** Haaland's Senate confirmation hearing scheduled for next week
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Wednesday, February 17, 2021
New Mexico Congresswoman, Deb Haaland ([link removed]) .

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee announced ([link removed]) that the confirmation hearing for New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland will take place next Tuesday, February 23rd at 9:30am eastern time. If confirmed, she will become the first Native American Interior Secretary and the first Native American presidential cabinet member, making her nomination a historic choice.

A group of almost 500 national and regional organizations representing the interests of Native Americans, environmental justice advocates, Western communities, and outdoor businesses sent a letter ([link removed]) to Senate leadership expressing support for her nomination, and urging swift confirmation by the Senate.

Citing her service as Vice Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee and Chair of the National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands Subcommittee, the letter states ([link removed]) , "Representative Haaland is a proven leader and the right person to lead the charge against the existential threats of our time—tackling the climate, extinction and COVID-19 crises, and racial justice inequities on our federal public lands." The letter also references ([link removed]) the historic nature of Haaland's nomination and lived experience as a Native American woman as a necessary and "much-needed step toward reckoning with a long and troubling legacy while building new, lasting, equitable achievements.”


** Biden administration welcomes suggestions for reaching 30x30 conservation goal
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President Biden embraced ([link removed]) the bold conservation goal to protect 30 percent of America's land and water by 2030, including the aspirational objective in an executive order ([link removed]) he signed after just one week in office. The 30x30 goal is supported by a majority of Western voters ([link removed]) , and receives bipartisan support in Congress. Dan Ritzman, water and wildlife director for the Sierra Club lands program says ([link removed]) of the ambitious conservation goal, “One of the real exciting opportunities for 30x30 is that it’s really not a top-down mandate, where
someone in DC is drawing the map and getting us towards 30 percent. The idea is really locally driven conservation efforts—these are bottom-up campaigns, where people familiar with the land and affected by its management will be deeply involved in its conservation.”
Quick hits


** Federal judge rules against mining on 10 million acres of critical sage-grouse habitat
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Idaho Mountain Express ([link removed])


** Biden administration welcomes suggestions for reaching 30x30 conservation goal
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The Guardian ([link removed])


** Environmentalists condemn continued border wall construction in Arizona
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Congresswoman Deb Haaland's Interior Secretary confirmation hearing scheduled for next week
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CNN ([link removed])


** Disenfranchised coal miners look to the Biden administration to facilitate a just energy transition
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S&P Global ([link removed])


** New poll shows nearly 50 percent of Wyomingites prefer to limit where and how oil and gas drilling takes place
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Wyoming Public Media ([link removed])


** Package of public lands bills to be considered by House Committee next week
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National Parks Traveler ([link removed])


** Opinion: Pausing oil and gas leasing will protect Colorado's public lands and communities
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Denver Post ([link removed])
Quote of the day
For too long, overproduction and oversupply of fossil fuels, coupled with the bankruptcies and mergers resulting from poor financial management, have created devastating boom-and-bust cycles in small towns. By reforming the broken oil and gas leasing system, and building on Colorado’s existing just transition plan for fossil fuel reliant communities, we can build a more solid foundation in every corner of our state."
—Colorado State Representative Dominique Jackson ([link removed])
Picture this


** @USFWSIntl ([link removed])
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Here's a terrific new story about how African-Americans played a huge, but little-known role in the creation of wildlife refuges, titled the "Unsung heroes of American conservation" [link removed]… ([link removed]) , #BlackHistoryMonth ([link removed]) , #WeAreUSFWS ([link removed]) , #wildlifeconservation ([link removed])
[link removed]


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