Dept of the Interior DOI

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primary 919

NO MERRI

SEE BURGUM

SEE VANITY PJTs

global warming, environmentalism

regulatory capture

technically under exec, but congress controls budget, cf 6/15

see zinke znk tag DAVID BERHARDT IN CHARGE pendejo #2

roger stone? HAMM?

SEE WHISTLEBLOWER

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-=-=

context cnn an 11 26

House Democrats are demanding that the Interior Department retain documents related to President Donald Trump’s construction projects around Washington after whistleblowers warned that key paperwork has already been destroyed before Democrats take power, congressional sources tell CNN.

The warnings come as the Trump administration is signaling it will accelerate plans for moving ahead with the projects — a key part of what the president sees as his legacy — to lay as much groundwork as possible before the Democrats take over Congress in January.

On Tuesday, the top Democrat in the House Natural Resources committee, which has oversight of the agency that has helped fast-track many of Trump’s projects, plans to issue letters to the Interior Department as well as other federal agencies and private companies, requesting that they “preserve all records and data responsive to oversight” the congressional panel oversees.

[How presidential power has grown far beyond what the nation’s founders envisioned

The targets of the letters from Rep. Jared Huffman, shared first with CNN, give an early indication of what could be in the crosshairs for investigation when the California Democrat becomes chairman of the committee in the new Congress.

Multiple credible whistleblowers have approached Huffman’s committee in recent weeks to voice concern that the Interior Department is getting rid of records in anticipation of forthcoming scrutiny, the sources told CNN. The agency oversees much of the national parkland Trump wants to use for his projects.

The Interior Department called the whistleblower claims “100% false.”

“The Department follows all federal records management obligations as directed by the Department’s ethics officials,” a spokesperson said.

Among the other recipients of the preservation letters are the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, which are part of Interior.

Letters are also being sent to the Agriculture Department and companies like Lockheed Martin and John Deere that are known to have donated to Trump’s projects. CNN has asked them for comment. Whistleblowers did not say these entities had destroyed documents.

However, all letter recipients must reply to certify their compliance, which requires efforts to “preserve existing records collections and productions,” as well as “Identify and recover any deleted information” and “suspend any destruction and deletion practices.”

A mandate to investigate

Rep. Jared Huffman speaks at the site of President Donald Trump's proposed triumphal arch, in Arlington, Virginia, on May 14. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The typically under-the-radar National Resources committee may lack the prominence of the Judiciary or Oversight committees, but in the new Congress it is set to take on the mantle of chief antagonist and auditor of projects that Trump has deeply and personally invested in seeing through.

The committee holds legislative jurisdiction over national parks and federal lands, on which Trump is attempting to build projects like the East Potomac golf course and the triumphal arch.

“Everything is coming; it’s all coming,” Huffman told CNN in an interview, signaling that his committee is readying a large arsenal of tools that come with the gavel in the new majority.

“It’s just going to be an entirely new day,” he said, noting that a win of the magnitude Democrats achieved in the midterms will embolden their investigations, as there is a belief that they have a true mandate from voters who felt the president was focused on the wrong issues.

Committee aides expect to hold a high-profile hearing on one or several projects early in the new Congress. The golf course and triumphal arch are chief among the areas of focus.

In anticipation of possible obstruction from the administration, the committee is prepared to issue subpoenas.

Huffman believes that the committee’s work could stop some of the president’s construction projects from going forward, “especially because we have standing to go to court if we have to,” he said. “We’ll have tools to be able to stop a lot of it.”

The committee has also been coordinating with House Oversight and Judiciary, which have mapped out an aggressive approach to investigate other areas of the administration.

Turbo-speed timelines

President Donald Trump watches as the last steel beam is installed during an event at the site of the White House ballroom on November 4.

President Donald Trump watches as the last steel beam is installed during an event at the site of the White House ballroom on November 4. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

At the same time, multiple sources close to the approval process on Trump’s projects told CNN they are seeing a new urgency on the part of the administration to get as far as it can by the end of the year.

The move to supercharge some of the president’s projects is being met with ire by many in the preservationist community who have been fighting against them.

The triumphal arch; a project to put up fencing at Lafayette Square near the White House; the East Potomac Golf Links; and the Tidal Basin Development Concept plan, which includes the president’s Garden of American Heroes, will all see action pushing them ahead over the next 60 days.

Some will be going in front of key federal agencies for approval, and others are moving forward in the historical preservation evaluation process.

“We’re going to start seeing all of these things happening simultaneously,” said Charles Birnbaum of the Cultural Landscape Foundation. “It is going to be like a storm where it plays out until the new Congress is seated.”

The day after the midterm elections, Trump appeared in front of the White House ballroom construction site, signing the last steel beam before it was raised.

Davis Ingle, a spokesperson for the White House, said: “President Trump is moving at lightning speed because we don’t have time to waste in our mission to make America greater than ever before.”

-=-

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AN 8 25

Federal employees at the Department of the Interior are reportedly raising alarms over a weekly video series titled “Inside Interior,” which they describe as "propaganda" — a slick, over‑the‑top portrayal of President Donald Trump and agency leadership, complete with staged scenes and breathless narration.

The Daily Beast reportedWednesday that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, once tagged “Diva Doug” for requesting political appointees to bake chocolate chip cookies and summoning a U.S. Park Police helicopter for his own personal use, now finds himself at the center of growing backlash within his own department.

Staffers deride the Environment and Natural Resources Agency as “The Department of Propaganda,” a moniker born from their mounting frustration with weekly “Inside Interior” videos, widely criticized for their slick, "Dear Leader"-style presentation and unabashed praise of Trump and Burgum to a lesser extent.

The latest installment, according to the report, touts that “Interior made major moves to strengthen America’s energy future, protect taxpayer interests, and keep our nation’s capital city safe.”

IFrame Content

But the true inflection point came with a July 4 special that left many shaken. The clip opens with Trump dancing to the Village People’s YMCA, then cuts to him exiting Air Force One, greeted by cheering construction workers, before returning to more footage of Trump, much to the chagrin of those compelled to watch.

The report further noted that the narration heralds the day with a patriotic fervor likened to authoritarian regimes: “Happy Birthday America!” “Today we celebrate 249 years of American liberty, freedom and strength and we’re doing it under the fearless leadership of President Donald J. Trump, who reminds us every day what true patriotism looks like as he works tirelessly to make America great again.”

Critics among the staff have dubbed the presentation “North Korea‑worthy," according to the report.

Meanwhile, many already felt demoralized by deep cuts tied to tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative and a policy shift prioritizing fossil fuel development over conservation.

A National Park Service employee told The Beast: “I have never seen a more blatant and deplorable display of propaganda on behalf of the Trump administration.”

Adding insult to injury, they note, “They even called for the USA to celebrate the 4th ‘the MAGA way!’”

Click here to read the Daily Beast's report in full (subscription required).

---

220 ew

https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-trophy-hunting-council-2645107921.html

https://ecowatch.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=214ab5fbb3f6015d74ffab4ec&id=5dd71bd1de&e=c2e8fdabfa

the Department of the Interior (DOI) has disbanded a controversial council that promoted big game hunting after a judge ruled that environmental groups could challenge the legitimacy of the council in court, as The Associated Press reported.

The DOI told a federal judge on Friday that the International Wildlife Conservation Council (IWCC) had ended its charter in October and would not be renewed. The IWCC was created to boost trophy hunting and to relax federal regulations around importing heads and hides of exotic animals like African elephants, rhinos, lions, and other threatened wildlife, according to The Associated Press.

"The Council will not meet or conduct any business again, it can no longer be renewed, and there [is] no plan to establish another committee with a similar mission or scope in the future," the DOI explained in a court filing Friday, according to NPR.

The lawyers for the DOI argued that since the council had been disbanded, the judge should dismiss a lawsuit from environmental groups looking into the "formation, composition, ethics provision, or meetings" by the IWCC, as NPR reported.

"The IWCC's disbandment is a huge victory in the fight against the Trump administration's illegal advisory bodies," said Democracy Forward senior counsel Travis Annatoyn, in a statement. "But the fight isn't over."

Democracy Forward is representing the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International in a lawsuit challenging the legality of the IWCC under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The disbandment announcement came on the heels of a slew of FACA lawsuits against the administration.

Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who had to resign under a corruption scandal, put the 16-member advisory board together. It was formed as a response to an Obama-era ban on elephant and lion trophy imports from Africa. In 2018, The Associated Press revealed that the board members were big-game hunters, many with direct ties to President Trump and his family, according to The Associated Press.

Animal rights groups and environmental activists cheered that the committee would not continue its work.

"I have little doubt our litigation spurred the administration's decision to abandon the IWCC and walk away from its biased and un-transparent practices," said Zak Smith, international wildlife conservation director for the Natural Resources Defense Councilin a statement. "We're glad the Trump administration is closing shop on this ridiculously misguided council and we await a full accounting of its tainted work product."

The taxpayer-funded committee met five times over its two-year span and formed four sub-committees. The government said, "Ultimately, the IWCC did not vote on or make any recommendations or otherwise provide any advice or work product," NPR reported.

"The end of Trump's thrill-kill council is a huge victory for elephants, lions and other imperiled animals targeted by trophy hunters," said Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at theCenter for Biological Diversity, in a statement. "It's still critical to address this biased committee's past legal violations and prevent self-serving advice from trophy hunters from poisoning federal wildlife policies."

IWCC members claimed that recreational hunting is necessary because fees paid by big-game hunters help fund conservation programs. They also argued that it boosts local economies and creates hundreds of jobs.

An Interior spokesperson told The Hill in a statement that the department "takes illegal wildlife trafficking seriously and will continue working to grow our partnerships, while continuing to move toward shared conservation stewardship."

drilled 220

Swamp Thing: Fossil Fuel Insiders in the Department of Interior Are Shaping Offshore Drilling Policy

In November 2019, the DOI proposed a major policy change to make it less expensive to drill offshore oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico.

Department taps White House attorney as senior counselor

Michael Doyle, E&E News reporter

Published: Wednesday, December 11, 2019

The Interior Department has added former Chevron Corp. and White House attorney Kevin O'Scannlain to its high-level legal roster as senior counselor.

---

predictable, but still omg permanent

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/as-corrupt-as-it-gets-oil-lobbyist-turned-interior-secretary-proposes-giving-coveted-contract-to-former-client/

no lnx

‘As corrupt as it gets’: Oil lobbyist turned Interior Secretary proposes giving ‘coveted’ contract to former client

Written by Jessica Corbett / Common Dreams November 10, 2019

Watchdog and conservation groups called out former oil lobbyist and current Interior Secretary David Bernhardt Friday over the department’s attempt to give a “coveted”permanent water supply contract to one of Bernhardt’s ex-clients.

“Bernhardt might as well still work for his former lobbying firm, where he represented oil and gas, mining, and agribusiness interests for many years,” declared Public Citizen president Robert Weissman.

Weissman’s national advocacy group previously waged a campaign highlighting Bernhardt’s conflicts of interest, opposed his confirmation, and filed an ethics complaint demanding a department investigation into him.

“If Bernhardt would like to return to his former lobbying job at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and pursue the interests of his corporate clients, he certainly is free to do so, subject to the ethics rules,” Weissman said. “But for now, he is secretary of the Interior, and his duty is to serve the public, not his old clients.”

Invoking President Donald Trump’s rallying cries from the 2016 campaign, Weissman added that “if anyone still has any illusions that Trump is working to ‘drain the swamp’ or ‘take on elites,’ here is the definitive proof that it ain’t so. A former lobbyist delivering the goods for his old lobby clients is about as corrupt as it gets. Bernhardt is fast making a play for title of ‘Shadiest Trump Cabinet Official.'”

Holy hell. The oil lobbyist running Trump’s Interior Department is awarding one of the first *permanent* water supply contracts to…. wait for it…. his former lobbying client.

This is as corrupt as it gets. https://t.co/a7JwhfFyuu

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) November 8, 2019

Center for Western Priorities policy director Jesse Prentice-Dunn concurred, tweeting late Thursday that the situation represented “the absolute epitome of the swamp.”

Their condemnation came in response to an Associated Press report that the Interior Department “is proposing to award one of the first contracts for federal water in perpetuity” to California’s Westlands Water District. The district, which “serves some of country’s wealthiest and most politically influential corporate farmers,” long employed Bernhardt as a lobbyist.

