers and ranchers, it can be a logistical nightmare, with projects fragmented by alternating federal and private land ownership. ‘We were really dealt a tough hand when the federal government decided they would divvy up the West in that checkerboard pattern,’ said Wyatt Anthony, land manager for Kroenke Ranches, which includes Elko County’s 1.2 million-acre Winecup Gamble Ranch. ‘All of us have been left with a difficult situation.’” [The Nevada Independent, 11/4/23 (=)]

 

BLM Sells Hundreds Of Acres In Las Vegas Valley — “The Bureau of Land Management has officially sold 589 acres located throughout the Las Vegas Valley for a total of $93 million. The size of the parcels were mostly small except one, 505 acres located just to the east of Red Rock Canyon and west of Interstate 215 for $55 million to Lawrence Canarelli, a prominent Las Vegas real estate developer. Some of the BLM land was originally announced it would be going up for auction this July. Canarelli didn’t respond to a request for comment, but based on the acreage and other uses in the area the land will likely be developed into housing. In a press release for the sale of the land, the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management stated the ‘competitive online sale’ originally offered 16 parcels, totalling 670 acres. ‘The sale of this public land within a congressionally-designated disposal boundary will generate funding to enhance recreation opportunities, promote species and habitat conservation and reduce the threat of wildfire in locations across the state,’ said the release, noting that the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act of 1998 allows them to sell public land within specific boundaries in the valley.” [Las Vegas Review-Journal, 11/3/23 (=)]

 

New Jersey

 

NJ Advance Media | N.J. Will ‘Fight Like Hell’ To Keep $300M From Offshore Wind Developer That Walked Away — “Construction on offshore wind turbines at the Jersey Shore won’t happen in 2024 as planned and the aftershock of the news is still being felt — including how exactly the dust will settle on $300 million set aside for the project. Earlier this week, Danish developer Ørsted announced it will abandon a years-in-the-making offshore wind farm, long-promised by Gov. Phil Murphy and what would have been a watershed moment in New Jersey’s clean energy aspirations.” [NJ.com, 11/4/23 (=)]

 

New Mexico

 

Editorial: Attorney General Defends Public Lands — “Public lands and waterways are for the public, but with the passing of generations have come shifting attitudes among property owners about public access and a growing willingness to deny access when it comes to crossing their land, typically citing issues of privacy and safety, equivalent to locking the entrance to their home. Some landowners have complained of poor behavior, littering and property destruction, and a lack of law enforcement in these more remote areas. As gates and fences proliferate, however, they threaten to foreclose public lands for walking and wading, for lawful fishing and recreation; and sometimes present safety hazards of their own. The New Mexico Supreme Court affirmed in a ruling last year that access to public waterways is a right of the people under New Mexico’s Constitution, although trespassing on private land to reach them is not. Still, access to certain streams has been effectively closed off, and this week Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a civil claim against a group of landowners near the Pecos River seeking to enforce the law and open access to the waterway.” [The Deming Headlight, 11/4/23 (+)]

 

New York

 

Pressure Builds On New York To Rescue Biden’s Climate Plan — “In the long-running sibling rivalry between New Jersey and New York, the Garden State finally thought it had the upper hand. The state, led by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, decided it could become one of the greenest in the country with offshore wind as its main pillar. But Murphy’s ambitious plans to make New Jersey’s power supply carbon-free by 2035 collapsed days ago when the developer Ørsted canceled two of the state’s three offshore wind projects. Now, if President Joe Biden ever wants to meet his energy goals for the nation, New York and other Northeastern states are going to have to pick up New Jersey’s slack. And New York — the bigger sibling, the one with more money, more power and more attention — is poised to snatch away factories and jobs that New Jersey hoped for. ‘We’re certainly the state with the greatest ambition at this point,’ said Fred Zalcman, director of the New York Offshore Wind Alliance, which advocates for the industry. New York has a lot riding on the success of offshore wind too. New efforts to save or replace at-risk projects the state has already approved are even more important after the New Jersey projects evaporated.” [Politico, 11/4/23 (=)]

 

Virginia

 

Largest U.S. Offshore Wind Project Is On Track, Dominion Says — “Dominion Energy executives said Friday that the nation’s largest planned offshore wind project remains on schedule and on budget, giving the industry a boost at a time it has been plagued by financial challenges. President and CEO Bob Blue said the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project’s $9.8 billion price tag has not changed, and construction is on track for completion by the end of 2026. The comments come after announcements in recent weeks signaled strain on the industry, including the cancellation of two major projects last Tuesday planned in waters off of New Jersey. ‘I could go on with how well the [Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind] project is going,’ Blue told investors on a company conference call. He listed several milestones achieved by the project, including securing funding, and noted that eight monopiles — the steel cylindrical foundations for offshore wind turbines — arrived in Virginia at the end of last month. They are slated to be installed beginning in the spring of next year. The project envisions 176 turbines about 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast capable of powering roughly 660,000 homes. Blue said Dominion hopes to grow its investment in the project to about $3 billion by year’s end, up from $2.3 billion currently.” [E&E News, 11/6/23 (=)]

