This Week at Interior July 12, 2024

Transcript:

Hello, I'm Lisa Fogarty, with the U.S. Geological Survey -- we're at the Great Lakes Science Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and you're watching This Week at Interior!

This Week at Interior  

Secretary Haaland traveled to Michigan this week with White House Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland. During a visit to the Gun Lake Tribe, she announced the availability of $120 million to help Tribal communities plan for the most severe climate-related environmental threats to their homelands. The funding, supported by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, can be used by Tribes to adapt to these threats and safely relocate critical community infrastructure.  

While in Michigan, Secretary Haaland and White House Domestic Policy Advisor Tanden also convened a roundtable on increasing Tribal access to capital. The conversation included Tribal representatives and leaders from financial, philanthropic and nonprofit sectors to discuss innovative approaches to expand economic development and investment in Tribal communities across the country. The Biden-Harris administration has made strengthening the self-determination and economic vitality of Tribal Nations a key priority. Last December, President Biden signed a historic Executive Order urging federal agencies to make their funding streams and programs fully accessible to Tribal communities.  

Secretary Haaland visited the U.S. Geological Survey’s Great Lakes Science Center where scientists are leveraging funding from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to safeguard ecosystems in the Great Lakes and across the Midwest from invasive species like sea lamprey and zebra mussels. Tools like the Rapid environmental (e)DNA Assessment and Deployment Initiative & Network, known as READI-Net, are helping scientists with early detection of these damaging biological threats.

Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Carmen Cantor this week visited the embassies of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia to highlight the United States’ continuing commitment to the Freely Associated States. In 2023 both island nations, along with the Republic of Palau, signed agreements to extend economic assistance provisions for the next 20 years. During her visit the Assistant Secretary also announced more than $4 million in Technical Assistance Program funding to these strategic partners through the Office of Insular Affairs.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement this week awarded $400,000 in cooperative agreements for four watershed restoration projects in Iowa. The funds are part of OSMRE’s Watershed Cooperative Agreement Program -- they go to non-profit watershed restoration groups and other non-profit organizations for the construction of acid mine drainage treatment facilities that help restore the biological health of local streams.

The National Park Service this week announced separate grants, each aimed at preserving history and telling the whole of America's story. More than ten and half million dollars will be awarded to 15 projects in eight states, as part of the Historic Preservation Fund’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities grant program. That program focuses on the repair of historic structures on the campuses of HBCUs.  

And over $3.2 Million in grants will help to preserve and interpret World War II Japanese American Incarceration Sites. More than 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, were incarcerated by the U.S. government following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

And our social media Picture of the Week, this burrowing owl family at Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge in California. Unlike other owls, burrowing owls are active during the day, nesting in underground burrows and spending most of their time on the ground or on low perches.  

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That's This Week at Interior!  
 

This Week: Biden-Harris administration leaders announce $120 million for Tribal climate resilience in Michigan; Secretary Haaland and White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden convene a roundtable on Tribal access to capital; the Secretary visits the U.S. Geological Survey’s Great Lakes Science Center where scientists are working to safeguard Midwest ecosystems from invasive species; Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Carmen Cantor visits the island nation embassies to highlight the United States’ continuing commitment to the Freely Associated States; the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement awards $400,000 in cooperative agreements for watershed restoration projects in Iowa; the National Park Service announces grants aimed at preserving history and telling the whole of America's story; and our social media Picture of the Week is a hoot!

  • Video
    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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