April, in brief
Key news from April:
- The Interior Department announced it would resume onshore oil and gas lease sales, as required by a federal court order. The acreage offered in the upcoming sale is roughly 80 percent smaller than previously planned, down from 733,000 acres to 144,000 acres. The leased parcels will carry a royalty rate of 18.75 percent, bringing rates in line with royalties that oil companies pay on state and private lands.
- The Biden-Harris administration announced a $1 billion “America the Beautiful Challenge” program to accelerate public-private partnerships that protect land, water, and wildlife across the country. The challenge includes an initial $440 million in grants for locally-led ecosystem restoration projects, to be managed by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The program will make grants available to states, tribes, territories, non-governmental organizations, and others to apply for conservation and restoration projects.
- The Biden administration says it’s on track to nearly double the capacity of renewable energy projects on public land by the end of 2023. The projection came in a new report to Congress that shows rapid progress towards an additional 10 gigawatts of renewable capacity by the end of next year, and 25 gigawatts of wind, solar, and geothermal energy on public lands by 2025. Interior’s report to Congress says it has over 50 renewable projects in early review stages right now.
- The Biden administration hosted a series of meetings with Native American leaders about a proposal to prohibit new oil and gas development in northwest New Mexico near Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a World Heritage site that is thought to be the center of what was once a hub of Indigenous civilization. The meetings are part of the Interior Department’s public outreach activities as it considers withdrawing 550 square miles near the park from mineral development for 20 years.
- House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raúl Grijalva and New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich both introduced legislation that would update the nation’s primary mining law, the General Mining Act of 1872, in ways that would fundamentally alter how mining companies produce minerals on federal lands. While there are substantive differences between the two bills, both seek to address issues around how long companies can conduct mining activities and what they have to pay in order to do so. Currently, companies can obtain rights to mine the federal mineral estate indefinitely, and mines operating on federal lands pay no royalties for extracting a publicly owned resource.
- 95 percent of respondents said they supported voluntary conservation programs in a recently released poll of 501 registered Nebraska voters. The results indicate overwhelming support for conservation easements and voluntary conservation programs, such as the conservation reserve program, which pays farmers to set aside land for wildlife conservation. The poll revealed a massive gap between Nebraska voters and Governor Pete Ricketts, who welcomed conservation opponents to the state for a “stop 30x30 summit” filled with speakers who vowed to fight voluntary conservation easements.
- President Biden signed an executive order that will lay the groundwork for protecting some of America’s biggest and oldest trees. Biden’s order directs the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to inventory mature forests nationwide, and require the agencies to identify threats to old-growth trees (generally, those over 80 years old) and use that information to write new policies that protect them. A 2020 study of six national forests in the Pacific Northwest found that just 3 percent of the largest trees contained roughly 42 percent of the carbon.
- The Interior Department announced $9.5 million in funds for wildlife corridors and habitat conservation projects in seven states and three tribal nations. The funding will support 13 projects aimed at improving big game migration corridors. Interior framed the announcement as a key component of the Biden administration’s “America the Beautiful” initiative.
- President Biden put oil and gas CEOs on notice regarding their stockpile of millions of acres of idle oil leases, calling on Congress to pass “use it or lose it” legislation that would fine companies for locking up public lands without producing oil on them. The president’s remarks came as he announced the U.S. would release one million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
What to watch for in May:
- The Bureau of Land Management will continue preparations for court-ordered onshore oil and gas lease sales across multiple Western states to be held in June.
- May 22nd is the International Day for Biological Diversity, a great opportunity to show support for the Biden administration’s “America the Beautiful” initiative to protect biodiversity.