“As a lobbyist, he was involved in negotiations on a contentious 2016 federal law that made the Westlands’ proposed deal possible, allowing water districts to lock up permanent contracts for water from California’s federal water project,” AP noted. That law, which conservationists oppose over concerns for endangered native wildlife, “reshaped the federal handling of water in the U.S. state with the largest economy.”

After years of working for powerful industries, Bernhardt joined the Interior Department as deputy secretary in July 2017, despite opposition from ethics and environmental advocates who labeled him a “walking conflict of interest.” The GOP-controlled U.S. Senate confirmed him as secretary in March, following the December resignation of scandal-ridden Ryan Zinke.

“Despite Bernhardt’s clear conflicts of interest and his involvement in decisions that are currently under investigation for ethics violations, he can’t stop carrying water for his powerful former client,” Jayson O’Neill, deputy director of the advocacy group Western Values Project, said in a statement Friday.

“The flood gates of corruption flow through Bernhardt, who has manipulated scientific studies, prioritized resources, and tasked staff all to benefit a former client at the expense of the public,” he added. “Bernhardt’s level of corruption may only be eclipsed by that of his boss, but that should not prevent Congress from initiating an investigation immediately.”

dereg nation 1119

The Interior Department has backed off a proposal to put limits on public records requests (Freedom of Information Act requests), reports the Mountain West News Bureau. The final version of the new rule does not include two widely-criticized provisions that would have capped the number of records processed every month, and required requests to be much more specific in terms of the documents desired. But another Trump-era rule, one giving political appointees more power to withhold documents from public records releases, remains in place.

Donations like yours enable us to provide free legal support to scientists like Maria Caffrey, a CSLDF client who filed a whistleblower complaint against the Trump administration on July 22. Caffrey was forced out of her job at the National Park Service after refusing to delete references to human-caused climate change from a report she authored about how sea level rise impacts coastal parks.

Sadly, attempts to muzzle scientists are increasingly common under the Trump administration. As Lauren Kurtz, our director, recently told The Guardian, this kind of censorship is “part of a larger trend of disputing scientific realities for political reasons” and it extends beyond climate to pesticide safety, reproductive health, and other issues.

https://yyy.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/26/war-on-science-trump-administration-muzzles-climate-experts-critics-say

Maria Caffrey,

no lnx

War on science: Trump administration muzzles climate experts, critics say

Whistleblowers and groups tracking agency decisions say administration is ignoring science and censoring expertise

Emily Holden in Washington

Fri 26 Jul 2019 12.49 BST

The Trump administration is disregarding science and expertise across a wide range of government work, as documented by whistleblowers and groups tracking agency decisions.

Trump officials are censoring warnings about the climate crisis, moving critical agencies out of Washington and enacting far-reaching changes in what facts regulators can consider when they choose between industry and the public good.

[ I'm a scientist. Under Trump I lost my job for refusing to hide climate crisis facts

Maria Caffrey

USDA under fire amid tension over relocation and climate work

E.A. CRUNDEN

Controversial agency relocation slammed as attack on science by lawmakers, employees

E.A. CRUNDEN

Former Interior scientist calls out ‘culture of fear, censorship, and suppression’ under Trump

KYLA MANDEL

There is a “culture of fear, censorship, and suppression” within the Trump administration that is impeding government scientists from doing their best work, former Interior Department policy director and scientist turned whistleblower Joel Clement warned on Wednesday.

Speaking to lawmakers on the House Science Committee, scientific experts spoke about the need for stronger rules to support the integrity of their research and ensure that political agendas don’t dictate or interfere with the data.

“There is not Democratic science, there is not Republican science, there is just science,” said Michael Halpern, deputy director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Halpern pointed to instances under current and previous administrations, including under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, of scientific assessments being either watered down or language softened. He pointed to past research on lead in school lunchboxes and on the impact of fracking on drinking water.

But the scientists said that under President Donald Trump, political interference had reached a new level.

As Clement highlighted, a study into the rules needed to protect the health and safety of offshore oil rig workers was canceled right before a set of measures to protect the workers was rolled-back. Similarly, a study into the health impacts of surface coal mining was canceled right before making moves to support the coal industry.

Other studies have been delayed, such as one on the health impacts of PFAS chemicals in drinking water for fear of a “public relations nightmare,” while agencies have seen some scientists self-censor their work out of fear, such as removing the words “climate change” from reports.

“The American people lose when we end up with manipulated, suppressed, or distorted information,” Halpern said. After all, as multiple experts testified, it’s taxpayer money that funds government scientists — the public paid for that research and deserves to see it.

The result is “dirtier air, dirtier water,” added Clement, who resigned from his post at the Interior in July 2017 after being reassigned to “an unrelated job” by former Secretary Ryan Zinke. Clement saw the move as an attempt to push him out for speaking out about the impacts of climate change on Alaskan native communities.

The hearing on Wednesday follows the release of a bill by committee member Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY), called the Scientific Integrity Act, earlier this year. The bill, which has the support of nearly 200 House members, is intended to insulate “public scientific research and reports from the distorting influence of political and special interests” according to Tonko.

While Tonko reminded everyone at the hearing that he began working on the bill in 2016 under the Obama administration, he added, “The abuses directed by this President [Trump] and his top officials have brought a new urgency to the issue.”

While more than 20 federal agencies have some type of scientific integrity policy, not all of these policies are successfully or fully implemented. As an April report by the Government Accountability Office found, of the nine agencies reviewed, seven have “specific, documented procedures” for identifying and addressing alleged violations. The report also made 10 recommendations to agencies for addressing the need to better educate staff on the issue, provide greater oversight, and develop procedures to identify and address potential violations.

Scandals mount under David Bernhardt just two weeks after being confirmed to lead Interior

Ethics probes are still in full swing.

Last year, the EPA announced it would begin an investigation to see whether its scientific integrity policy was being properly implemented. This came after a survey was released by the Union of Concerned Scientists, which showed that government scientists across 16 agencies and departments had concerns with the degree of political influence over their work.

Specifically, the annual survey for 2018 showed that a third of the nearly 449 EPA respondents worried about the “influence” of political appointees or White House officials over “science-based” decisions. Less than 30% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “My agency adheres to its scientific integrity policy.”

In addition, roughly a third of EPA respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they had either been asked directly to omit or independently decided to avoid the use of the term “climate change” in their work.

There is technically nothing stopping an agency from dismantling its scientific integrity policy, said Halpern. That’s why a bill such as the one proposed by Tonko would go a long way to buttress, or add “statutory heft,” to agency policies as Clement described.

Clement called the Scientific Integrity Act a good first step, but noted that in order to be truly effective, broader ethics and integrity standards were needed across agencies.

Indeed, many of the individuals overseeing agencies come from the industry they are now responsible for regulating. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Interior (DOI) have faced numerous ethics scandals regarding potential conflicts of interest and alleged industry influence.

EPA internal watchdog will audit the agency’s Scientific Integrity Policy

Less than a third of EPA staff surveyed said they felt the agency adheres to its scientific integrity policy.

In March, for instance, The New York Times revealed documents showing DOI Secretary David Bernhardt intervened to block a study showing pesticides might threaten the existence of 1,200 endangered species; Bernhardt has a history of lobbying against the Endangered Species Act.

But due to the “hostile leadership situation,” there are many scientists who are simply keeping their heads down and staying quiet about issues surrounding scientific integrity under the current administration.

“I’d love if every policymaker thought of science as the North Star,” said Clement, “but I hope it’s part of the constellation.”

muzzle dept state testimony

off

https://www.doi.gov/ocl

under INterior bernhardt

Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs

The Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs (OCL) has responsibility for the development and implementation of strategies to advance the Department"s legislative initiatives and other interests relating to Congress.

OCL serves to:

Articulate the Department's position on legislation proposed by Congress in testimony, statements for the record and views letters
Facilitate the appearance of Department witnesses at congressional hearings
Manage the interagency clearance of legislative proposals, post-hearing questions for the record, statutory reports and other Congressional correspondence in coordination with OMB
Coordinate the Department's responses to congressional committee oversight requests and other inquiries from individual Members and congressional staff
Lead the Senate confirmation process for Department nominees

These functions are important to the Department's cooperative and productive relationship with Congress.

SITE:

https://departmentofinfluence.org/

David Bernhardt

Acting Secretary of the Interior

Leadership

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Ryan Zinke

Former Secretary of the Interior

Leadership

Ryan Zinke is a politician who has served in the U.S. Congress and Montana State legislature. He has come under fire for his management of a Super PAC as a congressional candidate, and for violating ethics standards as a Navy SEAL.LEARN MORE

Scott Angelle

Director

Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement

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Kathleen “Kathy” Benedetto

Senior Advisor

Bureau of Land Management

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Doug Domenech

Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Insular Areas

Insular Areas

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James Cason

Associate Deputy Secretary of the Interior

Leadership

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Katharine “Kate” MacGregor

Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy

Leadership

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Scott Cameron

Acting Assistant Secretary/ Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary

Leadership

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Daniel Jorjani

Acting Solicitor/ Principal Deputy Solicitor of the Interior Department

Leadership

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Departments

swamp thing 2/19

Trump has announced he will nominate David Bernhardt as secretary of the Interior Department. Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist, has been the agency’s acting secretary since Ryan Zinke stepped down in December amid multiple scandals and ethics investigations. Bernhardt was confirmed as deputy secretary of the interior in 2017, where he helped roll back regulations overseen by the department.He worked to make the approval for land and offshore drilling projects easier, and proposed limiting protections for endangered species. Bernhardt also ordered some furloughed workers back to work during the government shutdown to push through on oil and natural gas drilling permits, offshore drilling and drilling in the Alaska refuge.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/no-species-is-safe-from-trumps-interior-department-appointee-susan-combs/

Trump appointee Susan Combs who was paid up to almost $2.2 million by oil companies and who blocked federal protection for a tiny Texas lizard on oil fields, now wants to restructure our nation’s Interior Department to “result in improved permitting.”

Former Texas Comptroller Susan Combs is awaiting confirmation as assistant secretary for policy, management and budget in the Interior Department. Photo by Laura Skelding for The Texas

Combs, the acting secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that she wants to consolidate administration of theEndangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

“As long as herindustry pals make a profit, she won’t think twice about letting a species go extinct,” said Stephanie Kurose of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Combs, Trump’s nominee to be assistant secretary of the Interior, is just one of the grifters in the Trump administration.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross spent much of his first year in office as a business partner with the Chinese government even as he negotiated U.S.-China trade relations. Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke started a foundation that helped a developer backed by the chairman of Halliburton, the oil -services firm that could benefit from Interior decisions.

Federal disclosure documents show that from 2016 to 2017 Combs received:

Up to $50,000 in rent or royalties from Chesapeake Operating LLC for an oil and gas lease in La Salle County in Texas.
Up to $15,000 in rent or royalties from Carrizo Oil & Gas for an oil and gas lease in McMullen County in Texas.
Up to $1 million in rent or royalties from Murphy Oil Corp. for an oil and gas lease in Karnes County in Texas.
Up to $1 million in rent or royalties from ConocoPhillips for an oil and gas lease in Karnes County.
Up to $100,000 in rent or royalties fromMarathon Oil for an oil and gas lease in Karnes County.
Up to $2,500 in rent or royalties from Phillips 66 for an oil and gas lease in Karnes County.

Combs, then the Texas comptroller, worked with the oil industry to set up a voluntary program in 2012 to protect the dunes sagebrush lizard. Under Combs, Texas kept agreements with landowners to protect lizard habitat confidential. Even the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t know where or how much land is being protected.

Environmentalists say those efforts haven’t been enough and have asked the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the lizards under the Endangered Species Act.

5/19

The House passed the Interior-EPA spending bill out of committee and it's now barreling toward a floor vote. This could be the biggest environmental vote this year.

But now, we're hearing that Republicans will attempt to jam the bill with awful anti-environment riders.

As it currently stands, the Interior-Environment bill could be the biggest environmental vote of the year. But we HAVE to swing the vote our way and make sure no anti-environment riders make it in.

Our policy team is on Capitol Hill fighting back and LCV members are flooding House offices with calls. We need your help.

