This Week at Interior April 26, 2024

Transcript:

I'm Kevin Sligh, Director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. And you're watching This Week at Interior!

This Week at Interior  

Secretary Haaland, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Elizabeth Klein and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director Kevin Sligh traveled to New Orleans this week for the International Partnering Forum, the largest offshore wind energy conference in the Americas. The Secretary announced a new, proposed five-year offshore wind leasing schedule, which includes up to 12 potential offshore wind energy lease sales through 2028, in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, and the waters offshore of the U.S. territories.  

Secretary Haaland also announced finalized regulations for offshore renewable energy development to reduce costs, streamline processes and clarify provisions while enhancing compliance requirements. 
Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration the Department has approved more than 10 gigawatts of clean energy from offshore wind projects — enough to power nearly 4 million homes.

But wait, there’s more! Secretary Haaland and Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning also visited Arizona this week to highlight the Biden-Harris administration’s all-of-government approach to developing a robust and sustainable clean energy economy. They joined local leaders to celebrate clean energy going into the grid from the newly completed Ten West Link transmission line. The 500-kilovolt high voltage transmission line will add significant new power grid infrastructure connecting Southern California with the rapidly growing Desert Southwest region. Interior has now permitted more than 25 gigawatts of clean energy projects – enough clean energy to power more than 12 million homes.  

The Bureau of Reclamation and Indian Health Service this week announced a new Memorandum of Understanding to further develop safe drinking water and community sanitation infrastructure projects across Indian Country. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Michael Brain and Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton celebrated the announcement at the White House’s first-ever Clean Water Summit. Through the new agreement the agencies will collaborate to complete studies, planning and design to be used in constructing domestic water infrastructure projects.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland visited New Mexico this week, to highlight the funding Interior has invested through President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to support the restoration of bison populations and grassland ecosystems in Tribal communities. He joined leaders from the Taos Pueblo for the release of 10 bison from Yellowstone National Park into the Pueblo's existing herd. Interior currently manages 11,000 bison in herds across 4.6 million acres of public lands in 12 states.

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Dr. Steve Feldgus traveled to Morgantown, West Virginia this week to announce more than $140 million from the President's Investing in America agenda to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mine lands, create good-paying, family-sustaining jobs, and catalyze economic opportunity in West Virginia coal communities. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocates $11.3 billion in funding to support this type of work nationwide over 15 years, facilitated by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

Interior this week announced more than $70 million from the President’s Investing in America agenda for 43 projects in 29 states that will improve fish passage around outdated or obsolete dams, culverts, levees and other barriers fragmenting the nation’s rivers and streams. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams made that announcement during a tour of Alabama fish passage projects funded by the Bipartisan Infrastricture Law, which delivers a five-year $200 million commitment for the Service to restore free-flowing waters, allowing for fish migration and protecting communities from flooding.

In celebration of National Park Week, National Park Service Director Chuck Sams visited a number of parks, historic sites, monuments, and recreation areas. At San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in Texas the Director joined community partners to announce that Mission San José -- along with 18 other sites in 10 states -- is being added to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The network recognizes places and programs with verifiable connections to the Underground Railroad and the resistance to enslavement through escape and flight.

And our social media Picture of the Week...misty sunshine streams through the trees of the maritime forest at Cumberland Island, Georgia. Home to Cumberland Island National Seashore, it's the largest and southernmost barrier island in Georgia, and features nearly 10,000 acres of Congressionally designated wilderness.  

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That's This Week at Interior! 
 

This Week: Secretary Haaland makes major offshore wind announcements at the International Partnering Forum; Department leaders celebrate clean energy going into the grid from the newly completed Ten West Link transmission line in Arizona; a new agreement will further develop safe drinking water and community sanitation infrastructure projects across Indian Country; President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda is supporting the restoration of bison populations and grassland ecosystems in Tribal communities; Interior announces more than $140 million to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mine lands in West Virginia; more than $70 million is on the way to improve fish passages in 29 states; as part of National Park Week celebrations there are 19 new additions to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom; and we've got Georgia on our mind, for 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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