• Animals

Judge Strikes Down Trump’s Lift of Mining Ban in Threatened Bird Habitats

• #30x30
• Audubon
• Bureau of Land Management
• climate change
• mining
• sage grouse

Last week, a federal judge struck down a Trump administration action that abrogated an agreement under which no mining would occur in the habitat of the threatened greater sage grouse. While the judge’s decision doesn’t reinstate the Obama-era ban, the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management must reevaluate the efficacy of mining in the region.

Why This Matters: In the midst of a global biodiversity crisis, the Audubon society reports that two-thirds of North American birds are at risk of extinction due to climate change.

• Politics

Top Bureau of Land Management Official Removed, Big Implications for Other Appointments

• BLM
• Bureau of Land Management
• confirmation
• Republicans
• Trump

by Amy Lupica, ODP Contributing Writer    On Friday, an order from the chief judge of the Montana federal court removed acting Bureau of Land Management director William Perry Pendley. Despite never being confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Pendley served as acting director for 424 days, a full 214 days past the original deadline to […]

• Forests

Trump Administration Will Open Millions More Acres of Public Lands to Oil and Gas Drilling

• Bureau of Land Management
• drilling
• federal land
• Forest Service
• leasing
• oil and gas

The Trump Administration announced that it intends to open millions of acres of national forest land for oil and gas drilling, and they will not evaluate whether the areas being opened will cause any environmental impacts, nor will they give the public advance notice, The Hill reports.

Why This Matters:  The Trump team seems to be speeding up their desperate efforts to help fossil fuels as the first (and hopefully only) term nears an end.  There is no economic or national security rationale for this.  

• Land

Trump Administration To Allow Oil and Gas Drilling in CA Land Monument

• Bureau of Land Management
• California
• climate change
• endangered species
• Endangered Species Act
• monument
• national monument
• oil and gas

In a quiet decision in late May, the Trump Administration said it will open up California’s Carrizo Plain National Monument, which is known for its stunning wildflowers, to oil and gas drilling and a pipeline, the LA Times reported last week. 

Why This Matters:  This project is inconsistent with the purposes of the monument and will surely cause environmental harm.

• Energy

Interior Department Approves Largest Solar Project in the U.S.

• #climatechange
• #renewableenergy
• Bureau of Land Management
• conservation
• environment
• solar energy

Earlier this week the Trump Administration took a break from its boosting oil and gas (they announced yesterday they are going to buy 1 million barrels of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a “test”) to give final approval to the Gemini Solar Project – a massive $1B solar array and battery storage project situated on federal land near Las Vegas.

Why This Matters:  The project went through a streamlined environmental review process, but the final development and operations plan will minimize and mitigate impacts on visual resources, cultural and tribal resources, recreation access, air quality, native vegetation and wildlife such as the desert tortoise, a “threatened” species.

• Land

Court Voids 287 Oil and Gas Leases in Montana

• Bureau of Land Management
• conservation
• environment
• NEPA
• oil and gas
• science

Cutting corners is the Trump Administration’s calling card — and oops, they did it again — and as a result, a federal judge late last week threw out hundreds of oil and gas leases covering nearly 150,000 acres of federal land in Montana.

Why This Matters:  What can we say.  It’s good that they are so bad at being awful.