If we do nothing now, funding for the EPA's efforts to hold polluters accountable could be slashed. Clean water funding could be decimated. Funding for America's top parks program could be eliminated. Endangered wildlife protections could be gutted. Trump's cronies in the House will pull every maneuver possible to torpedo this bill.

Right now, anti-environment members of the House think they will get away with this. Last year, there were at least 80 amendments to this bill. We cannot sit by quietly and let anti-environment riders into the bill, Padraic.

But you should also know that Trump and GOP leaders are just getting started — we're expecting a massive effort to gut more environmental protections this summer. We need to keep the pressure on Congress to stop these attacks and pass a clean and pro-environment budget bil

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/445083-house-panel-votes-to-boost-interior-epa-budget-by-17b

A key House committee on Wednesday advanced the 2020 budgets for the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), voting to increase their funding by $1.73 billion over last year.

The Democratic-led House Appropriations Committee voted 30-21 along party lines to push forward $37.28 billion in funds for the two agencies. It was an increase of $7.24 billion over President Trump’s 2020 requests, which included deep proposed cuts for both agencies.

“This Interior-Environment funding bill rejects cuts proposed by the Trump administration that would have put the interests of polluters over people,” said Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), who chairs the subcommittee with jurisdiction over interior and the environment.

Trump originally proposed gutting the EPA’s budget by 31 percent and cutting Interior's by 14 percent. It was the third year in a row that the White House had proposed dramatic cuts to both departments, which appropriators have resoundingly rejected.

The president and some conservative Republican lawmakers have championed cuts to several departments, arguing they are necessary to rein in spending and reduce the national debt, which stands at $22 trillion.

Republicans on the committee complained that Democrats were moving ahead with bills while the House, Senate and White House have not yet agreed to overall spending levels, despite some progress in a Tuesday meeting.

“No doubt there are critical programs in this legislation that need more funding, but that does not give the Federal Government the right to borrow and spend without any over-arching plan for fiscal responsibility,” said Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), the interior and environment subcommittee’s ranking member.

Democratic lawmakers have blasted the White House’s budget requests, arguing the billions in proposed cuts would harm the departments’ ability to run efficiently and complete their public health and environmental mandates.

The committee’s appropriations bill instead aims to increase the EPA’s budget by more than $700 million, to $9.5 billion, compared to the bill passed last year by Congress.

Democratic lawmakers also removed nearly all the riders added in past years by Republicans that aimed to block Obama-era environmental regulations. In addition, they added language to the bills that would limit oil and gas drilling on public land.

Lines in the bill could also make it harder for the government to engage in new oil and gas lease sales. A part of the bill would deny fossil fuel leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) if bidding doesn't generate at least $500 million, half of the expected revenue. A GOP amendment to strip out the provisions was voted down.

Another measure Democrats floated in the bill would block any efforts to expand offshore drilling in the Atlantic and elsewhere until Interior makes public a final comprehensive plan. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt recently told Congress the draft plan is on hold for an indeterminate amount of time following ongoing legal challenges to ANWR drilling.

Additional amendments dealing with wild horses and sage grouse were not adopted.

The Interior portion of the bill also flew in the face of Trump’s budget request, which called for eliminating arts programs such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The bill increased funding for both by $12.5 million, bringing their budgets to $167.5 million apiece.

It also upped programs such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, for which Trump had requested funding cuts.

The Interior portion of the bill allocated funding for ecological services, land management, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, and came out $2.4 billion above Trump’s request.

The bill is the eight of 12 appropriation bills that the committee has sent to the full House, which is expected to take them up in June. Two more bills are scheduled to advance through subcommittee this week.

The Senate has refrained from releasing appropriations bills until an agreement is reached on spending caps.

Leaked Memo Silences Department of Interior

by KEN COLE on JANUARY 24, 2017 · 108 COMMENTS · in DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR, POLITICS

A memo leaked today orders all of the bureaus of the Department of Interior, which includes the Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Bureau of Indian Affairs, and others, to clear nearly every decision or correspondence with the Office of the Executive Secretariat and Regulatory Affairs (OES).Other departments such as the EPA have instituted similar gag orders. This sweeping gag order stops the bureaus from corresponding with entities ranging from tribal leaders, governors, and even Congress.

The contents of the memo are below and the memo is here

Memorandum

To: Chiefs of Staff, Bureaus and Offices

From: Julie Lillie,Director, Office of Executive Secretariat and Regulatory Affairs

Subject: Federal Register Documents and Correspondence Clearance Procedures

As we begin a new administration, it is important that the incoming policy team has an opportunity to review documents. Effective immediately, and in addition to your internal clearance processes, all Federal Register documents, including all notices, and all correspondence to or from the Secretary must be forwarded to the Office of the Executive Secretariat and Regulatory Affairs (OES) for review 5 days prior to any deadline for Departmental clearance, regardless of signature level. For Federal Register notices this includes, but is not limited to:

• any proposed or final regulation or policy action,

• notices of all meetings, including tribal consultation meetings,

• all notices related to NEPA documents

• information collection notices,

• FWS notices of low effect applications for permits,

• BLM notices of plat surveys, and

• BOEM quarterly notices of environmental documents prepared for the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf.

In addition to the above, all incoming congressional and gubernatorial correspondence as well as correspondence from Indian or Alaska tribal leaders and leaders from national level environment/recreational and industry organizations must be forwarded to OES prior to responding, regardless of addressee or signature level. No correspondence should be cleared to go to Congress or to any Governor until it has been reviewed by the Acting Chief of Staff and/or Senior White House Advisor. The OES will be responsible for tasking these letters for response . The incoming leadership team will decide whether to continue or modify these instructions.

Leaked Memo Silences Department of Interior

by KEN COLE on JANUARY 24, 2017 · 108 COMMENTS · in DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR, POLITICS

The contents of the memo are below and the memo is here

Memorandum

To: Chiefs of Staff, Bureaus and Offices

From: Julie Lillie,Director, Office of Executive Secretariat and Regulatory Affairs

Subject: Federal Register Documents and Correspondence Clearance Procedures

• any proposed or final regulation or policy action,

• notices of all meetings, including tribal consultation meetings,

• all notices related to NEPA documents

• information collection notices,

• FWS notices of low effect applications for permits,

• BLM notices of plat surveys, and

• BOEM quarterly notices of environmental documents prepared for the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf.

, despite being affected by the government shutdown, the Bureau of Land Management is holding public meetings in Alaska to push forward plans for new oil and gas leases in the Arctic. citizens get cut?[still taking app for drilling during shutdown]

https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/trumps-interior-department-wants-to-shut-down-your-access-to-information/

Zinke is out as secretary of the Interior, but in his last days in office he tried to suppress what we can learn about the destruction Trump is doing to our nation’s public lands.

Attorney Daniel Jorjani, who previously worked at the Koch-funded Freedom Partners, drafted a proposed rule that would slash the public’s ability to get public records from the 10 agencies in the Interior Department.

The Freedom of Information Act, a federal law signed by former President Lyndon Johnson in 1966, allows people to ask for previously unreleased documents. The law was passed after thousands of federal employees accused of being communists were fired during the McCarthy era, and the Eisenhower administration wouldn’t release records from the dismissals.

“I signed this measure with a deep sense of pride that the United States is an open society in which the people’s right to know is cherished and guarded,” Johnson said after he signed the law.

Notable uses of the law include environmentalists learning that the EPA knew in the 1980s that paper mills were discharging toxic dioxin into rivers.

Jorjani’s proposal would allow the Interior Department to reject requests that the Trump administration decides are “unreasonably burdensome.” Currently, agencies must fulfill records requests despite how much time and effort is required to search for records.

“The bureau will not honor a request that requires an unreasonably burdensome search or requires the bureau to locate, review, redact, or arrange for inspection of a vast quantity of material,” he wrote.

The proposal would also allow the Interior Department to impose a monthly limit for processing records.

“We’re deeply concerned about these proposed changes,” said Nada Culver, senior counsel for The Wilderness Society.

Jorjani, the principal deputy solicitor, was on the transition team in the Interior Department after Trump took office and has run the department’s legal office. The nominee for the job, Ryan Nelson, withdrew and was nominated to fill an appellate court vacancy.

Jorjani wrote that the Interior Department wants to make the changes because of increases in records requests since Trump took office. FOIA requests have increased 30% from fiscal 2016 to fiscal 2018 as environmentalists and others have sought information to oppose Zinke’s rollbacks of public lands protections.

Alex Thompson, a spokeswoman for The Wilderness Society, said publishing the proposed regulation wasn’t allowed during the government shutdown when only necessary or emergency notices are to be published.

People have until Jan. 28 to comment on the proposed changes.

Zinke also tried to get permission to destroy some records about what animals are protected under the Endangered Species Act. A recent memo at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, part of the Interior Department, directs staffers to withhold or delay releasing some public documents about how the Endangered Species Act is carried out.

...

https://www.ecowatch.com/land-and-water-conservation-fund-2604912470.html

Is the United States About to Lose Its Best Conservation Program?

By Tara Lohan

Time is running out for one of the U.S.' most successful—and least-known—conservation programs.

Virtually every county in the U.S. has benefited from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, signed into law in 1964 with the goal of protecting natural areas and cultural resources and increasing recreational opportunities. In its more than 50-year history, the fund has helped 42,000 projects across the country, ranging from wilderness areas and historic battlefields to local tennis courts and trails.

"It's an amazingly unknown program for all that it has accomplished," said Kathy DeCoster, director of federal affairs at the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit that helps acquire and protect natural spaces.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund was originally authorized for 25 years and then extended another 25 years. When expiration loomed again in September 2015, Congress gave it a short three-year extension, which is now about to expire. If legislators fail to reauthorize the program before Sept. 30, the fund will immediately run dry and will no longer be able to dole out money, which in recent years has averaged about $450 million annually.

Proponents of the fund like to highlight that it does not rely on taxpayer dollars. Virtually all of the money for the fund comes from revenue generated by offshore oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf. A small fraction of the money comes from a tax on motorboat fuel and sales of surplus federal property.

"It's a balance, if you will," said DeCoster, "an asset-for-asset arrangement when you deplete one natural resource, then take some of those revenues and make sure the American people get something permanent back from that."

But if the fund isn't reauthorized and that dedicated source of funding is no longer available, it could have both ecological and economic impacts affecting local, state and national parks, as well the outdoor industry, an economic driver in many communities.

"It would be a threat to some of the major ways that people engage everyday with the outdoors and wildlife," said Mike Saccone, associate vice president for communications at the nonprofit National Wildlife Federation.

Far-Reaching Impacts

Even ardent supporters of the fund have a hard time pointing out their favorite projects, because there are so many and they're so varied.

The money from the fund serves two main purposes. The first is to enable federal agencies such as the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and Forest Service to acquire more public lands for recreation.

One of the big things these acquisitions accomplish is to secure "inholdings." These are areas of privately held lands that are within or adjacent to federal public lands and have high conservation or recreation value. The fund is used to protect these areas from development when there's a willing seller.

It's helped to bolster projects all across the country, including in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in Maine, the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Everglades National Park and Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado and California Coastal National Monument, to name just a few.

Shorebirds at Cape May National Wildlife Refuge. The Land and Water Conservation Fund protected 5,486 acres of this important bird habitat.USFWS

The second aspect of the fund is a matching-grant program that helps states enhance their recreation facilities and planning. Local recreational opportunities have gotten a big boost from the fund, helping to support new hiking and biking trails, baseball and soccer fields, tennis courts and parks in urban communities and underserved neighborhoods.

"People think getting outdoors and engaging kids with nature always involves wilderness, when in fact, for the vast majority of families it's urban parks, trails, etc.—and those are the things that the Land and Water Conservation Fund supports," said Saccone.

Since 1998 some funds from the program have also gone to related federal programs, including the Forest Service's Forest Legacy program, which helps to preserve lands through conservation easements, and the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund of the Fish and Wildlife Service, which helps to protect vital habitat for critical wildlife.

It also has helped acquire and protect areas of historical importance like the Women's Rights National Historical Park in New York, the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Kansas and the Martin Luther King. Jr. National Historic Site in Georgia, as well as battlefields in Gettysburg and Vicksburg.

"The Flight 93 Memorial was also funded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund," said DeCoster. "History doesn't stop being made, and the fund is the premier source of funding for that kind of work."

