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As we approach the first anniversary of President Biden’s first year in office, the Center for Western Priorities released a progress report that takes stock of more than 90 policy changes impacting public lands that have been undertaken by the administration so far. The Biden administration’s first year has been a significant one, launching an unprecedented vision for land protection and addressing climate change, while also taking several inexplicable steps backwards on oil and gas drilling.
CWP identified five broad areas of focus on public lands for the Biden administration: Renewable energy, fossil fuels, the 30×30 effort to protect lands and waters, wildlife protections, and organizational changes. In those areas, we tracked 80 separate administrative actions, along with 13 other actions that did not fit neatly into the five categories.
The progress report takes a look at the positive and negative impacts of the Biden administration’s actions so far, as well as the potential for the president’s conservation legacy if he follows through on policy changes that are currently underway.
On climate change, the president’s bold action to increase renewable energy was tainted by his decision to unleash a “carbon bomb” by holding a massive oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. Another climate progress analysis from Evergreen Action finds that the administration made meaningful climate progress over the past year, but needs to move faster to meet its climate commitments.
When it comes to conservation, the president’s “America the Beautiful” initiative could become President Biden’s signature achievement if he and his administration move quickly to reach the 30×30 goal of protecting 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by the end of the decade.
Public lands extremist charged with seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 investigation
Yesterday, Steward Rhodes, leader and founder of the extremist Oath Keepers militia, was arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy over the plot to storm the Capitol last year. Rhodes is one of the first people so far be charged with sedition, marking a major development in the sprawling investigation.
Rhodes and the Oath Keepers have been tied to public lands extremism since 2014, when they joined the infamous Bundy family standoff against the Bureau of Land Management. Since January of last year, it has become more and more apparent that there was significant overlap between backstage anti-public land insurgents and the Capitol insurrectionists, ranging from far-right politicians to well-known extremists such as the Bundys.
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Stewardship is planning and making sure that we're using resources in a respectful way, that we're not overusing the resources to the detriment of future generations... What we've learned in that 10,000-year history [of Indigenous stewardship] is that importance of ensuring that at least seven generations from now that the same resources will be made available."
