** January, in brief: Welcome to 2021
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Sunrise over Mount Rainier National Park, Joseph Gruber ([link removed]) , CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ([link removed])


** Key news from January:
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* Shortly after being sworn in, President Joe Biden made it clear that addressing the climate and nature crises will be a priority of his administration. Biden announced the United States will reenter the Paris Climate Agreement ([link removed]) and that his administration would cancel permits ([link removed]) for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Biden also ordered ([link removed]) administrative agencies to review, and possibly reverse, damaging Trump administration policies, as well as President Trump's decision to dramatically shrink ([link removed]) Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah.
* President Biden signed a sweeping set of executive orders ([link removed]) to address the climate crisis head-on. The orders commit ([link removed]) America to protecting 30 percent of its land and water by 2030 (the 30x30 goal), create a Civilian Climate Corps, and focus action on low-income communities and communities of color. Earlier this month, a coalition of more than 50 countries ([link removed]) across six continents came together and also pledged support for the 30x30 goal. President Biden's orders also temporarily pause oil and gas leasing on national public lands, allowing the administration to evaluate a broken oil and gas leasing system
([link removed]) that serves companies while hurting communities and taxpayers. This action will not devastate the oil and gas industry, as the industry has stockpiled ([link removed]-----------------------) millions of extra acres of leases that now sit idle, in addition to years-worth of approved but unused drilling permits.
* The Trump administration used its final month to eviscerate public land protections and environmental regulations. The Interior Department reversed an Obama-era rule to allow oil, gas, and coal companies to skirt royalties owed to taxpayers; opened 9.7 million acres ([link removed]) of public lands in Western Alaska to new drilling and mining; and approved a four-lane highway through Utah’s Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, key habitat for the desert tortoise.
* Following efforts to rush through the process ([link removed]) to drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Trump administration's lease sale was an epic failure. The oil and gas industry largely ignored ([link removed]) the long-awaited lease sale, leaving an Alaska state agency as the main bidder. The agency put up all but two of the winning bids, which were made by small oil and gas companies. Only eleven tracts were sold ([link removed]) , for a total of $14.4 million in revenue: far less than had originally been estimated.
* Birds had a bad month. On National Bird Day, the Trump administration gutted protections ([link removed]) for migratory birds. The final rule ([link removed]) weakens enforcement of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) so that companies will not be penalized ([link removed]) for accidentally or incidentally harming or killing birds, such as through oil spills, toxic waste, or other environmental hazards. The Trump administration also opened ([link removed]) up millions of acres of spotted owl habitat to logging.
* On January 6th, a mob incited by President Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 election by taking over the U.S. Capitol. Although many were shocked by the violent insurrectionists, the extremist ideologies and tactics that President Trump has stoked among his supporters are the same ideologies ([link removed]) that led to a violent occupation of public lands in Oregon five years ago. Many of the groups that participated in the armed occupation of the Capitol are the same ones that have threatened American public lands for years.
* It came out that last month former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt quietly signed a directive ([link removed]) that could dramatically shape the Bureau of Land Management's law enforcement protocols—without notifying BLM state directors. By approving the proposed changes, Bernhardt ignored the recommendations ([link removed]) of career Interior Department and BLM officials developed over a two-year process that called for more oversight of law enforcement personnel.
* Newly-released statistics revealed how the Trump administration successfully eliminated the leadership at the Bureau of Land Management. Former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s decision to “relocate” jobs to an ostensible new headquarters in Grand Junction, Colorado led to the departure of nearly 90 percent of BLM employees from the DC office ([link removed]) .


** What to watch for in February:
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* Confirmation hearings for key climate and environment positions will continue throughout February. Michael Regan, nominee for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, will have his hearing on February 3, and other hearings are waiting to be scheduled, such as for Interior Secretary nominee Deb Haaland.
* The Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee is holding a hearing on February 3 to establish climate baselines, examining global trends and assessing progress towards climate goals.
* Colorado College is expected to release its 11th annual “Conservation in the West” poll, a benchmark of voter attitudes towards public lands across eight Rocky Mountain West states.
* On day one, President Biden ordered agencies to review over 100 of the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks. In the coming months, we will see the reviews come in and hopefully many of the rollbacks rejected.
* On February 10, a federal judge will consider whether to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline, following an appellate court’s ruling for a new environmental impact study.