Legislative Hopes

While hailed by many as an incredible success, the fund has also not been able to live up to its full potential. The Congressional Research Service reported last month that the fund has accrued $40 billion in revenue since its inception, but only $18.4 billion has been appropriated by Congress. The fund can accrue up to $900 million annually, but none of the money gets distributed until it's appropriated by Congress, and Congress does not have to appropriate all the money. In recent years about half has been appropriated, and the rest remains part of the general treasury to be used by other programs.

"Despite this history of underfunding, [the Land and Water Conservation Fund] remains the premier federal program to conserve to our nation's land, water, historic and recreation heritage," said a March 2018 letter from more than 200 members of Congress, which was sent to the chairman and ranking member of the House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies.

The fund has always had bipartisan support, even from the beginning. When the act authorizing the fund was passed in 1964, just one member of each house voted against it, according to a report issued last month by the Center on Western Priorities, a nonpartisan conservation organization.

In the five decades since, Americans have embraced outdoor recreation activities with gusto, which has meant big business. The trade group Outdoor Industry Association reported that each year the outdoor recreation economy rakes in $887 billion in annual consumer spending, creates $124.5 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue, and supports 7.6 million jobs.

Virginia's Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, nearly nearly 47,000 acres of which were conserved by the Land and Water Conservation Fund.USFWS

The Trust for Public Lands has shown the fund is also a good investment. The organization's research foundthat for every $1 invested by the fund on acquiring federal public lands, $4 in economic value is generated over the next decade.

When it comes to the politics of the moment, the fund still has huge bipartisan support, with more than 230 cosponsors to legislation in the House and substantial support in the Senate as well. But action to reauthorize it has still stalled.

"It boils down to a bit of a bottleneck in the House Natural Resources Committee, where the chairman and some of the members don't see the Land and Water Conservation Fund as being as much of a positive as pretty much everyone else does," said DeCoster. "They control that agenda."

The committee's chair is Congressman Rob Bishop (R-Utah), who has a notorious record of voting against environmental issues. In 2015 he called the fund a "slush fund" for the Department of the Interior.

One of the biggest champions of the fund has been Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who has been placing holds on other pieces of legislation, trying to rally action from his colleagues or stall other legislation until action is taken on the fund.

"I've proposed numerous times this year that the Senate take up this issue to give it the fair consideration that it deserves," said Burr. "However, we've been denied a vote, even while bending over backward to accommodate my colleagues' objections."

Jonathan Asher, senior representative of government relations at the environmental nonprofit The Wilderness Society, explained that some Congress members are opposed to the idea of the federal government growing its landholdings. "Those voices, especially in the current administration where there is a big of a vacuum of leadership on land conservation issues, have gained prominence," he said.

In 2016 the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, published a report arguing that the Land and Water Conservation Fund should be retired, explaining that over the years it has been used to "grow the massive landholdings of the federal government." It advised directing federal dollars to maintenance of existing federal public lands.

"Congress should allow the [Land and Water Conservation Fund] to expire and enable more state and local government and private control of America's land and water," advocated the foundation report. "Sunsetting the fund will result in more efficient and accountable land management, creating and preserving opportunities for economic development, outdoor recreation and environmental protection."

Despite this opposition, environmental groups seem cautiously optimistic. While Saccone said he's "reasonably confident" Congress will do something before the fund expires at the end of the month, it's not clear what exactly that may be.

It's possible Congress will punt again on the issue and only reauthorize the fund for a short period.

Conservation groups are pushing for as much certainty as possible for the program, with the best result being full funding and permanent reauthorization. Second best would be a long-term extension, like another 25 years, and a high level of dedicated revenue for the fund.

"We've had pretty good appropriation numbers in recent years, but they can come and go and are always based on the whims of members of Congress," said Asher.

It's unlikely that a standalone piece of legislation would be passed at this point, but action on the fund could be included in another big legislative item that also needs to get passed. And there's one more avenue, which would be a potential "grand bargain," explained Saccone. The biggest win for conservation groups would be a package that addressed three related issues—the Land and Water Conservation Fund extension, funding for other wildlife conservation issues and addressing funds needed to remedy the backlog of maintenance on public lands and parks.

While that best-case scenario may not come true, proponents are still pushing hard for the fund.

"It is my sincere hope that we can reauthorize the Land and Conservation Fund before the end of the month to give vital conservation projects currently underway, and those in the planning process, the certainty they need to carry out their essential work," said Sen. Burr.

Reposted with permission from our media associate The Revelator.

IG halts climate censorship investigation

Adam Aton, E&E News reporter

Published: Thursday, August 16, 2018

The Interior Department's Office of Inspector General has dropped its investigation into allegations that the National Park Service censored a climate change report.

...

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/interior-warns-staffers-to-keep-mum-about-mandatory-endangered-species-protections_us_5aecee82e4b0ab5c3d65b4f7

New guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior now prohibit staff members from informing private interests when they must obtain a permit before they can develop properties where activities may affect habitats of endangered species.

A memorandum issued last month by the Fish and Wildlife Service principal deputy director, Greg Sheehan, declared that it’s “not appropriate” for staff to tell developers when they need to obtain such a permit — even though it may be required by law in many circumstances.

Under a section of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, businesses and individuals must request what’s called an “incidental take permit” if they believe their developments could interfere with the habitats of endangered species.

Sheehan insists in his memo that it’s the “decision of the applicant” whether or not to apply for such a permit. Staff members should not use “mandatory language (e.g., a permit is ‘required’),” the memo warns.

“The biological, legal, and economic risk assessment regarding whether to seek a permit belongs with the private party determining how to proceed,” Sheehan said.

Staffers will still be able to provide “critical technical assistance” when it’s requested, according to the memo.

The memo also appears to sharply limit situations where such permits may be required. That includes only cases “where a non-federal project is likely to result in a ‘take’ of a listed species of fish or wildlife ... habitat modification, in and of itself, does not necessarily constitute take,” according to the memo. That would seem to imply such a decision would rely on the judgment of a private interest with a commercial business at stake.

Sheehan was the official who announced to trophy hunting lobby group Safari Club International in Tanzania last year that the Trump administration was lifting an Obama-era ban on elephant trophies from two African nations, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Donald Trump later held off on the action, but the ban was officially lifted again on a “case-by-case basis” in March.

He’s considered among the Interior officials “behind the curtain who are really, really changing our public lands and setting a future direction that may or may not be consistent with what the law requires,” Jim Lyons, a research scholar at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, told The Revelator.

Environmental advocates have criticized Sheehan’s newest edict as a way to weaken regulations with the kind of single-handed action that has been a hallmark of the Trump administration. Noah Greenwald of the environmental nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity told The Hill that he believes it will be harder to enforce requirements protecting habitats of endangered species because there will no longer be a record of permit recommendations.

The memo is the latest erosion of wildlife protections by the Trump administration.

The administration is also battling blanket safeguards when a species is declared threatened. Under the Endangered Species Act, once a species is listed as threatened, a series of protections automatically go into effect. Under a proposed new rule, specific protections would be decided on a case by case basis.

An endangered species is at risk of extinction, while a threatened species is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. Threatened species include such animals as manatees, sea otters, the Guadalupe fur seal, wood bison, the gray wolf, the grizzly, the polar bear and the northern spotted owl. There are more than 300 threatened animal and plant species in the U.S. More than 500 animal species are endangered in the U.S.

Last month, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke tapped Susan Combs — a rancher and fierce opponent of the Endangered Species Act with strong ties to the oil industry — to serve as acting secretary for fish, wildlife and parks.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/these-are-trump-staffers-who-left-their-financial-disclosure-forms-blank-and-one

...fore accepting a position at the U.S. Department of the Interior last October, Benjamin Cassidy championed gun rights for nearly seven years as a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, collecting a peak annual salary of $288,333 for his work on Capitol Hill.

The public wouldn’t know that by looking at Cassidy’s government financial disclosure report. The form, which he filed soon after taking a job as senior deputy director of the office of intergovernmental and external affairs, doesn’t list his old job at the NRA — or any past job, for that matter. Cassidy’s form was nearly blank, save for his name, title and some bank holdings and investments. In the space allotted to show his income, it incorrectly stated “None.”

Benjamin Cassidy’s Financial Disclosure Report

Federal law requires nearly all executive branch employees to submit reports intended to reveal and resolve conflicts of interest that might arise from their personal finances. The reports are supposed to be carefully reviewed, preferably by agency ethics attorneys, before being made public.

After we asked the Interior Department about the failure of Cassidy and at least three other staffers to disclose their work histories and finances, the agency responded with a bullet-pointed assessment that acknowledged ongoing problems while also noting that they “predated the current administration.”

Among the department’s findings:

The Interior Department’s ethics office did not “have adequate resources to accomplish its legally required compliance functions, including its responsibilities relating to the financial disclosure report program.” Just one ethics specialist, who is not an attorney, is responsible for reviewing hundreds of reports and advising thousands of employees on issues relating to those reports. This contributed to the certification and release of inaccurate reports.
Government employees are responsible for the accuracy of their forms. But Interior’s ethics office “is culpable in certifying forms that appeared ‘blank’ without conducting a certain level of due diligence to ensure that the filers submitted correct forms.”
Four Interior staffers ultimately had to re-submit their disclosure reports following ProPublica’s inquiry. As part of that process, they were interviewed by a senior career ethics attorney who went over their reports with them. The interviews revealed some staffers “were confused about what information was supposed to be reported,” according to the agency’s statement.
Other employees “thought they had filled out the form correctly when, in fact, they had not.” None of them appeared to intentionally hide information they were required to disclose, the department said.

Many of the problems and omissions were easy to spot. For example, an attorney for the DOI’s Bureau of Land Management, Cally Younger, submitted her financial disclosure form in September, days after joining the agency. An ethics official, Tia Barner, reviewed and approved the form, concluding that it complied with federal law.

But Younger’s form was blank, apart from her electronic signature and some perfunctory investment details. It completely neglected basic employment information, such as her old job as an attorney inIdaho Gov. Butch Otter’s office. Ironically, it also left out Younger’s past role as a “public records ombudsman” in Idaho, whose mission included examining how the state’s public record laws could be improved.

Younger should have been questioned by ethics officials when she filed her original form, said Don Fox, who served as acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration. “It may be, honestly, she just didn’t read the instructions and she just started filling out paperwork,” Fox said, “because if you’d even done a cursory review of the instructions, she should have known that she should have listed her position with the state of Idaho.”After we asked about the batch of blank forms, a senior ethics official, Kim Hintz, determined that Younger “inadvertently omitted certain information.” A revised version of her form now includes more employment and financial information.

Younger’s original form was a veritable font of information compared to one filed in the name of Thomas Baptiste, who is now an advisor to the Bureau of Land Management. Baptiste’s form was completely blank, with no information beyond his name, and no signature or indication that it was reviewed or approved. Baptiste previously worked as a records manager for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, as a project director at a consulting firm that works for conservative political clients, and before that at Tepeyac OB/GYN, which calls itself a “pro-life obstetrics and gynecology medical practice.

...

Report: Trump Admin. Suppressing Media Access of Government Scientists

A new Trump administration protocol requires U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists to run interview requests with the Department of the Interior, its parent agency, before speaking to journalists, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The move is a departure from past media practices that allowed government scientists to quickly respond to journalists' inquiries, according to unnamed USGS employees interviewed by the Times.

The scientists fear the new rule would give taxpayers less exposure to USGS expertise, as journalists would seek scientific comments elsewhere.

"In the 44 years I was with the agency, I was never required to go through anyone for authorization to speak with a reporter," William Ellsworth, a former USGS scientist who is now at Stanford University told the Times. "The USGS is a nonpolitical science agency ... These new roadblocks will not help them fulfill their mission."

Scientists with USGS study the country's landscape, its natural resources and its natural hazards. The department also measures and analyzes natural and man-made factors that contribute to climate change—an issue that has become increasingly partisan since Donald Trump became president.

The LA Times cited a April 25 email from Interior press secretary Heather Swift stating that it is standard procedure for scientists to first obtain approval for interviews with media outlets when the topics are considered "very controversial or ... likely to become a national story."

The new policy also allows Interior's communications office to turn down interview requests on certain topics, the Times reported.

