September, in brief

Key news from September:

• The Department of the Interior announced it will cancel all seven remaining oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which were issued under a rushed and legally deficient leasing process during the Trump administration. The Interior department also released a proposed rule to increase protections for designated Special Areas—landscapes particularly sensitive to oil and gas development—within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), an area along Alaska's North Slope set aside for emergency oil drilling. The proposed rule would put 10.6 million acres—more than 40 percent—of the NPR-A off-limits to future oil and gas development. It would also protect 13 million acres encompassed by existing Special Areas by limiting future oil and gas leasing and industrial development in five Special Areas known for their abundance of wildlife.
   
• Conservation groups, leaders of the Blackfeet Nation, and the federal government reached an agreement with oil and gas company Solenex, LLC to permanently retire the last remaining federal oil and gas lease within Badger-Two Medicine. The Badger-Two Medicine is an area in northwestern Montana nestled between Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The area consists of about 130,000 acres, and is considered sacred by the Blackfeet Nation due to its cultural and historical significance to the Blackfeet people. The Badger-Two Medicine also serves as a migration corridor for elk, wolverines, grizzly bears, and westslope cutthroat trout.
   
• The Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands campaign is calling for the protection of Oregon's Owyhee Canyonlands as a national monument before the end of 2024. The campaign is urging Congress to act on legislation introduced for the third time in four years by Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkeley. If Congress fails to act, the campaign is requesting that President Biden use the Senators' proposal as a blueprint for a national monument designation using executive authority granted to the president under the Antiquities Act of 1906. According to the campaign, the Owyhee Canyonlands is the largest conservation opportunity in the American West. The proposed legislation would protect over one million acres of federal public lands, safeguarding the landscape and parts of the Owyhee River from industrial development and the impacts of climate change.
   
• The White House launched the American Climate Corps with the hope of putting 20,000 young people to work over the next year combatting climate change and promoting clean energy. The new program will pay participants, and most positions will not require previous experience. The Biden administration is also proposing new regulations aimed at making it easier for participants to enter federal public service after the program.
   
• Elected officials, community leaders, and residents of the eastern Coachella Valley region of California joined Representative Raul Ruiz at a press conference to call on President Joe Biden to designate Chuckwalla National Monument and expand Joshua Tree National Park. Located to the south of Joshua Tree National Park and north of the Chocolate Mountains, the monument would permanently protect approximately 660,000 acres of federal public lands and add 17,000 acres to Joshua Tree National Park.

What to watch for in October:

• How will a government shutdown impact public lands?
• Will President Biden designate another new national monument?

From the Center for Western Priorities:

Analysis shows overwhelming public support for proposed Oil and Gas Rule

A new statistical analysis of more than 260,000 public comments finds universal support for the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed rule updating the regulations that govern oil and gas leasing on American public lands. The proposed rule would bring BLM’s regulations into compliance with the Inflation Reduction Act’s overhaul of the leasing, rental, and royalty rates oil and gas companies pay to extract oil and gas owned by the American people. The rule would also update requirements for the bonds that companies must post in order to ensure they clean up after themselves.

The Center for Western Priorities performed a sentiment analysis on a random sample of 10,000 public comments submitted to regulations.gov, which found more than 99 percent of the comments encouraged the Interior Department to adopt the Oil and Gas Rule largely as written. Another one half of one percent of the comments were neutral on the details of the rule, generally requesting that BLM end all oil and gas drilling or take other actions outside the scope of the proposed rule. Just one tenth of one percent of the public comments encouraged BLM to withdraw or significantly weaken the proposed rule. The statistical analysis has a margin of error of ±0.5 percent.

“The overwhelming response to the BLM’s common-sense reforms shows a level of consensus that’s unprecedented for a federal rulemaking,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director at the Center for Western Priorities and the author of the analysis. “Finding any opposition in the public comments is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

With the comment period closed, the BLM will now review and respond to technical comments on the proposed rule. A final rule is expected to be published in the winter or spring of 2024.

Kate and Aaron are joined by Alan Zibel with Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group focused on the influence of big business in government, and Nichole Heil with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a watchdog group focused on bringing transparency and accountability to the private equity sector, to talk about a report they co-authored. The report, Private Profits, Public Risks, looks into how Wall Street—or private equity—firms are funding new drilling on public land and threatening to leave taxpayers with a massive clean up bill.

Aaron and Kate are joined by Ben Goldfarb, an award-winning environmental journalist and author who covers wildlife conservation, marine science, and public lands management, to talk about his new book, Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, which is out now from Norton. In Crossings, Goldfarb explores how roads have made our planet perilous to animals, as well as how we can make roads safer for both wildlife and people. Goldfarb’s first book, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, won the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and was listed on the Washington Post’s 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction.

Extremist group that compares 30x30 to genocide is getting taxpayer money

The Daily Beast
 

Thousands of federal firefighters face a looming pay cut

NPR
 

Opinion: Modernize the federal oil and gas program

Colorado Sun
 

Environmentalists sue Utah for failing to protect the shrinking Great Salt Lake

Grist
 

As Colorado River shrinks, California farmers urge ‘one-dam solution’

Los Angeles Times
 

As Burning Man begins muddy cleanup efforts on BLM land, its climate reckoning has begun

Gizmodo
 

Wyoming is killing Colorado’s wolves and keeping it a secret

WyoFile
 

California sues oil companies for climate deception and damages

New York Times
 

Interior protects sacred lands in New Mexico from mineral development

Associated Press
 

Report: How the feds can hold oil and gas accountable

Center for American Progress

“The clean energy transition cannot occur on the backs of Indigenous people. As the Biden administration supports the expansion of domestic mining, it is imperative that these modest reforms are implemented immediately and that Indigenous voices have a full seat at the table.”

—Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Verlon Jose, Washington Post