This Week at Interior March 29, 2024

Transcript:

My name is Kim Mantey, I'm the Director of the National Geospatial Technical Operations Center, our site in Rolla, Missouri, and you're watching This Week at Interior!

This Week, at Interior

Secretary Haaland traveled to Michigan this week, where she announced a $5.87 million investment through the President’s Investing in America agenda for the state to plug and restore orphaned oil and gas wells. As part of its award, Michigan will measure methane emissions from orphaned wells, screen for groundwater and surface water impacts and prioritize cleaning up wells near overburdened, low-income and Tribal communities.

Secretary Haaland also visited the San Francisco Bay Area this week, to highlight how historic funding from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is helping to restore our nation’s lands and waters. The Secretary toured the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, which is receiving $2 million from the Investing in America agenda to improve recreational opportunities for local communities along the San Francisco Bay. She also announced $58.3 million in funding for communities in 11 states across the United States to create new parks and trails or fund substantial renovations to existing parks through the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership program.

Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Principal Deputy Director Sharon Buccino traveled to Richmond, Virginia, this week, where they announced more than $22.8 million in funding from the President’s Investing in America agenda to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mines, create good-paying, family-sustaining jobs and catalyze economic opportunity in Virginia. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocates a total of $16 billion to address legacy pollution, including $11.3 billion in abandoned mine land funding over 15 years.

Interior this week announced a final rule from the Bureau of Land Management that will curb the waste of natural gas during the production of oil and gas on federal and Tribal lands. The rule strengthens leak detection, holds oil and gas companies accountable, and ensures a fair return to taxpayers for wasted gas. It's expected to generate more than $50 million in additional natural gas royalty payments each year and conserve billions of cubic feet of gas that might otherwise have been vented, flared, or leaked from oil and gas operations.  

Interior this week announced the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval of the Sunrise Wind offshore wind project – the nation’s seventh approval of a commercial-scale offshore wind project under President Biden’s leadership. Sunrise Wind is located about 16 and half nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and will have a total capacity of 924-megawatts of clean, renewable energy that could power more than 320,000 homes per year.

Interior and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation this week announced $11.8 million for 10 projects in seven states that will help restore habitat connectivity and secure key migration corridors for wildlife in the American West. A total of $3 million in grants and $8.8 million in matching contributions will be invested to protect migratory species like elk, mule deer and pronghorn and their habitats in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton visited Toquerville, Utah, this week, where she announced a $35 million investment from the Investing in America agenda for six small surface and groundwater storage projects in Utah and California. The projects are each receiving funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and will increase water supply reliability, improve operational flexibility and enhance resilience to the effects of climate change.  

And our social media Picture of the Week...Idaho's Big Southern Butte. It's one of the largest volcanic domes in the world, but at 300,000 years old, it's also one of the youngest. And hikers who trek to the 7,550-foot-high summit are rewarded with spectacular panoramic views of Idaho.  

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

That's This Week at Interior!

 

This Week: Secretary Haaland travels to Michigan to announce nearly $6 million to plug and restore orphaned oil and gas wells; in California the Secretary highlights how historic funding from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is helping to restore our nation’s lands and waters; Interior announces more than $22.8 million to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mines in Virginia; there's a final rule from the Bureau of Land Management that will curb the waste of natural gas during the production of oil and gas on federal and Tribal lands; Interior gives the go ahead on the seventh offshore wind project of the Biden-Harris Administration; there's new funding on the way to help restore habitat connectivity and secure key migration corridors for wildlife in the American West; we'll tell you about new funding from the Investing in America agenda for six small surface and groundwater storage projects in Utah and California; and we head for Idaho for our social media Picture of the Week!

  • Video
    04/11/2025

    This Week at Interior April 11, 2025

    Video

    Transcript:

    (MUSIC BEGINS)


    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!


    (MUSIC ENDS)

     

    News and headlines from Interior April 11, 2025

    Read more