This Week at Interior August 12, 2022

Transcript:

This Week at Interior 

Secretary Haaland marked the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples this week with an announcement of the members of the new Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names. That's a federal advisory group tasked with identifying and recommending changes to derogatory terms still in use for places throughout the country. The Secretary has said the nation’s lands and waters should be places to celebrate the outdoors and our shared cultural heritage – not to perpetuate the legacies of oppression. 

Interior has announced nearly $725 million from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is now available to 22 states and the Navajo Nation to reclaim abandoned mine lands. That funding will boost local economies and create good-paying union jobs while addressing the legacy of pollution caused by past coal mining. 

Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo joined Bureau of Reclamation leaders this week in South Dakota at a ribbon-cutting event to celebrate a $75.5 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law into the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System. The funding was allocated as part of a $420 million investment in rural waters. 

The Bureau of Land Management this week announced that the Palen Solar Project in Riverside County, California, is fully operational. The 457-megawatt facility will supply enough energy to power approximately 116,000 homes. It represents another major step forward in the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to lower costs for families and create a clean energy, carbon-free future. 

The National Park Service this week announced more than $2 million in grants to nine Tribes and 20 museums to assist in the consultation, documentation and repatriation of ancestral remains. The grants will also fund the transportation and return of cultural items and funerary objects back to their rightful location. 

Carmen G. Cantor was sworn-in this week as Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs. Carmen most recently served as U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federated States of Micronesia. Previously, she served in various roles within the Department of State. 

Secretary Haaland this week issued a Public Land Order opening up 27 million acres of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management for eligible Alaska Native Vietnam-era Veterans under the 2019 Dingell Act. This action makes good on Interior’s promise to honor the sacrifices made by Alaska Native veterans who were unable to apply for allotments because of past military service. 

A historic handover this week...NASA transferred operational control of Landsat 9 to the U.S. Geological Survey. Landsat 9 was launched last September, the newest member of the family of Earth observation satellites first launched fifty years ago. Since 1972, Landsat has provided an unprecedented visual record of Earth’s landscapes, icescapes and coastal ecosystems. 

Secretary Haaland joined Interior leaders at an event to mark the 45th anniversary of the enactment of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, the landmark law that created the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. This year's theme: Reinvigorating coal country over the next 15 years as the nation shifts to clean energy. 

And our social media Picture of the Week, this stunning image of the Milky Way in the skies above North Carolina's Bodie Island Light Station. For a century and a half, the lighthouse and its powerful light beam have kept silent watch over the waters off Cape Hatteras and the Outer Banks, often called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” for the unusually high number of shipwrecks. 

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That's This Week, at Interior 

This Week: Secretary Haaland announces members of the federal advisory group tasked with identifying and recommending changes to derogatory place names; nearly $725 million in funding is now available to address legacy pollution caused by past coal mining; a South Dakota ribbon cutting celebrates a $75.5 million investment into the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System; a major solar energy project is fully operational in California; $2 million in grants help repatriate ancestral remains and ceremonial objects; Carmen G. Cantor is sworn-in as Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs; Interior takes steps to honor the sacrifices made by Alaska Native Vietnam-era Veterans; NASA transfers operational control of Landsat 9 to the U.S. Geological Survey; the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement celebrates its 45th birthday; and a tower of light shines in our social media Picture of the Week!

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    04/11/2025

    This Week at Interior April 11, 2025

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    This Week at Interior

    President Trump this week signed Executive Orders aimed at achieving the Administration's goal of American Energy Dominance with a renewed focus on coal. One of the orders directs Interior to identify untapped coal resources on federal lands, while removing barriers to mining and leasing.

    The value of untapped coal in our country is one hundred times greater than the value of all the gold at Fort Knox, and we're going to unleash it and make America rich and powerful again.

    To advance the President Trump's order, Interior will implement a series of policy moves and regulatory reforms to position coal as a cornerstone of the nation’s energy strategy by ensuring federally managed lands remain open and accessible for responsible energy development. Secretary Burgum likened the actions to creating a new Golden Age of "Mine, Baby, Mine," saying that  

    Interior is unlocking America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development to make life more affordable for every American family while showing the world the power of America’s natural resources and innovation.  

    Among the actions are ending the moratorium on federal coal leasing, reopening federal lands in Montana and Wyoming to coal leasing, removing regulatory burdens for coal mines, and providing royalty rate relief.  

    Interior this week announced the disbursement of more than $13 million in grants to support the reclamation of abandoned mine lands, furthering the Trump administration’s commitment to American Energy Dominance, environmental stewardship and economic renewal in coal communities. The funding is administered through the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and it will support job creation and economic revitalization efforts in North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.  

    Interior this week announced the release of updated oil and gas reserve estimates for the Gulf of America's Outer Continental Shelf. The new data and analysis over the last couple of years reveal an additional 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent since 2021, bringing the total reserve estimate to 7.04 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That figure includes 5.77 billion barrels of oil and 7.15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced plans to significantly increase oil and gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf, and just last week Secretary Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to hold the first Gulf of America oil and gas lease sale since its renaming in February.

    Secretary Burgum held his first All Hands meeting this week at Interior's historic Yates Auditorium. The Secretary saluted the notable accomplishments the Department has achieved in making the transition from the previous administration, and expanded on his vision that innovation, rather than regulation, is the cornerstone of American prosperity.

    The thing that has led our country for 250 years is innovation, doesn't matter whether it's the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution our ability to innovate in a way that allowed us to win World War One and World War II and lead the world and become the world leader, all of it was innovation based, and we have to get back to those roots. That's how we win. That's how America wins in this world, that's how we win again for our children and our children's children, is we win with innovation.

    U.S. Geological Survey crews were deployed late last week and this week to monitor flood impacts after storms dumped heavy rain across portions of the southeast and Midwest. Crews are still hard at work gathering flood measurements in Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio, as well as West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi, where as much as ten inches of rain fell causing massive flooding. The gages provide information for the National Weather Service to predict when dangerous flooding might occur and allow for warnings to vulnerable residents, as flood crests will continue into early May.

    And our social media Picture of the Week, California's Battery Point Lighthouse. Perched on California's rugged northern coast, this historic beacon stands among the rocky outcrops of the California Coastal National Monument and has guided mariners since its first lighting in 1856.

    Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X! That's This Week at Interior!


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    News and headlines from Interior April 11, 2025

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