This Week at Interior April 23, 2021

Transcript:

This Week at Interior...  

Everyone in this country deserves clean water, air, and land, but for too long an unequal burden of pollution has fallen on communities of color and poor communities. For generations, we’ve put off the transition to clean energy and now we face a climate crisis. It’s a crisis that doesn’t discriminate and it is putting everyone at risk.

Secretary Haaland this week, making a call for action as the world celebrated Earth Day 2021, a global celebration encouraging education and stewardship of the planet's natural resources. The Secretary said Interior, through all its Bureaus and Offices, is working to address the climate crisis by restoring balance on public lands, and waters, advancing environmental justice, and investing in a clean energy future. 

On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig cost eleven lives and spilled 134-million gallons of oil into Gulf waters. It took three months to cap that leak. In a statement this week Secretary Haaland said Interior has made progress toward ensuring that operations in the Gulf Coast remain safe and environmentally responsible -- but that much work remains to be done. 

Secretary Haaland appeared this week before a House  subcommittee, testifying on the Administration’s fiscal year 2022 Interior budget request. The Secretary responded to questions about addressing the needs of Native American communities, the implementation of the Great American Outdoors Act, and prioritizing a maintenance backlog at the nation’s national parks. 

Secretary Haaland and Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice convened the first meeting of the White House Council on Native American Affairs under the Biden-Harris Administration this week. The Secretary serves as chair of that council, made up of members from federal Departments, Agencies, and Offices. It represents the Administration’s all-of-government approach to strengthening our nation-to-nation relationship with Tribes as it takes on climate change, racial equity, economic recovery, and the COVID-19 response. The Council hasn’t met on a regular basis since 2016. 

Hundreds of bird species will benefit from $80 million in funding for various wetland conservation projects in North America. The funding was approved this week by the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission, which is chaired by Secretary Haaland. 

An 18-year-old from Kansas took top honors in the National Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest with an acrylic painting of a pair of hooded mergansers. Margaret McMullen’s artwork will grace the 2021-2022 Junior Duck Stamp, which goes on sale June 25th. The stamp supports conservation education for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. 

A historic discovery announced this week in Maryland. Researchers found the remains of a cabin belonging to Ben Ross, father of abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who helped thousands of escaped slaves find freedom via the Underground Railroad. The site sits on land acquired by the Fish and Wildlife Service last year, to help Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge withstand rising seas. Archaeologists confirmed the news after finding artifacts dating back to the 1800’s. 

The Bureau of Land Management has issued $26.9 million in payments from Fiscal Year 2020 to 18 counties in western Oregon under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. Most of the funding will go directly to the counties, supporting investments in education, infrastructure, public safety, and health services.  

The National Park Service this week announced the launch of the first self-driving vehicle at a recreational public lands site. The shuttle will be tested for three-months at Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, the site of the world’s first powered flight in 1903. 

And our social media Picture of the Week, this sliver of moon floating serenely above an other-worldly landscape at Montana’s Glacier National Park. The Park contains more than 15-hundred square miles of wilderness peaks and valleys running to the Canadian border, with more than 700 miles of hiking trails to follow. 

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That's This Week, at Interior. 

This Week: Secretary Haaland makes a call for climate action as the world celebrates Earth Day 2021; Secretary Haaland issues a statement on the eleventh anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster; the Secretary testifies on Interior's budget before a House subcommittee; it's the first meeting of the White House Council on Native American Affairs under the Biden-Harris Administration; hundreds of bird species will benefit from $80 million in funding for various wetland conservation projects in North America; an 18-year-old from Kansas takes top honors in the National Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest; researchers make a historic discovery at a National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland; the Bureau of Land Management issues $26.9 million in funding for education, infrastructure, public safety, and health services in Oregon; the National Park Service launches the first self-driving vehicle at a recreational public lands site, and it's a Moon with a view 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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