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Shortly after being sworn in, President Joe Biden signed a flurry of executive orders aimed at reasserting American leadership in fighting climate change. Biden announced the United States will reenter the Paris Climate Agreement and that his administration would cancel permits for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
Several moves could have significant impacts in the West, as Biden ordered administrative agencies to review, and possibly reverse, damaging Trump administration policies. At the Interior Department, staff will review policies that reduce safeguards for fracking on public lands, remove protections for migratory birds, weaken environmental reviews for timber sales on public lands, remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list, and reduce protections for sage-grouse habitat to allow more drilling and mining.
Notably, the president also directed the Interior Department to review President Trump's decision to dramatically shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah. In recent months, local governments near Bears Ears National Monument have passed resolutions asking President Biden to restore protections, led by a historic Navajo majority on the San Juan County Commission.
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Secretary Bernhardt is throwing sand in the gears on his way out the door. He hates wilderness so much that he's signing orders just so Deb Haaland can issue them again the moment she's sworn in. This is regulatory vandalism.”