 

Washington

 

U.S. Drafts Plan To Bring Grizzly Bears Back To Washington’s North Cascades — “The federal government has drafted plans to bring grizzly bears back to Washington state’s North Cascades, the next step toward reintroducing the threatened species to a region where it was eliminated by hunters decades ago. Grizzlies once played a key role in north-central Washington’s vast expanse of forest, mountains and valleys. Now the North Cascades is one of the last places left in the Lower 48 states where grizzly bears would be able to thrive — and U.S. agencies are evaluating whether to start a population there that could grow to 200 bears within a century. Bringing them back would be the culmination of a decades-long effort to restore grizzly bears to the ecosystem, one of six spots in the country where federal biologists have aimed to recover decimated populations. ‘We’ve come further now than we ever have before,’ said Chris Servheen, who was U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s grizzly bear recovery coordinator from 1981 to 2016 and is retired. ‘We have to finish.’” [The Washington Post, 11/4/23 (=)]

 

Wyoming

 

Wyoming Leadership Pushes Back On “Draconian” Federal RMP — “Johnson County Commission Chairman and President of the Wyoming County Commissioners Association (WCCA) Bill Novotny is encouraging citizens of Wyoming to comment on the Beauru of Land Management’s (BLM) Rock Springs Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Novotny brought the public up to speed on the situation during a recent appearance on Sheridan Media’s Public Pulse. According to the WCCA President, the Sweetwater County Commissioners worked to ensure the RMP continued exploration and production of trona and other critical minerals as well as preserving the 1.8 million acres for use by hunters, anglers and recreationalists. But according to Novotny, the BLM made the choice to ignore input and disregarded the work and efforts from local stakeholders in the alternative RMPs the agency has presented.” [Sheridan Media, 11/3/23 (=)]

 

 

Research, Analysis & Opinion

 

Green Energy Investment Headwinds Threaten Joe Biden’s Climate Targets — “An array of US clean energy investments are being delayed or cancelled a year after Washington passed a landmark climate law, threatening to hold back the Biden administration’s emissions targets. The Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Joe Biden in August 2022 featured $370bn to swiftly decarbonise the world’s largest economy, including billions of dollars in new, expanded or extended tax credits for low-emissions technologies. But in recent weeks companies behind several high-profile investments supported by the subsidies have scrapped or hit the brakes on their plans. This week Ørsted, the world’s largest offshore wind energy developer, abandoned two projects designed to deliver 2.2 gigawatts of power to New Jersey. BP’s head of low-carbon energy, Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, told a Financial Times conference that the US offshore wind sector was ‘fundamentally broken’. Last week US carmaker General Motors dropped plans to build 400,000 electric vehicles by the middle of next year, citing ‘slowing near-term growth’. Ford said it was pushing back $12bn in EV investments amid a ‘flatter growth curve that we’re seeing relative to what the industry expected and we expected’.” [Financial Times, 11/4/23 (=)]

 

Cutting The Public Out Of Decision-Making On Public Lands — “There’s a very troubling trend among federal and state government agencies to use ‘categorical exclusions’ to forego environmental analysis on projects — many very large projects — on public lands. While the proponents say the exclusions speed up the process, the simple truth is they cut the public out of the opportunity to review and comment on agency decision-making. In effect, they allow government to run itself — and that’s never a good idea. Certainly one of the high-profile examples in the last year has been the fiasco of the Forest Service attempting to use a categorical exclusion for the sale of the Holland Lake Lodge to POWDR, a ski resort company that planned significant development on this fragile high-mountain lake. To make a long story short, the entire plot to exclude the public backfired horrifically on the Forest Service, garnering more than 6,000 comments opposing both the sale and planned development and resulting in the re-assignment of the Flathead Forest supervisor Kurt Steele. In the end, at least so far, the sale and what many feared was over-development, has been dropped and the lodge owner is trying to find another buyer.” [CounterPunch, 11/3/23 (+)]

 

 

 

Responses to this email are not monitored.

 

To be added to the CDP listserv to receive these clips and other postings, please contact Ariana Khan (akhan@partnershipproject.org)

 

For any other questions or comments, please contact Mitch Dunn

(mitch@beehivedc.com)