This Week at Interior May 21, 2021

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This Week, at Interior  

Animals, plants, insects, and all living things are part of the balance of nature that our world relies on, but today there are species at risk of being lost forever.

Protecting plants and wildlife for the present, and for the future... on Endangered Species Day Secretary Haaland encouraged everyone to think about the role they can play in saving animal and plant species from endangerment, and extinction.  

Whether we think about it regularly or not, plants and wildlife make all our lives better. And they need our active protection. At Interior we’re bringing partners together to recover plants, fish, wildlife and their habitats before they need protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Secretary Haaland made more history this week...the first Native American Cabinet Secretary became the first *Interior* Secretary to appear on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers." In a wide-ranging discussion the Secretary talked about Interior's mission of conservation, land and resource stewardship, and improving Interior's role in managing climate change. And this  being Late Night, she endured a little good-natured roasting about some of Interior's social media posts.    

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the Energy Department have joined with Texas A&M’s Engineering Experiment Station to support the ongoing operation and maintenance of the Ocean Energy Safety Institute. The Biden-Harris administration has committed to improving the safety and environmental sustainability of offshore energy development. The OESI will support critical improvements for all offshore energy activities, including renewable and traditional energy. 

The National Park Service this week announced the disbursement of more than $3.1 million in grants to support 22 education, preservation, and restoration projects that help tell the full story of an American tragedy, the confinement of more than 120 thousand Japanese Americans during World War II. Entire families were displaced and held in captivity under the mistaken suspicion they were more loyal to Japan during the war, than they were to the United States. The damage done by these harmful actions is still felt in communities today. 

This is National Invasive Species Awareness week, but *every* week is awareness week for Reclamation’s mussel-sniffing dogs. They sniff out quagga and zebra mussels on boats as well as shorelines, and the new pooch on patrol is Puddles. She came from a shelter before getting her training. So far this year Puddles has inspected more than 350 watercraft. 

The Fish and Wildlife Service this week announced more than 27-million dollars in grants to benefit migratory birds under the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act. Nearly five million in federal dollars will be matched by more than twenty-two million dollars in partner funds...together they’ll pay for thirty collaborative conservation projects in twenty-three countries across the Americas.  

And a favorite layover for neotropical birds flying south is our social media Picture of the Week...where a great blue heron stands along the shoreline at sunset at Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama. Established by Congress in 1980, Bon Secour comes from the French words meaning “safe harbor”...and it’s here that migratory birds rest and build up their fat reserves for the rest of the journey. 

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

That’s This Week, at Interior 

This Week: Secretary Haaland observes Endangered Species Day with a call to protect plants and wildlife before they become endangered; the Secretary makes an historic appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers"; the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is part of a renewed push to improve the safety and environmental sustainability of offshore energy development; new grants from the National Park Service will help tell the story of the tragic confinement of Japanese Americans during World War II; the Bureau of Reclamation has a new, four-legged detective on the case of invasive mussels; more grants from the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect neotropical migratory birds; and a great blue heron stands tall 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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