This Week at Interior February 10, 2023

Transcript:

This Week at Interior 

President Biden delivered his State of the Union address this week. The President highlighted administration accomplishments in his first two years, including passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Folks, already we’ve funded over 20,000 projects, including major airports from Boston to Atlanta to Portland — projects that are going to put thousands of people to work rebuilding our highways, our bridges, our railroads, our tunnels, ports, airports, clean water, high-speed Internet all across America — urban, rural, Tribal. And, folks, we’re just getting started.  We’re just getting started.  (Applause.) 

Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Carmen Cantor this week welcomed the Governors and Delegates of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to the annual Interagency Group on Insular Areas. This year's meeting comes as the Biden-Harris administration announced new efforts to reduce the financial burden on those U.S. territories, while providing once-in-a-generation climate and infrastructure resources through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Secretary Haaland traveled to Pennsylvania this week to highlight how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is making historic investments to cap orphaned oil and gas wells and revitalize economies. Interior is investing a historic $4.7 billion to plug orphaned oil and gas wells across the country. 

Interior this week announced more than $24.6 million to create good-paying union jobs and catalyze economic opportunity by reclaiming abandoned mine lands in Indiana. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocates $11.3 billion in abandoned mine land funding over 15 years, facilitated by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing a new rule to strengthen voluntary conservation opportunities under the Endangered Species Act, or ESA. The proposed rule would promote species conservation through voluntary agreements and make the process clearer, easier and more efficient. The announcement comes as the Endangered Species Act turns 50 years old in 2023. 

The U.S. Geological Survey this week announced an $830,000 investment from the Infrastructure Law to conduct the first-ever high-resolution airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys over Puerto Rico and its surrounding waters. The data will allow scientists to better understand the geology of Puerto Rico, including the potential for seismic hazards. 

As Interior honors Black History Month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Fort Valley State University. Fort Valley State joins New Mexico State University and the University of Texas-San Antonio in a consortium that collaborates with the Service to recruit college students from diverse backgrounds into its workforce. Fort Valley State is the first Historically Black College/University to join the consortium. 

The Bureau of Land Management this week announced the start of construction of the Desert Quartzite solar project near Blythe in eastern Riverside County, California. The project will support 900 union construction jobs and produce enough solar energy to power 120,000 homes. 

And with our social media Picture of the Week we're wishing a Happy Birthday to the Fish and Wildlife Service! It was this week in 1940 that Interior consolidated the Bureau of Fisheries and the Bureau of Biological Survey into one agency, calling it the Fish and Wildlife Service. With roots tracing back as far as 1871, the Service’s programs are some of the oldest efforts dedicated to natural resource and species conservation. 

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

This Week: President Biden highlights his administration's accomplishments in his State of the Union address; Interior leaders welcome Governors and Delegates from U.S. island territories to the Interagency Group on Insular Areas; Secretary Haaland travels to Pennsylvania to highlight historic investments to cap orphaned oil and gas wells; Interior announces over $24.6 million to reclaim abandoned mine lands in Indiana; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes a new rule to strengthen conservation under the Endangered Species Act; the U.S. Geological Survey will map Puerto Rico to better understand geologic hazards; construction gets underway at the Desert Quartzite solar project in California; and we're wishing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service a happy birthday with 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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