|
It has been one year since President Joe Biden signed a historic executive order related to the climate crisis. The Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad pledged to increase international cooperation, address greenhouse gases and environmental injustice, and put millions of Americans to work.
Over the past year, the president has taken significant steps to deliver on the promises he made, such as advancing environmental justice, expanding renewable energy development, and using the government's buying power to purchase thousands of electric vehicles.
The Biden administration has also taken steps to improve and protect our public lands, including moving the Bureau of Land Management headquarters back to the nation's capital, protecting Chaco Canyon from drilling, developing a plan to protect 30% of U.S. land and waters by 2030, securing funding to clean up abandoned mines and oil wells, and restoring Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments. But he's also taken a few steps backward, like leasing million of acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas producers. For a full accounting, see our progress report on Biden's first year on public lands.
Of course, many of the promises Biden made last year have yet to be fulfilled, such as the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps, reformation of the broken oil and gas leasing system, and the designation of new national monuments to reach the 30x30 target. There's still time for Biden to get these things done, but he needs to start now.
Boundary Waters safe for now
The Biden administration announced yesterday that it has canceled two mining leases near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a 1.1 million-acre wilderness area in northeastern Minnesota. The leases to extract copper, nickel and other hardrock minerals threatened to pollute the area, which is one of the nation’s most popular wilderness destinations.
The decision follows a political tug-of-war in which the Obama administration refused to renew mining leases near the Boundary Waters due to ecological concerns, and then the Trump administration eased the way for Twin Metals Minnesota to mine there by fast-tracking an environmental review. The federal government is also mulling a 20-year mineral leasing withdrawal near the wilderness.
|
We came in with a charge, right? Build a clean energy future. Conserve and restore the lands in our country. Strengthen our nation-to-nation relationships with Indian tribes, advancing equity and justice. We are working hard on all those issues, and I feel really grateful, of course, to be the first Native American cabinet secretary in the history of our country. I have always said that representation matters. I’m proud of the work we’ve done with respect to many underrepresented communities, and we’ll just keep moving forward.”