Faith Vander Voort told the newspaper in an email that "the characterization that there is any new policy or that it for some reason targets scientists is completely false," and that Interior had only asked the USGS public affairs office to follow guidelines established in 2012 under President Obama.

However, the guidelines do not say that scientists must get approval before speaking with reporters.

In fact, a 2015 USGS manual on news release and media relations policy states: "The USGS supports and encourages employees to speak on behalf of the USGS to news media representatives about their official work and freely and openly discuss scientific, scholarly, technical information, findings and conclusions based on their official, published work or area of expertise."

A number of senior employees have left the Interior department headed by former Montana congressman Ryan Zinke. Earlier this year, nearly all members of the National Park Service advisory panel abruptly quit in protest of the Trump administration's policies, which they say have neglected science, climate change and environmental protections.

"We resigned because we were deeply disappointed with the department and we were concerned," the former head of the panel, Tony Knowles, told the New York Times. "[Zinke] appears to have no interest in continuing the agenda of science, the effect of climate change, pursuing the protection of the ecosystem.

anwr offshore drill BOEM

5/18

House leadership is pushing through the must-pass Interior-EPA bill. It is devastating.

The bill has already been voted out of subcommittee, and if far-right members of the House succeed in getting this passed, we're looking at an awful scenario. *Please, Padraic: Don't let that happen. We need to push back on these attacks before the full House votes on this bill.

Massive cuts to the EPA.

A $65 million decrease in the hugely popular Land and Water Conservation Fund.

Endangered species listing program funding nearly cut in half.

A slew of policy riders attacking environmental safeguards*

Trump Administration, Which Wants More Offshore Drilling, Shuts Down Study Into Its Safety

The Trump administration, which is trying to expand offshore oil drilling, has issued a stop-work order on an independent study aimed at making the process safer.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) ordered the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to halt its study on Dec. 7.

"The National Academies are grateful to the committee members for their service and disappointed that their important study has been stopped," the organization said Thursday.

The intention of the 2016 study was to review and update BSEE's offshore oil and gas operations inspection program to enhance safety. The program was established after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill that killed 11 people and gushed an estimated 3.1 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the largest man-made oil spill in history.

NASEM said that within 90 days, the stop-work order will either be lifted and work on the study can resume, or the contract to perform the study will be terminated.

BSEE spokesman Greg Julian said the study "was paused ... to allow time to ensure that there are no duplicate efforts."

But Sierra Club's Kelly Martin said the move was in line with the Trump administration's push for a major expansion of offshore drilling.

"I think this is an example of Trump demonstrating he wants to open up federal waters to more drilling at the expense of people on the planet," Martin told the Associated Press. "He is much more supportive of corporate polluters than protecting people's safety."

The Center for Biological Diversity similarly tweeted: "Can dangerous offshore oil drilling be made safer? Trump and Co. don't even want to know. Hostile to science and public safety, they're pushing for more offshore drilling and shutting down study into its safety."

This is the second NASEM study halted by the Interior Department in the last four months. In August, a study on the potential health effects for people living near surface coal mining sites in Central Appalachia was stopped pending a review of contracts by the department. The National Academies said it has not received any update on the status of that review and the study remains on hold.

“Given how important this study is to the citizens and communities surrounding these surface mining sites in Appalachia, the National Academies believe the study should be completed and are exploring options to do so. Some private donors have expressed an interest in funding the completion of the study," NASEM said.

nterior	Thomas Baptiste*
Interior	Christine Bauserman	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-13	1/20/17
Interior	Kathleen Benedetto	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/25/17
Interior	Megan Bloomgren*
Interior	Caroline Boulton	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-09	1/24/17
Interior	Scott Cameron	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/20/17
Interior	James Cason	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/20/17
Interior	Micah Chambers	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-13	1/20/17
Interior	Marshall Critchfield	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-13	1/20/17
Interior	Natalie Davis	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-11	1/23/17
Interior	Thomas Dickens	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-13	1/20/17
Interior	Douglas Domenech	White House Senior Advisor	GS-15	1/20/17
Interior	Nancy Guiden	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/20/17
Interior	Casey Hammond	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/20/17
Interior	Scott Hommel	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/27/17
Interior	Virginia Johnson	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/20/17
Interior	Daniel Jorjani	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/20/17
Interior	Amanda Kaster	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-11	1/20/17
Interior	Benjamin Keel	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-12	1/20/17
Interior	Katharine MacGregor	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/20/17
Interior	Downey Magallanes	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/30/17
Interior	Lori Mashburn	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/26/17
Interior	Ryan Nichols*
Interior	Ricky Puckett	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/24/17
Interior	Russell Roddy	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-14	1/26/17
Interior	James Schindler	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-12	1/20/17
Interior	Melissa Simpson	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-15	1/20/17
Interior	Heather Swift	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-14	1/26/17
Interior	Timothy Williams	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-13	1/20/17
Interior	Wadi Yakhour	Special Assistant to the Secretary	GS-09	1/20/17
Justice	Gary Barnett	Counsel	GS-15	GS-15

Dick Cheney rears his head over the Gulf disaster

by 1BQ Follow

You probably know that Halliburton, the contractor BP hired to cement the well, is under investigation for its role in this disaster.

You may also know that Dick Cheney has ended his seclusion in a secure, though disclosed, location.

But do you know just how much of this disaster could be attributed, both directly and indirectly, to Dick Cheney? Viewed as a whole, his actions while in office make him look at least as culpable in the Gulf oil disaster as Tony Hayward. Please bear with me - this will take a while to explain...

The failure of the MMS to regulate the oil and gas industries is now legendary (to the extent that it was regulated at all). It could be argued that the American Petroleum Institute regulated the MMS, apparently, and despite its inquiries, with Congress' permission. How this came about was a long-term strategy.

It seems that Wyoming, Cheney's home state, has been a breeding ground for fossil fuel enthusiasts. And those enthusiasts found employment working for and with the Bush Administration:

The Wyoming connection was especially evident from 2000 to 2008, during the two administrations of President George W. Bush and his vice president, Wyoming native Dick Cheney. A former chief executive of Halliburton, Cheney took an early and very active interest in energy policy and placed several Wyoming political friends in key positions in the Department of Interior.

Among those friends and the key positions they occupied:

-- David J. Gribbin III, a high school and college friend from Wyoming, was Cheney's transitional liaison with Congress. Gribbin previously worked for Cheney as Halliburton’s chief lobbyist in the capital.

-- Thomas Sansonetti, a prominent Cheyenne lawyer, GOP activist, and member of the conservative Federalist Society, who headed the team choosing top personnel for the Department of Interior, which oversees Minerals Management Service.

-- Gayle Norton, who, though not from Wyoming, was picked by Sansonetti to head Interior. Native Coloradan Norton was a longtime protégée of James Watt in the Mountain States Legal Foundation, of which Watt was the founding director. Norton was also a member of the Federalist Society.

-- Rebecca W. Watson, a former Sheridan, Wyoming, lawyer, who Norton named as assistant Interior Secretary for Land and Minerals Management. Watson was responsible for the Bureau of Land Management, the Office of Surface Mining and the Minerals Management Service.

-- Rejane "Johnnie" Burton of Casper had managed the Wyoming Department of Revenue under former Gov. Jim Geringer. In 2007, Burton resigned under fire from her $168,000-a-year Minerals Managementdirector’s job after the Department of Interior Inspector General found widespread corruption in the agency’s Colorado-based royalty collection office. In addition, questions were raised in Congress about Burton’s handling of offshore leases. Burton now works as a $49,000-a-year aide for longtime friend and former legislative colleague Wyoming U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis.

-- Randall Luthi, of Freedom, is a former speaker of the Wyoming House and a former aide to U.S. Sen. Alan K. Simpson. He succeeded Burton as MMS director. Luthi left hisMinerals Management position when President Obama took office in January 2009. A little over a year later, Luthi was named president of the National Ocean Industries Association, the main industry trade group for the offshore oil and gas industry. (Luthi testified May 27 before the House Natural Resources committee investigating the Gulf of Mexico disaster. (Complete hearing transcript - PDF.) Several of the companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon disaster are members of Luthi’s association. One of the National Ocean Industries’ stated missions: reduce federal regulatory controls. More about Luthi here (be sure to click through the links; the Daily Beast article is a doozy!)

-- Former Wyoming U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin, as chairman of the House Resources Energy and Minerals subcommittee, was Congress’ most strident champion of the now-abandoned "Royalty-in-Kind" program that had allowed energy producers to pay Mineral Management Services royalties with gas or oil instead of cash. Where was the protest by the deficit hawks?

-- Current U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis pushed a proposal through the state Board of Land Commissioners to commit Wyoming’s 50 percent share of federal natural gas royalties to the Minerals Management Royalty-in-Kind program While serving as state treasurer in 2005. In 2008, Royalty in Kind accounted for more than half of the $543 million in federal gas royalties dispersed to the state. Deficit hawks, are you reading this?

Got the picture? The Department of Interior in general, and the MMS in particular, were oozing with Cheney devotees. This ensured that the primary regulatory body for the fossil fuel industry would be "industry friendly." But that's just part of the story.

Stewart L. Udall 1961-1969
Walter Hickel 1969-1970
Rogers C. B. Morton 1971-1975
Stanley K. Hathaway 1975
Thomas S. Kleppe 1975-1977
Cecil B. Andrus 1977-1981
James G. Watt 1981-1983
William P. Clark 1983-1985
Donald P. Hodel 1985-1989
Manuel Lujan, Jr. 1989-1993
Bruce Babbitt 1993-2001
Gale A. Norton 2001-2006
Dirk Kempthorne 2006-2009
Ken Salazar 2009-2013

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_the_Interior

The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, territorial affairs, and insular areas of the United States.

The Department is administered by the United States Secretary of the Interior, who is a member of the Cabinet of the President. The current Secretary is Sally Jewell. There is not currently an appointed Inspector General. Mary Kendall is the acting Inspector General.^[3]

Despite its name, the Department of the Interior has a different role from that of the interior ministries of other nations, which are usually responsible for routine police functions which are largely performed in the U.S. by state and local governments and national security and immigration functions which are performed by the Department of Homeland Security primarily and the Department of Justice secondarily.

The Department of the Interior has often been humorously called "The Department of Everything Else" because of its broad range of responsibilities.^[4]

[hide]

...

Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget
- Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Safety, Resource Protection and Emergency Services (DAS-PRE)
  - Office of Law Enforcement and Security (OLES)
  - Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
  - Office of the Inspector General (OIG)

Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks
- National Park Service
- United States Fish and Wildlife Service

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs
- Bureau of Indian Affairs

Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management

Assistant Secretary for Water and Science
- United States Geological Survey
- Bureau of Reclamation

Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs
- Office of Insular Affairs

Controversy

Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall was implicated in the Teapot Dome scandal of 1921. He was convicted of bribery in 1929, and served one year in prison, for his part in the controversy. A major factor in the scandal was a transfer of certain oil leases from the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy to that of the Department of the Interior, at Fall's behest.

Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt—already facing criticism related to his alleged hostility to environmentalism and his support of the development and use of federal lands by foresting, ranching, and other commercial interests, and for banning The Beach Boys from playing a 1983 Independence Day concert on the National Mall out of concerns of attracting "an undesirable element"—resigned abruptly after a September 21, 1983, speech in which he said about his staff: "I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent."^[7] Within weeks of making this statement, Watt submitted his resignation letter.^[7][8]

Under the Administration of President George W. Bush, the Interior Department's maintenance backlog climbed from $5 billion to $8.7 billion, despite Bush's campaign pledges to eliminate it completely. Of the agency under Bush's leadership, Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney has cited a "culture of fear" and of "ethical failure." Devaney has also said, "Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of Interior."^[9]

==

September 11, 2008 nyt

Sex, Drug Use and Graft Cited in Interior Department

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

WASHINGTON — As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.

In three reports delivered to Congress on Wednesday, the department’s inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in royalties annually and is one of the government’s largest sources of revenue other than taxes.

“A culture of ethical failure” pervades the agency, Mr. Devaney wrote in a cover memo.

The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch.

The highest-ranking official criticized in the reports is Lucy Q. Denett, the former associate director of minerals revenue management, who retired earlier this year as the inquiry was progressing.

