This Week at Interior January 12, 2024

Transcript:

This Week at Interior

Secretary Haaland and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director
Martha Williams visited New Hampshire this week. The Secretary
and Director Williams toured the Fair Hill Marsh site outside
Portsmouth, where a $2 million investment from President
Biden's Investing in America agenda is working to restore salt
marshes to benefit at-risk species and increase coastal resilience.
Secretary Haaland announced the launch of the Department's salt
marsh keystone initiative, a new effort to support Atlantic coastal
communities and protect important wildlife habitat in salt marsh
ecosystems.

Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis visited the National
Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho this week. She joined
leaders from across the Department to announce $138 million in
new allocations from the President’s Investing in America agenda
to help protect communities from the risk of catastrophic wildfires
in fiscal year 2024. The funding will support the modernization of
wildland firefighter training, help reduce the risk of extreme
wildfires, rehabilitate burned areas, and advance fire science.

Interior this week announced a nearly $80 million investment
from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for the state of Texas to
continue work plugging, capping and reclaiming orphaned oil and
gas wells across the state. It's the first Phase 1 formula grant
awarded since the Department announced last July the
availability of $660 million for 26 states to clean up legacy
pollution sites. These investments will create good-paying union
jobs, catalyze economic growth and revitalization, and reduce
harmful methane leaks.

Interior this week joined the nation to mark National Law
Enforcement Appreciation Day. More than 3,500 law enforcement
professionals serve at the Department, protecting public lands
and waters, upholding our trust and treaty obligations to 
Indigenous communities and ensuring the public can continue to
enjoy safe and equitable access to outdoor opportunities.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs this week
announced $1.5 million from the President’s Investing in America
agenda to support the restoration of bison populations and
grassland ecosystems in Tribal communities. The funding will 
support Tribally led initiatives that strengthen bison conservation
and expansion, improve management of existing herds, and
expand ecosystem restoration efforts in native grassland habitats.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this week announced
the availability of its draft environmental review of wind energy
areas offshore the U.S. Central Atlantic region. Together those
areas have the potential to support enough offshore wind to
power over 2.2 million homes with clean energy.

And our social media Picture of the Week comes to us from
Yellowstone National Park, where this red fox isn't camera shy,
it's coping with the cold. Red foxes are experts when it comes to
battling cold weather conditions...this one is staying warm by
curling into a ball, and wrapping itself in its big, bushy tail.

Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and
You Tube.

That's This Week at Interior.
 

This Week: In New Hampshire, Secretary Haaland launched a new salt marsh keystone initiative for coastal restoration and resilience; Acting Deputy Secretary Daniel-Davis announces new allocations from the President’s Investing in America agenda to help protect communities from the risk of catastrophic wildfires; a nearly $80 million investment for the state of Texas will continue work plugging, capping and reclaiming orphaned oil and gas wells; Interior marks National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day; there's a new $1.5 million investment to support the restoration of bison populations and grassland ecosystems in Tribal communities; BOEM announces a public comment period for a proposed Central Atlantic wind lease area; and a red fox copes with winter cold 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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