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Soon after taking office today, President-elect Joe Biden is expected to sign more than a dozen executive orders aimed at undoing the Trump administration's harmful environmental legacy. The orders will direct multiple government agencies to review more than 100 policies, including 31 within the Interior Department, for possible reversal.
As a part of the effort, the Interior Department will review the boundaries of and protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, both of which had been dramatically reduced by the Trump administration. Similarly, a policy allowing oil companies to inadvertently kill birds without penalties under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act could be reversed, and rules designed to increase the safety and transparency of fracking on public lands could be reinstated.
President-elect Biden is also expected to announce a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Yesterday, the Trump administration quietly signed and issued nine drilling leases that had been purchased in its highly controversial Arctic Refuge lease sale. However, a Biden transition aide noted, "The outgoing administration cut numerous corners to rush through this lease sale. Under the moratorium that the President-elect is putting in place on Day 1, the Interior Department will fully evaluate the situation, and determine whether the leases signed are valid or not and whether decisions and processes that led up to the lease sale were conducted in conformance with the law."
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Climate change is drying out the headwaters. And everybody in the Colorado River Basin needs to be concerned.”
