This Week at Interior July 15, 2022

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This Week, at Interior 

Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland were in Oklahoma this week, the inaugural stop on “The Road to Healing."  That's a year-long tour across the country to provide survivors of the Federal Indian boarding school system and their descendants an opportunity to share their stories. The Secretary announced the tour in May, as part of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. 

Several Interior leaders traveled this week to highlight investments from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Secretary Haaland and Senior Advisor and Infrastructure Coordinator Winnie Stachelberg toured orphaned oil and gas wells at Deep Fork National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma that are due to be cleaned up this year. Interior recently announced an initial $33 million investment from the Infrastructure Law to reclaim and remediate hazardous sites on federal lands. Stachelberg toured additional sites this week at Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, and Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve in Louisiana. Assistant Secretary Newland also visited Channel Islands National Park in California to highlight new investments from the Infrastructure Law to conserve ecosystems, leveraging the partnership of local Tribal communities.  

Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz visited Yellowstone National Park this week, where they toured the damage caused by recent floods and highlighted the progress that has been made to restore public access. They saluted the National Park Service’s swift work to reopen the park’s entry points and the partnerships that are helping invest in the park’s infrastructure and visitor safety efforts. 

The Biden-Harris administration this week announced the members of the new Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission. Established by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the commission will play a key role in recommending ways that federal agencies can better prevent, mitigate, suppress and manage wildland fires. 

The Bureau of Land Management this week approved construction on two major projects to ramp up energy in the west. The 125-mile, 500-kilovolt Ten West Link Transmission Line will provide critical infrastructure to support the development of future solar energy resources in Arizona and California. Meanwhile, construction on the Oberon Solar project will begin in eastern Riverside County, California. Once complete, it will generate up to 500 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to power nearly 150,000 homes. 

Secretary Haaland this week announced the establishment of the Lost Trail Conservation Area in Northwest Montana. It's the 568th and newest unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the first new unit for the Refuge System under Secretary Haaland’s leadership. 

The National Park Service this week announced $9.7 million in grants for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs. The grants will provide support to 21 preservation projects for historic structures across HBCU campuses in 9 states. 

A new study from the U.S. Geological Survey shows the effect of climate change on coastal wetlands along the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. The study shows that coastal wetlands under threat from rising sea levels will migrate landward, usually at the expense of adjacent freshwater wetlands and upland ecosystems. Natural and manmade barriers can alter that migration and restore balance. 

And our social media Picture of the Week...we’ve got your goats. Mountain goats, to be precise, climbing these rocky walls at Glacier National Park in Montana, looking for a little salt to spice up their diet. The goats’ specialized cloven hooves with traction-creating inner pads provide sure footing, even on the steepest slopes.  

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

That's This Week, at Interior.  

This Week: It's the first stop on “The Road to Healing," as survivors of federal Indian boarding schools share their stories; Interior leaders highlight Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments on public lands; the Secretary visits Yellowstone National Park in the wake of June's historic flooding; members of the new Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission are announced; the BLM approves two major projects to ramp up clean energy in the west; there's a new conservation area in northwest Montana; nearly $10 million in preservation grants are awarded to Historically Black Colleges and Universities; a new study shows the effect of climate change on coastal wetlands along the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts; and our social media Picture of the Week just might get your goat! 

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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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