The investigations are the latest installment in a series of scathing inquiries into the program’s management and competence in recent years. While previous reports have focused on problems the agency had in collecting millions of dollars owed to the Treasury, and hinted at personal misconduct, the new reports go far beyond any previous study in revealing serious concerns with the integrity and behavior of the agency’s officials.

In one of the new reports, investigators concluded that Ms. Denett worked with two aides to steer a lucrative consulting contract to one of the aides after he retired, violating competitive procurement rules.

Two other reports focus on “a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” in the service’s royalty-in-kind program. That part of the agency collects about $4 billion a year in oil and gas rather than cash royalties.

Based in suburban Denver and modeled to operate like a private sector energy company, the decade-old royalty-in-kind program sells oil and gas on the open market. Its employees are subject to government ethics rules, such as restrictions on taking gifts from people and companies with whom they conduct official business.

One of the reports says that the officials viewed themselves as exempt from those limits, indulging themselves in the expense-account-fueled world of oil and gas executives.

The reports provoked immediate outrage in Congress. Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who is chairman of the Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee, accused the Minerals Management Service on the Senate floor Wednesday of “a pattern of abuses and mismanagement” that is costing taxpayers billions.

And Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, suggested that Congress should not lift its ban on offshore drilling — a hot-button issue in his state — because of the problems identified.

The report says that eight officials in the royalty program accepted gifts from energy companies whose value exceeded limits set by ethics rules — including golf, ski and paintball outings; meals and drinks; and tickets to a Toby Keith concert, a Houston Texans football game and a Colorado Rockies baseball game.

The investigation also concluded that several of the officials “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.”

The investigation separately found that the program’s manager mixed official and personal business. In sometimes lurid detail, the report also accuses him of having intimate relations with two subordinates, one of whom regularly sold him cocaine.

The culture of the organization “appeared to be devoid of both the ethical standards and internal controls sufficient to protect the integrity of this vital revenue-producing program,” one report said.

The director of the Minerals Management Service, Randall Luthi, said in a conference call with reporters that the officials implicated in the reports had violated the public’s trust.

“When you come to work for the federal government, the American people expect the best of you,” he said, adding, “I am not going to leave this post in January without addressing this problem.” Mr. Luthi, who became the service director in July 2007, said that the agency had requested the investigation after receiving whistle-blower complaints in the spring of 2006, and that it had already made several changes. A spokesman for Mr. Devaney declined to comment.

A former official named in the report, Jimmy W. Mayberry, pleaded guilty to a felony conflict-of-interest charge in August and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In late 2002, when he was about to retire, Mr. Mayberry drafted a “statement of work” for a consulting contract to perform essentially identical functions to his own. He then retired, started a company, and in June 2003 won the contract with the help of Ms. Denett and Milton Dial, another friend at the agency.

Danny Onorato, the lawyer representing Mr. Mayberry, said his client had a sentencing date in November, but added that “we are not interested in having Mr. Mayberry speak.”

The inspector general also urged the administration to take action against several of the officials in the royalty-in-kind program who accepted gifts from the oil companies, by firing them or banning them for life from certain positions. Several have already been transferred out of the program but remain on the government payroll, the report said.

But two of the highest-ranking officials who were subjects of the investigations will apparently escape penalty. Both retired during the investigation, rendering them safe from any administrative punishment, and the Justice Department has declined to prosecute them on the charges suggested by the inspector general.

One of them is Ms. Denett, who oversaw the Denver-based royalty-in-kind program from Washington. The report contends that she manipulated the contracting process to steer the consulting work to Mr. Mayberry, her friend and former special assistant.

Six other companies submitted bids for the contract, spending more than $90,000 on their proposals. The report said an Interior Department procurement lawyer described the arrangement as one in which “the fix is in throughout — this is tainted from the beginning, that is totally improper.”

Ms. Denett did not return a message left at her home on Wednesday with her husband, Paul A. Denett, who was the top procurement official in the White House Office of Management and Budget until he resigned this month. He declined to comment.

But the report quotes Ms. Denett repeatedly telling investigators that in retrospect she had made a “very poor” decision. She also told them that “she had been preoccupied with a very stressful personal issue at the time,” which the report did not describe.

The other high-ranking official the Justice Department has declined to prosecute is Gregory W. Smith, the former program director of the royalty-in-kind program. Mr. Smith worked in Colorado and reported to Ms. Denett. He retired in 2007.

The report said that Mr. Smith improperly used his position with the royalty program to get an outside consulting job helping a technical services firm seek deals with oil and gas companies with which he was also conducting official business.

The report accused Mr. Smith of improperly accepting gifts from the oil and gas industry, of engaging in sex with two subordinates and of using cocaine that he purchased from his secretary or her boyfriend several times a year between 2002 and 2005. He sometimes asked for the drugs and received them in his office during work hours, the report said.

The report also said that Mr. Smith lied to investigators about these and other incidents, and that he urged the two women subordinates to mislead the investigators as well.

In discussions with investigators, the report said, Mr. Smith acknowledged buying cocaine from his secretary and having a sexual encounter with her at her home, but he denied discussing drugs at work. He also denied telling anyone to lie, saying that he only told people that “no one has a right to know what I do on my personal time.”

The report omits any response from Mr. Smith about allegations of sexual misconduct with another female subordinate.

Mr. Smith on Wednesday referred questions to his lawyer, Steve Peters, who said he had not yet seen the report. But he lauded Mr. Smith’s work with the royalty-in-kind program.

“Greg Smith was a loyal, dedicated employee of the federal government for more than 28 years, and notwithstanding the unfair and in many respects inaccurate allegations in today’s report, Greg is very proud of what he accomplished — and he should be,” Mr. Peters said. A Justice Department spokeswoman, Laura Sweeney, declined to explain why prosecutors chose not to bring charges against Ms. Denett or Mr. Smith, citing departmental policy.

The report also detailed cozy relationships between energy companies and other officials in the royalty-in-kind program office. Some 19 officials — a third of the staff — took gifts from oil and gas executives, some with “prodigious frequency,” it said.

On one occasion in 2002, the report said, two of the officials who marketed taxpayers’ oil got so drunk at a daytime golfing event sponsored by Shell that they could not drive to their hotels and were put up in Shell-provided lodging. Two female employees “engaged in brief sexual relationships with industry contacts,” the reports’ cover memo said, adding that “sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms’ length.”

On one occasion, the report said, the royalty-in-kind program allowed a Chevron representative who had won a bid to purchase some of the government’s oil to pay taxpayers a lower amount than his winning offer because he said he had made a mistake in his calculations. A report from Mr. Devaney’s office earlier this year found that the program had frequently allowed companies that purchased the oil and gas to revise their bids downward after they won contracts. It documented 118 such occasions that cost taxpayers about $4.4 million in all.

On another occasion, the new report said, one of the officials shared information about the confidential price a pipeline company was charging the government.

The report said that the officials told investigators that the gifts and socializing did not affect how they treated the companies in their official duties.

They also said they did not view socializing with oil company representatives and taking gifts as inappropriate because they said they needed to be part of the marketing culture in order to market the program’s oil and gas. Several of the lower-ranking program officials have been transferred out of their old jobs, the report said. It recommended stronger supervision and a series of changes to make clearer the limits of acceptable behavior, some of which Mr. Luthi said have already been implemented.

January 28, 2013

Washington, D.C. —

Today a broad coalition of citizen and environmental groupsreopened litigation against the Department of Interior for its removal of a key protection for streams against mountaintop removal mining—the “Stream Buffer Zone Rule.” The Bush administration removed this protection through a midnight rulemaking in 2008, and the Obama administration agreed the Bush administration’s action was unlawful. But the Interior Department has since failed to undo the Bush administration’s rulemaking by the deadline it agreed to.

Based on EPA estimates, mountaintop removal mining has destroyed or harmed 2,400 miles

of Appalachian streams to date.

The Bush administration repealed the 25-year-old Stream Buffer Zone Rule just before leaving office, permitting widespread dumping of mining waste in Appalachian waterways. In the early days of the Obama administration, the groups put the lawsuit on hold based on the administration’s promise to replace the harmful Bush rule by 2012. Because the administration failed to live up to its agreement to revoke the Bush rule and issue a new stream protection rule, the groups are returning to court to restore protections for Appalachian communities and streams.

The following are statements from the groups involved in the lawsuit:

Earthjustice attorney Jennifer Chavez: “While the Interior Department misses its deadline and drags its feet on revoking the disastrous Bush rule and finally enforcing the surface mining law, Appalachian communities and families are suffering from the extreme pollution and destruction of mountaintop removal. The Obama Administration must not wait any longer to restore basic protections for waterways and families.”

Kentucky Waterways Alliance (KY) executive director Judy Petersen: “We don’t enter into this litigation lightly, but we know that dumping mining wastes into streams destroys the stream and has negative impacts for miles downstream. We were hopeful the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining and the Obama administration would do as promised and propose a rule change that would at least restore the rules in effect for decades. We can wait no longer while streams and the water that flows through our communities are destroyed and degraded.”

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (WV) organizer Maria Gunnoe: “We’ve waited four years, and we need the protection the buffer zone would give us, and we need it enforced. Regulators look the other way as the coal industry devours the region, blowing up more mountains, burying and poisoning more streams and depopulating more communities. There’s more sickness and death in our communities, to the point that there is a community health emergency here in Appalachia. It’s pitiful that we have to sue the administration to get them to stand up to the coal industry, to stand up for our streams, our health, and the health of our children.”

West Virginia Highlands Conservancy (WV) mining committee chair Cindy Rank: “We cannot accept anything short of a rule that truly protects our irreplaceable headwater streams and the hydrologic regime that supports them. The 1983 Stream Buffer Zone Rule did just that by prohibiting activities that degrade the physical, biological and chemical nature of those streams. The 2008 Bush stream rule turned upside down that basic commitment to the health of our waters. Because the Obama Interior Department has failed to act, we’re asking the court to take action.”

Sierra Club environmental quality director Ed Hopkins: “We've been waiting for years, and there is no sign that the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining will do anything to protect streams from mining in the near future. We won't let them continue to stall while unfettered coal mining destroys streams and communities.”

Waterkeeper Alliance executive director Marc Yaggi: “We are taking this legal action to protect everyone's right to clean water. Public health cannot continue to be sacrificed while agency politicos and bureaucrats delay crucial stream protections. There is too much at stake for families across Appalachia.”

Coal River Mountain Watch (WV) executive director Vernon Haltom: "This administration has had more than enough time to institute a strong rule to protect our streams and communities. While mountaintop removal continues to pollute our air, water, and land and sicken our people, we don't have the luxury of waiting indefinitely for action."

Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (TN) committee chair Ann League: “The families and communities of Appalachia deserve better! The Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) and the Obama administration should be working to protect our health, homes, and citizens. OSMRE has put the well-being of Appalachia on the back burner for four years while they dither and delay. The communities must have protection of our streams to protect our families and homes.”

Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (VA) board member Judiana Clark: “During the Reagan administration, we had a stream buffer zone rule that could, if enforced, protect the health of our communities and the quality of our water from destructive surface mining. The Bush administration repealed that protection, and the Obama administration has taken too long to reinstate it. We can’t wait any longer to regain protections that seemed sensible for decades.”

Appalachian Citizens' Law Center (KY) attorney Mary Cromer: “Here in Central Appalachia, we've been waiting for the Obama administration to stop the filling of our headwater streams with mine waste. With more and more miles of streams being buried under rubble every year, we cannot continue to wait. We reinstate this action against OSMRE because the agency has failed its duty to protect the people of Central Appalachia from mine practices that are endangering our health and safety and poisoning our water.”

Background Information:

The “Stream Buffer Zone Rule,” adopted under the Reagan administration in 1983, was designed to protect Appalachian streams from harmful practices used in surface coal mining. This regulation prohibited surface coal mining activities from disturbing areas within 100 feet of streams.

On December 2, 2008, as President Bush was preparing to leave office, his Department of Interior signed off on a controversial 11th-hour Office of Surface Mining repeal of the Stream Buffer Zone Rule. The repeal of this important protection cleared the way for an even greater expansion of mountaintop removal mining—the process of mining coal by blasting off the tops of mountains, and bulldozing the crumbled peaks into adjoining valleys, containing vital Appalachian waterways.

