** Interior offers 400 million acres to oil companies amid supply glut
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Thursday, February 13, 2020
Oil infrastructure in Colorado ([link removed])

Since the beginning of the Trump administration, oil companies have leased just under 10 million acres of public lands for development ([link removed]) . However, those 10 million acres leased are just a fraction of the staggering 461 million acres ([link removed]) of public lands and waters offered to the oil and gas industry. According to the analysis ([link removed]) conducted by The Wilderness Society, that figure is equivalent to four times the size of California. The report emphasizes the significant negative environmental impact of the greenhouse gas emissions from leases issued for public lands and waters.

It's all part of the Trump administration's plan to encourage drilling on public lands and offshore by offering more acres for lease at bargain basement rates, though critics question the need to lease so many acres when there is currently a glut of supply in the market. Among them is David Hayes, former Deputy Interior Secretary under President Obama, who says ([link removed]) , "We’re in an era now where fundamental questions need to be raised about whether there should be more leasing or not. Millions of acres are already under lease that are not being developed.”


** Interior Department budget proposal reflects the Trump administration's anti-conservation values
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Despite the stewardship rhetoric from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, the former oil and gas lobbyist leading the Interior Department,
the Trump administration’s proposed budget ([link removed]) for Fiscal Year 2021 would cut funding for conservation, parks, endangered species, and climate change research while bolstering fossil fuel production on public lands. The budget calls for a 16 percent cut ([link removed]) across the department’s budget, and individual agency cuts would cripple America’s land managers, opening the door for more drilling and mining ([link removed]) .
Quick hits


** House Natural Resources Committee votes to give Chairman authority to subpoena Interior Department
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The Hill ([link removed]) | Government Executive ([link removed]) | Politico ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Critics decry BLM Utah's proposal to offer oil and gas leasing near the popular Slickrock mountain bike trail
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Outside ([link removed])


** U.S. House passes largest wilderness designation package in a decade
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Grand Junction Daily Sentinel ([link removed]) | Colorado Independent ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Interior Department budget proposal will consolidate resources, power under former Koch operative
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Interior Department budget proposal reflects the Trump administration's anti-conservation values
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Westwise ([link removed]) | Outside ([link removed]) | Wyoming Public Media ([link removed]) | Carlsbad Current-Argus ([link removed])


** Busy transportation corridors can be a death trap for Grizzly Bears
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New York Times ([link removed])


** Trump administration's public lands giveaway to oil companies is four times the size of California
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The Guardian ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Colorado wildlife officials seek solution to declining elk herds
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Durango Herald ([link removed])
Quote of the day
We have policies that govern the way we lease our federal lands for oil and gas development that are a century old, and they just haven’t kept pace. And we have others that haven’t been looked at in decades. This has led to really a tremendous giveaway [to the oil and gas industry].”
—Autumn Hanna ([link removed]) , vice-president of Taxpayers for Common Sense
Picture this


** Mountain biking near Moab, Utah. Photo: BLM ([link removed])
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