** Biden administration fills out environmental positions
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Thursday, April 15, 2021
Lisa Hupp/USFWS ([link removed])

Yesterday saw a flurry of movement on the personnel front of the Biden administration's environmental agenda.

In a bipartisan vote, the Senate confirmed ([link removed]) Brenda Mallory to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the body that advises the president on environmental issues such as justice and conservation. CEQ is also in charge of implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which is a bedrock environmental law that was rolled back during the Trump administration. Mallory has decades of experience ([link removed]) , and will be the first Black chair of CEQ ([link removed]) .

News broke yesterday that Biden intends to nominate National Wildlife Federation senior advisor for conservation policy Tracy Stone-Manning ([link removed]) as the next Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Stone-Manning has served ([link removed]) as chief of staff to Montana's former Governor Steve Bullock, in addition to leading Montana's department of Environmental Quality. She brings extensive experience working with diverse constituents to realize environmental progress. Stone-Manning would enter a badly damaged BLM on the heels ([link removed]) of never-confirmed anti-public lands extremist William Perry Pendley.

President Biden officially announced ([link removed]) that he will nominate Tommy Beaudreau, an Obama-era official, to be Deputy Interior Secretary. Beaudreau served ([link removed]) as the first director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in addition to Interior chief of staff. The nomination comes after extensive work to find a moderate nominee ([link removed]) who could work effectively on both sides of the aisle.

Nine others were listed in President Biden's announcement of o ([link removed]) fficial nominations ([link removed]) , including three at Interior, three at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and three within the Energy and Transportation departments. All will have significant impact on President Biden's ambitious climate and conservation agenda.
Quick hits


** Biden's plan to clean up oil and gas wells is promising but lacks a key element: bonding reform
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The American Prospect ([link removed])


** Conservation exec Tracy Stone-Manning on deck as BLM nominee
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Daily Montanan ([link removed]) | Missoula Current ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed]) | Montana Standard ([link removed])


** Fixing holes in recreation data could help communities in the West
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Wyoming Public Media ([link removed])


** Groups take aim at New Mexico drilling plan amid US review
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Washington Post ([link removed]) | Carlsbad Current-Argus ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Interior further delays Trump rule that would make drillers pay less to feds, shortchange taxpayers
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The Hill ([link removed])


** Biden picks lawyer Tommy Beaudreau as Interior Department’s No. 2 official
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Washington Post ([link removed]) | The Hill ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Senate confirms Biden's pick to lead White House environmental council
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The Hill ([link removed]) | The White House ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** 200 groups to Interior: Weigh climate, NEPA in oil review
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E&E News ([link removed])
Quote of the day
Tracy Stone-Manning has the vision and experience to lead the Bureau of Land Management through one of its most pressing times. Over the last four years, political leaders gutted the Bureau of Land Management headquarters and turned the agency into a rubber stamp for drilling and mining permits.The damage wrought by the Trump administration on an agency which manages one-tenth of the land area in the United States is almost incalculable."

—Center for Western Priorities ([link removed]) Executive Director Jennifer Rokala
Picture this


** @U ([link removed]) SFWSRefuges ([link removed])
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As Earth Day (April 22) approaches, the National Wildlife Refuge System offers ways to help ourselves and the planet thrive: [link removed] ([link removed]) Photo: Monarch butterfly John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum Pennsylvania By Rick L. Hansen/ @USFWS ([link removed])

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