This Week at Interior September 22, 2023

Transcript:

This Week at Interior 

Secretary Haaland and Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau joined Administration leaders in New York City to commemorate Climate Week 2023, an annual event that focuses on the challenges presented by a warming planet. In remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative, Secretary Haaland announced a $15 million commitment to the Indian Youth Service Corps and other programs supporting the next generation of conservation and climate stewards. Across town, Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau joined state and federal leaders on a panel to discuss the Biden-Harris administration’s all-of-government approach to building a clean energy future that will create jobs, boost local economies, and help address environmental injustice. 
 

The Biden-Harris administration this week announced a historic agreement to support Tribally led efforts to restore healthy and abundant salmon populations in the Upper Columbia River Basin. The agreement between the United States, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, and the Spokane  Tribe of Indians will help fund ongoing efforts to test the feasibility of reintroducing anadromous salmonids in blocked area habitats in the Basin. 
 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe broke ground on a fish passage project at Numana Dam, with funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Deputy Director Siva Sundaresan joined representatives from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Reclamation and partners to celebrate the project, which will benefit the recovery of two federally listed species, the Lahontan cutthroat trout and Cui-ui sucker in northern Nevada. 
 

Interior this week announced nearly $40 million through the President’s Investing in America agenda to help Tribal communities plug and remediate orphaned oil and gas wells across Indian Country. This investment is a critical step in supporting Tribal land rights and economic opportunities to address legacy pollution, reduce harmful methane leaks, and tackle environmental hazards that threaten Tribal communities. 
 

Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Energy Department’s Grid Deployment Office this week released an Action Plan for Offshore Wind Transmission Development in the U.S. Atlantic Region. It's a set of bold actions that will catalyze offshore wind energy, strengthen the domestic supply chain, and create good-paying, union jobs. The plan outlines immediate actions needed to connect the first generation of Atlantic offshore wind projects onto the electric grid, and longer-term efforts to support needed transmission over the next several decades. 
 

The Bureau of Land Management this week issued two new leases in the Amargosa Solar Energy Zone in Nevada -- that means the leaseholder can proceed with next steps in the development of utility-scale solar energy. In June, the BLM auctioned four parcels across nearly 24,000 acres in the Amargosa desert in the highest-yielding onshore renewable energy auction in agency history. 

 
Secretary Haaland this week applauded the designation of Ohio's Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks as a World Heritage Site. Hopewell is a group of eight ancient earthwork sites built between 1,500 and 2,200 years ago by Indigenous peoples now referred to as the Hopewell Culture. The vast network of precise geometrical shapes aligns with both solar and lunar cycles. 
 

And our social media Picture of the Week, meet this hoary marmot at Rocky Mountain National Park. Turns out bears aren't the only mammals fattening up in preparation for the long winter -- hoary marmots also build up large fat stores in the summer and early fall to get them through up to 8 months of hibernation! 

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

That's This Week at Interior. 

This Week: Interior leaders travel to New York City for Climate Week 2023; a historic agreement is signed to help restore healthy salmon populations in the Upper Columbia River Basin; ground is broken on a fish passage project at Numana Dam with funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law; Interior announces nearly $40 million to help plug and remediate orphaned oil and gas wells across Indian Country through the President’s Investing in America agenda; a new action plan for offshore energy transmission aims to strengthen the domestic supply chain, and create good-paying, union jobs; BLM advances utility-scale solar energy in Nevada; a system of ancient Indigenous earthworks in Ohio is designated a World Heritage Site; and we throw a spotlight on a chubby critter 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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