** Interior misled Congress on BLM move
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2020
William Perry Pendley, House Natural Resources Committee ([link removed])

The top watchdog at the Interior Department found that political appointees misled Congress ([link removed]) when they testified that high rent was a factor in moving the Bureau of Land Management headquarters out of Washington, DC.

William Perry Pendley, the de facto head of the bureau, wrote that BLM wouldn't be able to keep its existing office because a new lease would exceed the cost limit set by the General Services Administration. That was irrelevant, though. The Inspector General found that the agency had been planning since 2016 ([link removed]) to move BLM staff into the main Interior building or other government offices—a fact that Pendley and then Assistant Secretary Joe Balash hid from Congress.

The Interior Department is still refusing to reveal how many BLM employees have actually moved to Grand Junction or other offices across the West, instead only pointing to planned positions ([link removed]) at the new ostensible—but mostly vacant ([link removed]) —headquarters.
Quick hits


** Drilling, mines, other projects hastened by Trump order
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** BLM moves to cut royalties for soda ash, potash, and other clients of Bernhardt's firm
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Watchdog: Pendley misled Congress on BLM move
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The Hill ([link removed]) | Federal News Network ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Because of climate change, burned forests won’t grow back the same
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Colorado Public Radio ([link removed])


** Opinion: Oil and gas drillers need to cover cleanup costs
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Albuquerque Journal ([link removed])


** “The only Black person out there:” Hiker reflects after completing the Colorado Trail
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CBS Denver ([link removed])


** 8 ways to ease overcrowding in national parks
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5280 ([link removed])
Quote of the day
There are a lot more barriers to hiking that people, who have been in it to for a while, don’t think about anymore. The entry level cost to backpacking is very expensive.”
—Patricia Cameron, Colorado Blackpackers ([link removed])
Picture this


** @USFWSAlaska ([link removed])
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Concentration: so
important when your dinner
swims and wants to win!

Brown Bear fishing in #Alaska ([link removed]) 's Kenai National #WildlifeRefuge #haiku@USFWSRefuges/Lisa Hupp

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