National

 

Zinke says Interior reorganization won't relocate employees — yet. “The Interior Department’s final reorganization plan would separate agency offices into 12 regions across the U.S., according to an internal email obtained by The Hill Wednesday. The plan, announced by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in a staff-wide email, aims to reorganize management of the department through ecosystem and watershed boundaries rather than state lines in what will be called Unified Regions. ‘To prepare the Department for the next 100 years, I am pleased to announce the next steps we have taken to modernize the way we do business in order to continue to responsibly manage America’s natural resources,’ Zinke wrote.” [The Hill, 8/29/18 (=)]

 

Zinke could feel the heat in U.S. territories visit. “On his first official trip to the U.S. territories, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke could face stark climate change concerns. What he’ll heed is up to him. But with his geology degree from the University of Oregon and his beach-crawling background as a former Navy SEAL, Zinke, in theory, could bring the right kind of baggage on his upcoming trip. Giving peacetime meaning to the phrase ‘island-hopping campaign,’ Zinke will land on Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa following his participation in a Sept. 4 international conference convened in the tiny, ocean-lapped nation of Nauru.” [E&E News, 8/30/18 (=)]

 

BLM to issue revised methane rule next month. “The Trump administration is falling slightly behind schedule in reworking Obama-era methane standards for oil and gas operations. In a court filing yesterday, lawyers for the Interior Department noted that the agency will be unable to meet its August target for finalizing a ‘revision rule’ that would scale back the previous administration’s restrictions on methane venting, flaring and leakage on public and tribal lands. Instead, Interior hopes to complete the revision next month.” [E&E News, 8/30/18 (=)]

 

National Monuments

Zinke ignores critics, creates Bears Ears advisory panel. “Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is forming an advisory committee for Bears Ears National Monument, sparking criticism from Native American tribes and conservation groups that have sued to overturn President Trump’s decision last year to dramatically reduce the size of the Utah site. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management announced it is forming the 15-member Bears Ears National Monument Advisory Committee in a notice published in today’s Federal Register.” [E&E News, 8/30/18 (=)]

 

State and Local

 

Colorado businesses call on lawmakers to renew federal conservation fund. “A Colorado coalition of 70 businesses sent a letter Thursday to the state’s congressional delegation asking the lawmakers to support permanently reauthorizing the 54-year-old Land and Water…” [Denver Post, 8/30/18 (+)]

Four Colorado Congressional lawmakers sign conservation-fund letter. “U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder and three other members of Colorado’s House delegation have signed onto the latest effort to urge Congressional leaders to find a way to permanently reauthorize and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund. But missing from the letter: the only Republican in Colorado’s House delegation – U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman of Aurora – who has co-sponsored legislation that would do exactly what the letter asks.” [Durango Herald, 8/30/18 (+)]

Mitt Romney says that he’s a believer in climate change and that it will create more and nastier wildfires in Utah unless feds spend ‘a lot of money’ to help prevent them. “‘I would propose that the financing of this major investment that is going to be required be split based upon who owns the land,’ he said. ‘So the federal government has 66 percent of the land in Utah, so they pick up 66 percent of the costs. If they want a lower share of the costs, they can give the land back to us.’ Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, asked Romney which of his several suggestions he would prioritize — saying Congress would likely fund only one or two. ” [Salt Lake Tribune, 8/31/18 (-)]

Interior official to speak at local water forum. “Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt will be providing the keynote address in Grand Junction on Sept. 14 at the Colorado River District's annual water seminar, which will focus on the risks further drought would pose to the West Slope and Colorado and the contingency planning being done in response.” [Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 8/30/18 (=)]

 

Calif. lawmakers pass bill countering federal leasing plans. “California lawmakers sent a bill to Gov. Jerry Brown (D) yesterday aimed at blocking the Trump administration’s attempts to open the state’s offshore waters to oil and gas drilling. The bill, S.B. 834, pushes back against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s draft five-year offshore exploration plan, released in January, that envisions opening up the continental shelf on both coasts. The bill would prevent oil from federal leases from being transmitted through California by banning the State Lands Commission from approving any leases of submerged state lands that would result in an increase of oil or natural gas production from federal waters. The intended effect would be to prevent fossil fuel infrastructure from passing through the state’s jurisdiction, which extends 3 miles offshore.” [E&E News, 8/30/18 (=)]

 

Finally, a superintendent who's happy with reassignment. “Alex Romero, the superintendent of George Washington Memorial Parkway since 2013, will return to his native New York in October to manage Fire Island National Seashore. Unlike some National Park Service superintendents this summer who were unhappy with transfer orders, Romero said yesterday he’s ‘thrilled to be going back home.’ Romero, 52, said he will leave his current post in early October and begin his new job on Oct. 14. His successor at GW Parkway has yet to be named.” [E&E News, 8/30/18 (=)]

 

Op-Ed, Editorial, and Analysis

Op-Ed: Restore our parks. “As the National Park Service enjoys its second century of operation, we commend the bipartisan bill sponsors and co-sponsors and encourage all lawmakers to show their leadership by adding their name in support. Critical investments in our national parks will sustain our nation’s rich heritage of natural, cultural and historic resources and generate lasting economic vitality for communities throughout the nation. Our best idea can get even better.” [The Hill, 8/30/18 (+)]

Op-Ed: Corporate interests compromise the Interior Department. “In less than two years on the job, Zinke has thrown open the doors to campaign donors, family business friends and the executives of the very corporations he is supposed to be regulating. All the while, he has consistently ignored input from the American public, as well as from pretty much anyone who isn't a potential donor. Now under the cloud of more than a dozen investigations, Secretary Zinke might have become so besmirched that even President Trump finds him too much to stomach.” [High Country News, 8/31/18 (+)]

Op-Ed: Monuments don't have a neutral effect on Utah's rural economies. “Communities that have responded to the new opportunities associated with the national monuments are thriving. There are new construction projects, new businesses and improving economic diversity. The common belief that the tourism economy only supports low-wage jobs is not correct. It certainly includes low-wage positions, but also creates greater opportunity for establishing locally owned businesses. The beautiful, unspoiled Bears Ears could become a unique opportunity to preserve, appreciate and economically benefit from the rich cultural heritage, arts and traditions created by the native people of this special place.” [Deseret News, 8/30/18 (+)]

Op-Ed: Federal agencies need changes in attitude, not just latitude. “And it is unlikely that moving to Utah would have done anything to dissuade one agency official who helped shrink the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument, then decamped for a job in with one of the oil companies that might soon be digging up that very land. Stopping that awful revolving door would require a change in attitude, not latitude.” [Salt Lake Tribune, 8/30/18 (+)]

Editorial: Our national monuments deserve better. “Grand Staircase, which holds a priceless geological record of the continent’s ancient past in its cliffs, canyons and striking red rock, has been spared coal mining and other indignities since President Bill Clinton protected it. Bears Ears contains spectacular scenery and untold numbers of archaeological treasures, the profusion of which is not wholly known, and deserved to be protected well before Mr. Obama’s second term, when it finally gained monument status. These unique, irreplaceable sites deserve better than the Trump administration’s determined campaign to abolish environmental protections.” [Washington Post, 8/30/18 (+)]