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Climate experts close to President-elect Joe Biden are laying out their vision for the Interior department in 2021 and beyond. The Climate 21 Project, which is headed by former White House Council on Environmental Quality chair Christy Goldfuss, released a memo with recommendations for the first 100 days of the Biden administration. At the top: creating a climate council to advise the Interior secretary, and bringing the leadership of the Bureau of Land Management back to Washington, DC.
The "relocation" of BLM headquarters to Grand Junction, Colorado has been a disaster under Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and de facto BLM head William Perry Pendley. The day after Bernhardt officially opened the new office in August, a security guard told a visitor to the empty building, "no one's here."
The Climate 21 memo also recommends the Biden administration adopt policies to slow oil and gas leasing on public lands, and move quickly to boost renewable energy production on public lands and waters. Get more insights into Goldfuss's approach to public lands in this March episode of CWP's podcast.
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We have long held that the BLM needs a strong leadership presence in Washington, D.C., where they can support the administration's priorities by collaborating with sister agencies, the secretary's office and the Congress. The recent move to Colorado has created a lot of upheaval and disruption in the organization, and I would encourage the department's new political leadership to work with their career leaders to make any reorganizational moves so as to minimize further disruption.”
