October, in brief

Key news from October:

• The Biden administration announced the designation of Laura Daniel-Davis as the acting deputy secretary of the Interior, replacing outgoing Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau. Daniel-Davis is currently the principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management at Interior. “Laura Daniel-Davis is the obvious and well-qualified choice for the number two spot at Interior,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director for the Center for Western Priorities. “She has the experience and deep knowledge of the challenges facing America’s public lands today, and as an existing member of Interior’s top leadership team, she will be able to step into the deputy secretary’s office with ease.”
   
• A coalition of U.S. senators, led by Colorado and New Mexico's delegations, are pushing the Bureau of Land Management to finish updating the bonding requirements for oil and gas companies that drill on American public lands. The current minimum bonds that oil and gas companies must post in order to extract publicly-owned oil and gas haven't been updated in 50 years, and the Government Accountability Office has warned that taxpayers face millions of dollars in liability when drillers abandon wells without cleaning up. The rates were on track to be overhauled in the Inflation Reduction Act, but the provisions were removed on procedural grounds by the Senate parliamentarian. The Interior Department then proposed to update its bonding rates as part of its oil and gas leasing rule. Ninety-nine percent of public comments encouraged the agency to finalize or even strengthen the final rule.
   
• Despite changes to the federal oil and gas leasing program that upped the cost of drilling on public land, oil and gas production in the U.S. is soaring under the Biden administration. U.S. crude oil production has been climbing since Joe Biden came into office and is now nearing record highs, according to data released this month by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The agency projects that oil production will hit a new all-time high next year. Meanwhile, domestic natural gas production has also been hovering around record highs. While the Biden administration has sought to balance oil and gas leasing with other priorities, such as protecting cultural sites and biodiversity on public lands as well as raising bonding requirements, it has actually approved more permits for drilling on public lands than the Trump administration had over the same period of time.
   
• A new Bureau of Land Management travel plan for more than 300,000 acres of public land in southeast Utah prioritizes conservation and protects wildlife habitat and cultural resources. The plan, which is supported by local officials and the boating community, closes around 400 miles of dirt roads in the planning area, leaving over 800 miles available to off-roaders. The plan seeks to balance recreation and conservation in a much-visited area that has seen a surge in off-road vehicle use in recent years, according to High Country News. The land included in the plan surrounds popular destinations like Labyrinth Canyon, a 49-mile segment of the Green River that is federally protected under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
   
• More than 100 policymakers in the U.S. House of Representatives gathered to unveil the Clean Water Act of 2023, legislation that would restore protections for wetlands in the United States. The legislation is a response to Sackett v. EPA, a landmark Supreme Court decision that gutted protections for most of the nation's wetlands. In the ruling, the court concluded that waters are not protected under the Clean Water Act of 1972 unless they have a continuous surface connection to key lakes and rivers that affect interstate commerce. In other words, waters that have an underground connection to lakes or rivers, or are at all separated by barriers, are no longer protected by the Clean Water Act. The proposed Clean Water Act of 2023 would reinstate the prior definition of protected waters.
   
• Climate activists warn that two mega-mergers among oil companies could slow the energy transition and make it even less likely the world hits targets necessary to limit climate catastrophes. First, ExxonMobil's merger with Pioneer Natural Resources established ExxonMobil as a dominant player in the Permian Basin across New Mexico and Texas. This month, Chevron announced it's purchasing Hess in a $53 billion deal, adding to its portfolio in North Dakota's Bakken shale and overseas. E&E News reports that both companies say the mergers will allow them to increase production into the 2030s.

What to watch for in November:

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

From the Center for Western Priorities:

Conservation Toolbox

The Center for Western Priorities released Conservation Toolbox, a comprehensive guide to the many federal tools available to protect America’s land, water, and biodiversity.

Beyond the most well-known designations like national parks and national monuments, there are many different tools available for achieving conservation objectives, and this guide helps readers understand the options available to policymakers and communities looking to protect public lands.

Some tools provide stronger, more durable protections, while others are quicker and easier to implement. All will be necessary in order to reach the national goal of protecting 30 percent of America’s land and water by 2030, a target scientists urge is necessary to protect biodiversity and mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.

“Conservation Toolbox seeks to emphasize that conservation is not a “one and done” scenario—it is more often a path than a final destination,” said Lauren Bogard, Director of Campaigns at the Center for Western Priorities and the co-author of the report. “The examples in this report show that small steps can often lead to major land protections. A local effort to better preserve a special area or fragile landscape today could start a cascade that leads to the designation of a new national park or monument years from now. And at the current rate of biodiversity loss, there’s no time to wait.”

The report includes detailed information about and examples of 17 conservation tools and methods, as well as a strength and durability chart showing how permanent and protective each tool is in relation to the others. The tools and methods included in the report were chosen with a focus on those best able to increase protection for cultural sites and biodiversity on federal public lands.

Kate and Aaron are joined by three other members of the Center for Western Priorities for this episode focused on a new report from CWP. The Conservation Toolbox report is a directory of the major land protection tools available to help preserve federal public lands. CWP’s Director of Campaigns and Special Projects, Lauren Bogard, Policy and Design Associate, Lilly Bock-Brownstein, and Outreach and Campaigns Associate, Sterling Homard, talk about the process of putting the report together and how they hope it will be used for conservation, recreation, and more.

Kate and Aaron are joined by Tim Davis, founder and executive director of Friends of the Owyhee, and Karly Foster, campaign manager at the Oregon Natural Desert Association, to talk about how we can better protect the Owyhee Canyonlands. The Owyhee Canyonlands span from southeast Oregon into southwest Idaho, and it is one of the most remote, intact landscapes in the Western U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon is running a bill that would help balance extractive uses and conservation in the landscape, and the coalition working to protect the Owyhee just launched a campaign asking President Joe Biden to designate the region as a monument, as well.

How Dianne Feinstein helped preserve the California desert

Los Angeles Times
 

Arizona moves to end lease for controversial Saudi-owned farm

New York Times
 

White Sands National Park footprints offer earliest evidence of humans in U.S.

Washington Post
 

When it comes to mining on sacred lands, some tribal members say their voices have been overlooked

Sierra Nevada Ally
 

Opinion: A long-overdue effort to protect our public lands

Salt Lake Tribune
 

Uranium hype heats up across the West

The Land Desk
 

Environmentalists are turning a rugged stretch of California coast into a lab for conservation

Los Angeles Times
 

Scientists lay out a sweeping roadmap for transitioning the U.S. off fossil fuels

Grist
 

New refuge provides hope for critically endangered toad

High Country News
 

Saving what's left of Wyoming's sagebrush steppe is complicated

WyoFile

“The story of the American buffalo is also the story of Native nations who lived with and relied on the buffalo to survive, developing a sacred relationship that evolved over more than 10,000 years but which was almost completely severed in fewer than 100.”

—Ken Burns, director of "The American Buffalo," Albuquerque Journal