** Interior becomes climate change battlefield
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Wednesday, April 14, 2021
The Interior Department has the opportunity to shift the focus on public lands from oil and gas drilling to renewable energy, T ([link removed]) om Brewster Photography, Bureau of Land Management ([link removed])

As the Biden administration pushes an aggressive climate change agenda to confront environmental crises, the Interior Department has emerged as a key player ([link removed]) in enacting that agenda. Interior oversees on and offshore energy exploration and production in the United States, giving it wide leverage over the oil and gas industry and its associated emissions. Research has found that about 25 percent of the country's carbon emissions come from oil and gas produced on public lands.

A review of the oil and gas leasing program ([link removed]) is one of the first steps through Interior to address climate change, and President Biden has also proposed reassessing outdated royalty rates for drilling on public lands or eliminating industry tax breaks ([link removed]) .

Interior Secretary Haaland, has said she understands how Western states depend on drilling revenue. At the same time, “I also recognize that demand and energy innovations are diversifying and so are states’ revenue sources and economies,” she said ([link removed]) . “We have to reduce the reliance on the booms and busts of the oil industry.”

Joel Clement ([link removed]) , a former Interior official and now senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, agreed. “Eventually, the Department of Interior is going to have to get out of the business of checking boxes for drilling permits and use federal lands to ease that transition to clean energy,” he said ([link removed]) . “There’s nothing in the department’s authorizing language that precludes that. It’s just politics and agency culture. And it’s a heavy lift.”

Recent struggles ([link removed]) over Interior Department leadership nominations is another example of how the agency has become a climate change battlefield. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Joe Manchin recently weighed in to endorse the moderate Tommy Beaudreau for Interior deputy secretary. Beaudreau was the first director of the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management during the Obama administration, and environmentalists in Alaska have praised his record as a conservationist and his ability to listen and compromise. The White House is expected to nominate Beaudreau for the position today ([link removed]) .
Quick hits


** Texas shows why bonding reform must go hand-in-hand with abandoned oil and gas well cleanup
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Quartz ([link removed])


** A warmer climate may spell doom for Western butterflies, demonstrating link between climate and nature crises
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Wyoming Public Media ([link removed])


** Opinion: Leveraging partnerships and co-benefits will be key to the success of 30x30
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The Hill ([link removed])


** Western U.S. may be entering its most severe drought in modern history
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CBS News ([link removed])


** What a Deb Haaland-led Interior might mean for Colorado's public lands
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Colorado Public Radio ([link removed])


** Snake River tops imperiled list as group urges dam removal
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Groups appeal plan to pump oilfield waste into Wyoming aquifer
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WyoFile ([link removed])


** 6 alternatives to America’s most popular national parks. Or, check out this national monument with volcanic rock and ice caves
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Washington Post ([link removed]) [Alternatives] | Thrillist ([link removed]) [Monument]
Quote of the day
With so many ways to meet the 30x30 target, we can choose to protect places that simply get us to 30 percent, or we can choose places that also serve other purposes, like addressing health disparities, reducing exposure to pollutants, improving water or food security, making nature more accessible, or diversifying income streams in rural economies."

—Amanda D. Rodewald, professor and senior director of conservation science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and faculty at Cornell University, The Hill ([link removed])
Picture this


** @I ([link removed]) nterior ([link removed])
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Each spring the playful bison calves or "red dogs" join the herd. This newborn with mom, just minutes old, fights against a slight breeze to balance and hold itself up for the first time @YellowstoneNPS ([link removed]) Pic by Taylor Albright ([link removed] ([link removed]) )

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