** Oil companies stockpile drilling permits as Trump administration ends
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Monday, January 11, 2021
BLM New Mexico (including Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas) has one of the largest oil and gas programs in the Bureau. The Carlsbad Bureau of Land Management field office sits in the heart of the booming Permian Basin. Photo: BLM New Mexico Flickr ([link removed])

Following the results of the November presidential election, oil companies began stockpiling drilling permits ([link removed]) in anticipation of the Biden administration's efforts to address climate change so that they can continue to drill on public lands for years to come.

According to an Associated Press analysis ([link removed]) of Bureau of Land Management data, there was a marked increase in bids on drilling leases, particularly in New Mexico and Wyoming, with energy companies submitting more than 3,000 drilling permit applications in a three-month period that included the election. Federal officials approved almost 1,400 drilling applications during that period, the highest number of approvals during Trump’s four-year term despite a global supply glut and an ongoing pandemic.

Houston-based EOG Resources amassed the most permits this year (1,024) including 549 since September, according to AP’s analysis ([link removed]) . CEO Lloyd Helms told a November investors conference ([link removed]) , “If he (Biden) tries to impose some regulations on how new federal permits are issued, we certainly already have an inventory, a large inventory, of existing federal permits that will sustain activity for several years."

The U.S. Geological Survey said in a 2018 study ([link removed]) that oil and gas extracted from public lands and waters generates the equivalent of almost 550 million tons of greenhouse gases annually. President-elect Biden said during the campaign ([link removed]) that he would ban new oil and gas permits (including fracking permits) on federal lands.


** Siege on U.S. Capitol has Western roots
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The Center for Western Priorities' (CWP) Deputy Director, Aaron Weiss spoke with several media outlets following the siege on the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday about the anti-government, anti-public lands extremist groups in the West who instigated the 2016 armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge ([link removed]) and those same groups' involvement in the destruction and violence at the Capitol. As Mr. Weiss told the Earth Island Journal ([link removed]) ,
“You can draw a straight line from the Bundy Ranch standoff and Malheur takeover to what happened in Washington," referencing the finding's from CWP’s 2016 report, Going to Extremes ([link removed]) , which highlights the explicit ties between anti-public lands extremists and mainstream politicians in the West.
Quick hits


** Land managers reckon with staggering environmental impact of increased outdoor recreation during pandemic
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** Native Americans in Montana are dying at rates 11 times higher than white residents
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The Intercept ([link removed])


** Oil companies stockpile drilling permits as Trump administration ends
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** Siege on U.S. Capitol has troubling Western roots
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Earth Island Journal ([link removed]) | High Country News ([link removed]) | KGW (Video) ([link removed]) | The Guardian ([link removed])


** Merrick Garland would bring rare environmental expertise as nominee for U.S. Attorney General
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Bloomberg Law ([link removed]) | Washington Post ([link removed]) | Politico ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Dire financial picture and sustained community opposition to gravel mine on BLM land near Glenwood Springs, CO
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Aspen Daily News ([link removed])


** Mount Rushmore seen as a monument to white supremacy as it sits in the heart of the Lakota universe
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Mother Jones ([link removed])


** Opinion: American bison shows conservation can offer a path to reconciliation and healing
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Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])
Quote of the day
We have been watching these folks for the past four years being coddled not just by Trump but by [Interior Secretary] David Bernhardt as well. Just this past New Year’s Eve, Bernhardt moved to reinstate the grazing privilege of the Hammond family to the very lands they razed…Now the president emboldened these groups to such an extent that they thought it was proper to invade the Capitol.”
—Aaron Weiss, Deputy Director of the Center for Western Priorities in Earth Island Journal ([link removed])
Picture this


** @Interior ([link removed])
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A frosty sunrise reads like a love letter in the heart of the prairie at Kulm Wetland Management District #NorthDakota ([link removed])

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