This Week at Interior August 23, 2024

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I'm Dave Smith with the Office of Communications and we're here at the National Conservation Training Center...and you're watching This Week at Interior!

This Week at Interior

Secretary Haaland was in the Oval Office this week as President Biden designated Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument as America’s newest national park site — the eighth addition to the national park system during the Biden-Harris administration. The new national monument will help tell a more complete story of America by spotlighting the violent, racially motivated riot in President Abraham Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield, Illinois, in 1908, when rioters lynched two Black men, looted businesses, and burned down homes. The riot ultimately served as a catalyst for important steps in the civil rights movement.

Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz were in Maine this week, where they highlighted conservation and preservation efforts underway through the National Park Service. They visited the Frances Perkins Homestead in Newcastle and held a community meeting to learn about the community’s vision for its care and management. Later they joined federal, state, Tribal and community members for a celebration and ribbon cutting at Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument for a new contact station, to provide visitors a location for orientation and information through exhibits designed with Wabanaki artistry and knowledge that explain the monument's landscape and significance.

The Department and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this week announced the execution of the nation’s first floating offshore wind energy research lease in Maine. The research array will allow the state, fishing community, wildlife experts, the offshore wind industry and others to conduct in-depth studies and evaluate floating offshore wind as a renewable energy source in the region. BOEM also completed a wind energy auction last week for two lease areas offshore the states of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia -- that lease sale brought in more than $92 million in winning bids.

The Bureau of Reclamation this week announced a $7 million investment through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to boost drought resiliency and efficiency in Texas and New Mexico. The announcement comes as the Department celebrates the two-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, which has delivered transformational investments for drought resilience across the West.  

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement this week announced nearly $6 million to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mine lands in Iowa, while creating good-paying, family-sustaining jobs, and catalyzing economic opportunity. Millions of Americans live less than a mile from an abandoned coal mine – now more than $11.3 billion from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is expected to address nearly all of the currently inventoried abandoned mine lands in the nation, which will help communities address and eliminate dangerous conditions and pollution caused by historic coal mining.

The U.S. Geological Survey this week officially opened its new Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility on the University of Alabama campus. The facility provides new opportunities for advancing water science and technology, with its team of about 50 USGS employees working alongside university students and staff, strengthening existing partnerships and creating new ones as it continues its tradition as the national hub for water monitoring technologies.  

Interior this week announced the Secretary’s establishment of the Willamette Valley Conservation Area in Oregon. The 600-acre parcel will protect crucial habitat for threatened and endangered species and comes about after extensive consultation between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tribal Nations, state and local partners and private landowners. It's the 572nd unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System, and the fifth new unit established under Secretary Deb Haaland’s leadership.

Happy Birthday to the National Park Service, which turns 108 years old on August 25th, and a hearty thank you to the more than 20,000 National Park Service employees, who work tirelessly to care for America's 431 national park sites and work with communities across the nation to help preserve "America's Best Idea."    

And our social media Picture of the Week, the grassy meadows of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington come alive with the colors of wildflowers. Folks come from all around the world to see these brief but stunning blooms, which reach their peak in August.  

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

That's This Week at Interior! 
 

This Week: Secretary Haaland applauds the designation of Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument as America’s newest national park site; Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz highlight conservation and preservation efforts during a visit to Maine; the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announces the execution of the nation’s first floating offshore wind energy research lease in Maine; Bureau of Reclamation announces a $7 million investment to boost drought resiliency and efficiency in Texas and New Mexico; the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement announces nearly $6 million to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mine lands in Iowa; the U.S. Geological Survey officially opens its new Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility on the University of Alabama campus; Interior announces the Secretary’s establishment of the Willamette Valley Conservation Area in Oregon; the National Park Service turns 108 years old on August 25th; and wildflowers bloom 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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