The Bush repeal of the Stream Buffer Zone Rule allowed coal companies to place massive valley fills and waste impoundments directly into streams—thereby removing the “buffer” from the Buffer Zone Rule, destroying streams and contaminating ecosystems on which local communities depend.

Based on EPA estimates, mountaintop removal mining has destroyed or harmed 2,400 miles of Appalachian streams to date.

evil confirmed shining http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/04/peabody-coal-seized-1-million-navajo.html

wiki

In 1964, Peabody Energy (then Peabody Western Coal), a publicly traded energy company based in the Midwestern United States, signed a contract with the Navajo Tribe and two years later with the Hopi Tribe, allowing the company mineral rights and use of an aquifer. The contract was negotiated by prominent natural resources attorney John Sterling Boyden, who claimed to be representing the Hopi Tribe while actually on the payroll of Peabody.^[1] It offered unusually advantageous terms for Peabody and was approved despite widespread opposition. The contract is also controversial because of misrepresentations made to the Hopi and Navajo tribes.^[2]

Peabody Energy developed two coal strip mines on the Black Mesa reservation: the Black Mesa Mine and the Kayenta Mine.

Peabody Energy pumps water from the underground Navajo Aquifer for washing coal, and, until 2005, in a slurry pipeline operation to transport extracted coal to the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada. With the pipeline operating, Peabody pumped, on average, 3 million gallons of water from the Navajo Aquifer every day.^[3] The aquifer is the main source of potable groundwater for the Navajo and Hopi tribes, who use the water for farming and livestock maintenance as well as drinking and other domestic uses. The tribes have alleged that the pumping of water by Peabody Energy has caused a severe decline in potable water and the number of springs. Both tribes, situated in an arid semi-desert, attach religious significance to water, considering it sacred, and have cultural, religious, and practical objections to over-use of water.

Peabody's Black Mesa Mine used the slurry to pump its coal through pipes 273 mi (439 km) away, where the coal could be filtered and used in the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada. The generating station produces energy for the southern parts of Arizona, California and Nevada. This was the only coal slurry operation in the country and only plant that used groundwater in such a way.

Coal from the Kayenta mine goes on a conveyor belt to a silo where it is then shipped to the Navajo Generating Station coal plant.

The Black Mesa Mine's last day of operation was December 31, 2005. The Office of Surface Mining approved Peabody's permit request to continue operations at the mine on 22 December 2008.However, in January 2010, an administrative law judge, on appeal of that approval, decided that the Final EIS did not satisfy the National Environmental Policy Act because it did not take into account changed conditions, and vacated the approval.^[4][5]

Operations at the Kayenta Mine continue today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Surface_Mining

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM or OSMRE) is a branch of the United States Department of the Interior. It is the federal agency entrusted with the implementation and enforcement of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA), which attached a per-ton fee to all extracted coal in order to fund an interest-accruing trust to be used for reclamation of abandoned mine lands,^[2] as well as established a set environmental standards that mines must follow while operating, and achieve when reclaiming mined land, in order to minimize environmental impact.^[3] OSM has about 500 employees,^[4] who work in either the national office in Washington, DC or of the many regional and field offices(OSM's Three Regions).

OSM has three main functions:

Regulating active mines
Reclaiming lands damaged by surface mining and abandoned mines
Providing resources for technical assistance, training, and technology development [2]

[hide]

Regulating Active Mines

The Office of Surface Mining is responsible for the enforcement of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977; this includes setting regulatory guidelines. The actual regulation of mines is primarily done on a state level and tribal level, but OSM is charged with inspection of the state programs to meet the standard of quality. OSM regularly inspects state programs to make sure they are meeting the required standards; if they do not meet the required standards the OSM can take over. For example, when in the fiscal year of 2003 Missouri was unable to meet the federal requirements due to a lack of funding, OSM stepped in to assume partial control of the state program.

OSM took control of the following in Missouri:

Training, examination, and certification of blasters
Areas unsuitable for mining
Small Operator Assistance

OSM continued to run the above parts of Missouri's mining program until Missouri improved its program, which took place on Feb. 1, 2006. Missouri now receives federal funding.^[5]

Reclaiming abandoned mine lands

Abandoned mine lands are lands and waters adversely impacted by inadequately reclaimed surface coal mining operations on lands that were not subject to the reclamation requirements of the Surface Mining Law.^[6] Environmental problems associated with abandoned mine lands include surface and ground water pollution, entrances to open mines, water-filled pits, unreclaimed or inadequately reclaimed refuse piles and minesites (including some with dangerous highwalls), sediment-clogged streams, damage from landslides, and fumes and surface instability resulting from mine fires and burning coal refuse. Environmental restoration activities under the abandoned mine reclamation program correct or mitigate these problems.

Initiatives

The Appalachian Coal Country Team was founded in response to requests from watershed groups throughout coal country. The Coal Country Team arms community organizations and watershed-based projects with the training, tools, and volunteer support necessary to help local citizens become effective environmental stewards, community leaders, and accelerators of change in places indelibly marked by the environmental legacy of pre-regulatory coal mining.

OSM's Bat conservation project was begun December 15, 1998 when OSM signed a MOU with Bat Conservation International, Inc. in order to establish a framework for cooperative efforts between the two organizations to maintain and increase the conservation of bats and their habitats. Under this agreement, OSM would (1) Consider the conservation of bats and their habitats in the development and implementation of abandoned mine land (AML) reclamation standards and recommendations to States and Indian Tribes; (2) Provide assistance in the development of AML programs to help manage bats and their habitats; (3) For Federal Programs, monitor non-emergency AML shaft and portal areas for bat activity prior to reclamation; (4) As appropriate, require the use of bat gates to seal the shafts of portals where bat habitation is known and would be endangered if sealed otherwise. OSM will encourage the States and Tribes to do the same; and (5) Promote the education of OSM staff, State agencies, and Indian Tribes as to: the beneficial aspects of conserving bats, tested methods to safeguard bat habitat and public health, and ways to mitigate for loss of bat roosts and habitat.

Related legislation

Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America (H.R. 2824; 113th Congress) is a bill that, if passed, would amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to require state programs for regulation of surface coal mining to incorporate the necessary rule concerning excess spoil, coal mine waste, and buffers for perennial and intermittent streams published by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement on December 12, 2008.^[7] The bill also would require OSM to assess the effectiveness of that rule after five years of implementation and to report its findings to the Congress. Finally, the bill would prevent OSM from issuing a new rule regarding stream buffer zones until the agency completes the report required under the bill.^[8]

Provisions of the bill

This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the Congressional Research Service, a public domain source.^[1]

The Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America would amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to require state programs for regulation of surface coal mining to incorporate the necessary rule concerning excess spoil, coal mine waste, and buffers for perennial and intermittent streams published by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement on December 12, 2008.^[1]

The bill would require the Secretary of the Interior to: (1) publish notice of a determination when all states that wish to assume exclusive jurisdiction of such mining regulation have incorporated the rule in their programs; (2) assess the effectiveness of the rule's implementation during the five-year period following such notice; and (3) report to Congress an evaluation of the rule's effectiveness, any ways in which it inhibits energy production, and any proposed changes to the rule.^[1]

The bill would prohibit issuance of any regulations regarding stream buffer zones or protection before publication of the report, other than a rule necessary to implement incorporation of the December 2008 rule described in this Act. Requires each state with an approved program for regulation of surface coal mining to submit program amendments incorporating such rule within two years of enactment of this Act.^[1]

Congressional Budget Office report

This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the Congressional Budget Office, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on November 14, 2013. This is a public domain source.^[2]

H.R. 2824 would require certain states to implement, within two years, a rule published in 2008 by the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement(OSM) regarding the disposal of mine waste near streams (the stream buffer zone rule). The bill also would require OSM to assess the effectiveness of that rule after five years of implementation and to report its findings to the Congress. Finally, the bill would prevent OSM from issuing a new rule regarding stream buffer zones until the agency completes the report required under the bill.^[2]

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that implementing the bill would have no significant impact on the federal budget. Enacting the bill could affect offsetting receipts, which are treated as reductions in direct spending; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. However, CBO estimates that any such effects would be negligible. Enacting H.R. 2824 would not affect revenues.^[2]

Under the 2008 stream buffer zone rule, which CBO expects would be implemented through 2021 under the bill, firms would be allowed to dispose of mine waste near streams if regulators determine that avoiding disturbance of the streams is not reasonably possible. Under the rule OSM is currently implementing, firms are prohibited from disposing of mine waste within 100 feet of streams; however, according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OSM is in the process of preparing a new rule to govern such disposal. CBO has no information regarding the content of the new rule or when it might be implemented.^[2]

The budgetary impact of enacting H.R. 2824 would depend, in part, on whether the stream buffer zone rule implemented under the bill would be more or less restrictive than the rule implemented under current law. If the rule implemented under the bill imposed relatively fewer restrictions on the disposal of mine waste, coal producers would use less costly methods to dispose of such waste and CBO expects that firms producing coal would increase their valuation of coal leases affected by the rule, including leases on federal lands. Under such a rule, CBO expects that proceeds to the federal government would increase from the sale of federal coal leases. Conversely, a relatively more restrictive disposal rule would reduce the value of coal leases and thus the proceeds from the sale of coal leases on federal lands.^[2]

Based on information provided by OSM, CBO expects that implementing a new stream buffer zone rule would primarily affect coal mining that requires the removal of mountaintops in the Appalachian Mountains. In 2012, the federal proceeds from activities related to coal mining on federal lands in that area totaled $1.5 million. Because the existing federal proceeds from the area affected by this bill are small, and because it is unclear whether the rule imposed by this bill would be more or less restrictive than the rule that OSM will impose under current law, CBO expects that firms in the coal industry would not significantly change their valuation of coal leases under the bill, and therefore, that enacting H.R. 2824 would have a negligible impact on the federal budget.^[2]

H.R. 2824 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). The bill would impose additional requirements on states and tribal governments that choose to apply for exclusive jurisdiction—or “primacy”—in regulating surface mining operations within their jurisdiction. However, those requirements would be conditions of participating in a voluntary federal program and thus not mandates as defined in UMRA.^[2]

Procedural history

The Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America was introduced into the United States House of Representatives on July 25, 2013 by Rep. Bill Johnson (R, OH-6).^[3] It was referred to the United States House Committee on Natural Resources and the United States House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. On February 28, 2014, the committee reported the bill alongside House Report 113-364. On February 29, 2014, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced that H.R. 2824 would be considered on March 4, 2014.^[4] However, due to a snowstorm, consideration of the bill was delayed until March 25, 2014, another day on which it snowed.^[5]

Debate and discussion

Majority Leader Eric Cantor described the bill as needed to stop "excessive and unnecessary" regulation.^[6] Rep. Bill Johnson indicated that the bill was in response to changes in coal mining rules proposed by the Obama Administration.^[6]

Supporters of the bill argue that it will be good for jobs, save the government money, and improve U.S. energy production by preventing the Obama Administration from introducing more coal regulations.^[7] The bill is a reaction to actions taken by the Obama Administration to rewrite a regulation called the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone Rule. According to one source, "the Administration has spent nearly $9 million taxpayer dollars working to rewrite this rule, including hiring new contractors, who were dismissed once it was publically revealed that the Administration’s proposed regulation could cost 7,000 jobs and cause economic harm in 22 states."^[7]

The National Mining Association supported the bill, with its President, Al Quinn, saying "this bill accomplishes the important task sometimes lacking in public policy: it balances the needs of the economy with the needs of the environment."^[7] The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBEC) also supported the bill.^[8] According to the SBEC's President, Karen Kerrigan, "impractical and excessive regulations are certainly hurting the coal industry, and by extension the many small businesses who need affordable electricity to remain competitive."^[8]

Opponents of the bill described it as a bill that would require "OSM to implement the flawed 2008 Stream Buffer Zone rule and prevent the agency from improving that rule for a minimum of seven years."^[9] Opponents also claimed that Republicans were using "fear mongering" to argue in favor of the bill.^[9] Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) opposed the bill, arguing that it should be opposed because the supporters "believe coal companies should be allowed to blow the tops off mountains and dump the waste into streams, no matter what the science says about the consequence for our environment and the public health."^[9]

Notes/References

^ :{Jump up to::(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^a ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-2824sum_1-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-2824sum_1-2) ^d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-2824sum_1-3) ^e(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-2824sum_1-4) "H.R. 2824 - Summary". United States Congress. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^a ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-cbo2824_2-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-cbo2824_2-2) ^d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-cbo2824_2-3) ^e(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-cbo2824_2-4) ^f(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-cbo2824_2-5) ^g(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-cbo2824_2-6) "CBO - H.R. 2824". Congressional Budget Office. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ "H.R. 2824 - All Actions". United States Congress. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ "Leader's Weekly Schedule - Week of March 3, 2014". House Majority Leader's Office. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Kasperowicz, Pete (25 March 2014). "Tuesday: House tackles coal mining regulations". The Hill. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^a ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;_113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-ColdSnapPete_6-1) Kasperowicz, Pete (28 February 2014). "Cold snap prompts wave of energy bills". The Hill. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^a ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-SmartEnergy_7-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-SmartEnergy_7-2) "Johnson, Lamborn Introduce Legislation To Protect Jobs, Help Stop Administration’s War on Coal". Smart Energy Universe. 3 March 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^a ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;_113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-SBECletter_8-1) Kerrigan, Karen (25 February 2014). "Letter: H.R. 2824: Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America Act of 2013". SBE Council. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^a ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-EcoWatchBeans_9-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Government_Waste_and_Protecting_Coal_Mining_Jobs_in_America%28H.R.2824;113th_Congress%29#cite_ref-EcoWatchBeans_9-2) Beans, Laura (8 August 2013). "House Republicans Use Fear Mongering In Fight for Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining". EcoWatch. Retrieved 5 March 2014.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/03/19/3416006/native-american-tribe-renewable-energy/

Twenty-one tribal energy and mineral projects just got a boost from the Department of Interior, including multiple projects to advancerenewable energy on tribal land.