Best Reads of the Month
Q&A: Cows, coal, and climate with BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning
New report shows over 8 million acres of inaccessible public land in the West
How bitcoin is keeping zombie power plants alive
Arizona approves permit for uranium mining near Grand Canyon
Recently-discovered Nevada toad gets rare emergency protection
Yellowstone to Yukon corridor shows value of conserving large landscapes, not just isolated parks and preserves
How the oil industry cast climate policy as an economic burden
Sacred land returned to Virginia’s Rappahannock Tribe
New report exposes the extremist “30x30 Disinfo Brigade”
The Center for Western Priorities connects the players, strategy, and funding behind the anti-conservation movement
Shortly after the Biden administration announced its “America the Beautiful” initiative to protect 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030 (aka “30×30”), a band of anti-government extremists launched an organized campaign of lies, speculation, and half-truths to undermine the effort. A new report from the Center for Western Priorities, The 30×30 Disinfo Brigade, connects the dots between the anti-public lands extremists leading the disinformation campaign and the industries and politicians who support them.
The report (PDF download) was released days ahead of a “Stop 30×30 Summit” in Lincoln, Nebraska, that was organized by American Stewards of Liberty, a Texas-based anti-conservation group with its roots in the “Sagebrush Rebellion” of the 1980s.
While American Stewards claims to stand for “private property rights, defending the use of our land, and restoring local control,” the Center for Western Priorities’ research reveals the organization primarily exists as a financial pass-through for its only employees, Margaret and Daniel Byfield. The report highlights American Stewards’ actual mission to restrict the rights of private property owners, particularly those who wish to protect family farms through the use of voluntary conservation easements.
Analysis: Spills up in 2021 in top three Western oil-producing states
The latest addition to the Center for Western Priorities’ ongoing tracking of oil and gas-related spills in the Mountain West.
A new report from the Center for Western Priorities found that in 2021, oil and gas companies in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming reported an increase in drilling-related spills, as compared to 2020. New Mexico recorded a record number of liquid spills in 2021, however, spills are down in both Colorado and Wyoming as compared to before the pandemic in 2019.
In 2021, oil prices rebounded from a pandemic-induced slump in 2020, when the price per barrel briefly dropped below zero. The rebound in oil prices is likely behind increased production of oil in New Mexico, while Wyoming and Colorado both produced less oil in 2021, as compared to 2020.
In Wyoming, oil production in 2021 was down 14 percent from its pre-pandemic level in 2019, and there were around 20 percent fewer spills in 2021 than there were in 2019, indicating a possible decrease in Wyoming’s rate of spills per barrel of oil produced.
In New Mexico, oil production in 2021 was up 32 percent compared to 2019, and there were around 20 percent more spills in 2021 than in 2019, showing potential progress in decreasing the rate of spills per barrel in New Mexico.
In Colorado, oil production was down 20 percent from its pre-pandemic level, while spills were down almost 40 percent compared to 2019, indicating possible substantial progress in reducing Colorado’s rate of spills per barrel.
Utah Senator Mike Lee’s ‘McMansion Subsidy Act’ will not fix affordable housing
Lee’s bill would encourage urban sprawl on our public lands
In the latest episode of CWP’s podcast, The Landscape, former Interior Department Solicitor and UC Hastings law professor John Leshy sits down with Aaron Weiss and Lauren Bogard to talk about oil and gas leasing, the Antiquities Act, and much more through the lens of his new book, Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands.
Quote of the month
“To be a part of helping to mark the place where that dramatic trajectory of my own life, combined with others of my generation, will influence the future by the footprints we’ve left behind has been incredible. Being a primary source in the sharing of that history — my history — and giving shape to a new national park has been exciting and fulfilling. It has proven to bring meaning to my final years.”
— National Park Service Ranger Betty Reid Soskin, who just retired at the age of 100
Picture this
@Interior
We all have a role to play to safeguard our planet for future generations. Interior is working to address the climate crisis by restoring balance on public lands and waters, advancing environmental justice and investing in a clean energy future. #EarthDay Photo by Mark Rutt
For more information, visit WesternPriorities.org or RoadTo30.org. Sign up for Look West to get daily public lands and energy news sent to your inbox, or subscribe to our podcast, The Landscape.
