• 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.

• Energy

Federal Judge Cancels $125m In Oil and Gas Leases on Sage Grouse Habitat

• Bureau of Land Management
• Endangered Species Act
• oil and gas leases
• sage grouse

A federal judge in Idaho last Thursday invalidated $125 million in oil and gas leases on public lands in Nevada, Wyoming, and Utah because the Trump administration failed to give the public adequate time for comments on them.

Why This Matters:  Score one for the sage grouse!  Under the ruling,  nearly 1 million acres’ worth of fast-tracked public lands leases have been canceled.

• Land

Trump Administration Takes Aim at the Bureau of Land Management

• Bureau of Land Management
• drilling
• mining
• Monuments
• oil and gas

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is a small federal agency but it manages 250 million acres of land around the country, much of it in the West, and recently the Trump Administration announced that it wants to move most of its employees from Washington, D.C. to Colorado and other Western states as part of […]

• Energy

Shutdown Not Slowing Down Trump Administration Energy Priorities

• Alaska
• Andrew Wheeler
• Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
• Bureau of Land Management
• confirmation
• Department of Interior
• EPA
• hearing
• oil and gas
• Senate
• shutdown
• wind power

While most of the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency are in a seemingly endless shutdown limbo, the priorities of the Trump Administration go on without a hitch.  Two high profile examples came to light over the weekend — the preparation for newly nominated Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s confirmation hearing and the busiest […]