Best Reads of the Month


** Wall Street eyes billions in Colorado's water; water managers tell Wall Street to buzz off
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New York Times ([link removed]) | Colorado Sun ([link removed]) (Buzz off)


** Diversifying the Forest Service through the eyes of the first African American woman forest supervisor
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Earth Island Journal ([link removed])


** Opinion: Scholars on moving from rhetoric to reality and achieving climate justice
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The Hill ([link removed])


** Colorado wants to help after coal leaves town. It’s going to take time. And a lot of money.
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Colorado Sun ([link removed])


** How the Zoom boom is changing the West
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High Country News ([link removed])


** Scientists warn of "ghastly future" for not taking seriously the threats posed by biodiversity loss & climate change
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The Guardian ([link removed])


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



** After a decades-long fight, tribal nations reclaim the National Bison Range
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High Country News ([link removed])
From the Center for Western Priorities:


** The dismal legacy of Trump’s ‘Energy Dominance’ agenda
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The Center for Western Priorities released a report ([link removed]) assessing the impacts of the Trump administration’s four-year efforts to enact a drill-everywhere “Energy Dominance” agenda on our nation’s public lands, slashing public health and environmental safeguards to benefit the oil and gas industry. The report, titled “The Dismal Legacy of Trump’s ‘Energy Dominance’ Agenda ([link removed]) ,” recommends the Biden administration order a long-term pause on future oil leases to give the Interior Department time to reform the leasing program in a way that accounts for the climate impacts of oil and gas drilling and ensures taxpayers get a fair return from publicly-owned resources.

“Dismal Legacy” shows how the Trump administration magnified pre-existing problems in the oil and gas system, increasing waste of public resources and the risk of orphaned wells, benefitting companies instead of taxpayers, devastating sensitive lands, and marginalizing the public. Led by former oil lobbyist Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, the Trump administration took full advantage of an outdated legal system that allows oil and gas companies to identify where they want to drill, easily obtain drilling permits, and pay minuscule royalties to taxpayers for extracting publicly-owned oil and gas.

The “Dismal Legacy ([link removed]) ” report offers suggestions for comprehensively reforming the leasing system, including eliminating the oil and gas industry’s sweetheart deals, protecting taxpayers from orphaned well liabilities, and restoring the important role of the public, Native American tribes, and other stakeholders in the leasing process.
Read the report ([link removed])
[link removed]


** David Bernhardt aided and abetted seditionists ([link removed])
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** Trump’s Interior Secretary took official steps to help the insurrection on his way out of office
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** The sky is not falling on the oil and gas industry ([link removed])
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** Pausing new oil leasing is the first step towards overhauling our broken, rigged, and outdated public lands drilling system
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Inside the Trump administration's destructive final days ([link removed])

Jenny Rowland-Shea ([link removed]) of the Center for American Progress joins CWP’s policy director Jesse Prentice-Dunn to look at the barrage of environmental damage being unleashed by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in the waning days of the Trump administration, as well as the tools the Biden administration may use to stop it.
Sally Jewell on climate change, extremism, and listening ([link removed])

In this episode of CWP’s The Landscape ([link removed]) , a conversation with former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell about President Biden’s executive order on climate change, the threat of anti-public lands extremists, and how to build coalitions and consensus through listening.
Quote of the month


** "Now the hard work begins—it’s going to take unprecedented partnerships between the U.S. government, states, cities, and private landowners to reach the 30×30 goal."
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** —Jennifer Rokala, Executive Director of the Center for Western Priorities ([link removed])
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Picture this
At Interior, we're committed to outlining what it will take to conserve at least 30% of our lands & waters by 2030. Learn more about @POTUS ([link removed]) 's plan for restoring balance on public lands & investing in a clean energy future: [link removed] [link removed]

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