On Friday, the Interior Department announced the 21 tribal projects that would share in $3.2 million worth of federal grants. The projects include 13 proposals for renewable energy, including wind, hydropower and biomass. The recipients also include two oil and gas extraction projects and six projects focused on extracting limestone and other minerals.

“These grants are about strengthening self-determination and self-governance by enabling tribal nations to evaluate and promote their energy and mineral assets, negotiate the best agreements with partners or investors and develop these resources for the social and economic benefit of their communities,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a release

Not all of the tribes know how much money they’ll receive yet, but renewable projects accounted for the largest chunk of grant money at $1,972,350 for the 13 proposals. One of the tribes to receive grant money is the Crow Creek Sioux tribe in South Dakota, which has plans to build a billion-dollar wind farm. Crow Creek leaders hope the farm will provide free electricity to the 2,000 tribe members that live on the reservation and also generate electricity that the tribe could sell to nearby towns. If the tribe gets enough funding to build the project, leaders say it could produce enough energy to power 100,000 to 400,000 homes.

“We never hardly hear good news,” tribe Chairman Brandon Sazue told the Rapid City Journalof the tribe’s grant. “This was one of the greatest pieces of news I have heard since being chairman for Crow Creek.”...

Ruben Barrales (born 1962) is the former Deputy Assistant to President George W. Bush, and was also the Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.^[1][2][3] He then served as the CEO of the San Diego RegionalChamber of Commerce. He is currently the President and CEO of GROW Elect, apolitical action committee that recruits, endorses, trains, and funds Latino Republican candidates for public office.^[4] He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Public Policy Institute of California. Barrales has also run as a candidate for the state government post of California State Controller.

Barrales identifies as a Mexican American and is recognized as the first Latino person to serve on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.^[5] Barrales has also appeared in the Hispanic Business Magazine’s “100 Most Influential Hispanics” list on three occasions within the last ten years^[6]

[hide]

Early life and education:{:(style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit source | edit:{beta:(style="vertical-align:top;padding-left:0.5em;display:inline !important;background-image:none !important"):}::{]}:

Barrales is the son of Mexican immigrants from Mexico City, Mexico, and was raised in Redwood City, California.^[5] His father owned a roofing company.^[7]His father was paralyzed from a fall from a roof during a roofing job during Ruben's youth.

He attended Nativity Catholic School in Menlo Park, California and graduated from Junípero Serra High School (San Mateo, California) in 1980. He graduated from the University of California, Riverside with a BA in political science in administrative studies.

He is married and has two children.

Political career:{:(style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit source | edit:{beta:(style="vertical-align:top;padding-left:0.5em;display:inline !important;background-image:none !important"):}::{]}:

Barrales was first registered as a Democrat before he ran for San Mateo County Supervisor. In 1992, he was elected San Mateo County Supervisor, and became the first elected Latino Supervisor in the county. He was re-elected in 1996.

As a county Supervisor, he helped lower crime in East Palo Alto by collaborating with Sheriff Don Horsley and other cities to form the Gang Suppression Task Force. This was needed in East Palo Alto, a city that the Federal Bureau of Investigation considered the homicide capital of the United states in 1992, after 42 killings took place that year.^[7][8] He also supported the citizens of Redwood City in bringing the Shot Spotter^[9] to Redwood City to reduce random gun fire. Redwood City was instrumental in the development of the Gunshot Location System,^[10][dead ^link] which was possible through funding by San Mateo County and the major portion by the City of Redwood City.

In 1998, Barrales was the Republican candidate for California State Controller, though he failed to unseat Kathleen Connell. He received 2,652,115 votes (33%) to Connell's 4,874,097 votes (61%). Although he lost, the run for California State Controller gained him national attention. In 2001, he was appointed as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovermental Affairs in the White House by President George W. Bush.^[11]

Private sector:{:(style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit source | edit:{beta:(style="vertical-align:top;padding-left:0.5em;display:inline !important;background-image:none !important"):}::{]}:

After one and a half terms on the county board of supervisors he moved to the private sector, becomingPresident and CEO of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network in San Jose, California.^[12]

Following his stint in the White House he became President and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce in December 2006.^[3]

Notation:{:(style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit source | edit:{beta:(style="vertical-align:top;padding-left:0.5em;display:inline !important;background-image:none !important"):}::{]}:

Barrales is listed among the 100 most influential Hispanics/Latinos in the United States.^[13]
Barrales served as a member of the Speaker's Commission on the California Initiative Process.
Barrales served as Advisor for the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
Barrales served as Vice-Chairman of the California Commission on Local Governance for the 21st Century.
Barrales served as a member of the California Speaker's Commission on State and Local Government Finance.
Barrales was recently featured in San Diego Magazine^[14] for his contributions to the strength of the Latino community in San Diego.

Community service:{:(style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit source | edit:{beta:(style="vertical-align:top;padding-left:0.5em;display:inline !important;background-image:none !important"):}::{]}:

He was a founding member of Garfield Charter School,^[15] in the Redwood City Elementary School District.^[16] Garfield Charter School was one of the first charter schools in California. He was instrumental in getting Garfield's Charter and secured funding for the first years.

He also served as Director of the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center.^[17]

References:{:(style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit source | edit:{beta:(style="vertical-align:top;padding-left:0.5em;display:inline !important;background-image:none !important"):}::{]}:

^ [1] President Bush to Nominate Barrales as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of OGA
^ The Foreign Policy Of George W. Bush: Values, Strategy And Loyalty, by Alexander Moens,2004, ISBN 978-0-7546-4274-9, ISBN 978-0-7546-4274-9
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Barrales#cite_ref-r7_3-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Barrales#cite_ref-r7_3-1) BACK HOME, IN A WAY, FOR EX-SUPE, 12/17/06, San Jose Mercury News
^ "homepage". GROW Elect. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Barrales#cite_ref-Ruben_5-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Barrales#cite_ref-Ruben_5-1) "RUBEN BARRALES" (Web page). ppic.org. Public Policy Institute of California. 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
^ "Hispanic Heritage Awards 2009: Ruben Barrales". kpbs.org. KPBS Public Broadcasting. 29. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Barrales#cite_ref-r5_7-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Barrales#cite_ref-r5_7-1) A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization, by John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8129-6680-0
^ East Palo Alto
^ ShotSpotter - The World Leader in Gunshot Detection and Location Systems
^ [2]^[dead ^link] Archived May 6, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
^ Christopher Conte (May 2001). "Ruben Barrales: Beyond Cheerleading". Governing.com. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
^ Chasing the Red, White, and Blue: A Journey in Tocqueville's Footsteps Through Contemporary America, by David Cohen, Publisher: Picador;2001 ISBN 978-0-312-26154-2, ISBN 978-0-312-26154-2
^ Mark Baldassare, California in the New Millennium, The Changing Social and Political Landscape, UC Berkeley Press, @2000 The Regents of the University of California, ISBN 978-0-520-23421-5
^ Soy Latino - San Diego Magazine - June 2008 - San Diego, California
^ http://www.garfield.rcsd.k12.ca.us/^[dead ^link]
^ http://rcsd.ca.campusgrid.net/home
^ PCRC - Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center

External links:{:(style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit source | edit:{beta:(style="vertical-align:top;padding-left:0.5em;display:inline !important;background-image:none !important"):}::{]}:

Smart Voter Election Results - smartvoter.org
Full Biography for Ruben Barrales - smartvoter.org
San Mateo Board of Supervisors^[dead ^link]
[3]^[dead ^link] Redwood City was instrumental in the development of the Gunshot Location System.
Reversal of Misfortune (East Palo Alto)
http://www.garfield.rcsd.k12.ca.us/ Garfield Charter School

Categories:

White House called weekly about casino

:{:{

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2002}:}:

Former Bureau of Indian Affairs deputy Wayne Smith tells all, or a good portion of it, in a Los Angeles Times investigation into a casino-related dispute that led to his firing.

The dispute involves the Buena Vista Miwuk Rancheria in California. The BIA was trying to figure out who was the legitimate leader of the tribe. The outcome determined control of a future casino.

First, Smith says a White House aide called weekly about the case, which was under review at a BIA office in California. He identified the aide as Jennifer Farley, a deputy in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Her boss is Ruben Barrales.

A White House spokesperson told The Times: "We dismiss these assertions. They don't accurately represent the facts."

Second, Smith says he was asked to lunch by Scott W. Reed, who managed the 1996 presidential campaign of Bob Dole. The Times says Reed is a close friend of Farley.

At the lunch, Reed said he had letters that would prove embarrassing to Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and President Bush. Smith took this as blackmail, Reed claimed he was merely offering friendly advice.

But within weeks, Smith was the target of an internal investigation and the FBI began looking into it as well. Here, he alleges Sue Ellen Wooldridge, Norton's deputy chief of staff and Smith's former colleague from the California Department of Justice, told him not to mention the White House interest.

Wooldridge denies telling Smith to do that.

Smith was fired within days.

:{:{Get the Story:}:

A Game of Casino Hardball(The Los Angeles Times 11/5)

Username: indianz, Password: indianzcom}:

===

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell wants to get rid of any climate change denial at the agency, telling her employees this week that if they doubt the existence of manmade global warming, they need to visit some federal lands to see the proof.

"I hope there are no climate change deniers in the Department of Interior," Jewell said Wednesday.

E&E News reported that Jewell invited any individuals who still hold such views to see the melting permafrost in Alaska or the disappearing snowpacks in the Sierra Mountains.

"If you don't believe in it, come out into the resources," she added.

Jewell, the former CEO of Recreation Equipment Inc., took over at the Interior Department in April.

In late June, President Barack Obama used his executive authority to issue a number of measures aimed at curbing climate change.

The Interior Department will be responsible for issuing permits for 10 gigawatts of renewables on public lands by the end of the year.

"You and I can actually do something about it," Jewell said, according to E&E. "That's a privilege, and I would argue it's a moral imperative."

Jewell's comments have drawn criticism from climate skeptic blogs, with Marlo Lewis at GlobalWarming.org writing, "Such moralizing would be funny were it not for the chilling effect it is bound to have in an agency already mired in group think."

Interior scandals under b2

http://thinkprogress.org/interior-scandals-under-bushusc

rfk:

RFK: The problem for the president is that the environment and our environmental laws are very popular with both Republicans and Democrats among the rank-and-file. So, from the beginning, he’s had to conceal his radical anti-environmental agenda from the American public. He did it on the campaign trail by simply saying that he was going to support initiatives to control global warming. But once he got into office, he immediately reversed that and abandoned that promise, and began dismantling our environmental infrastructure.

In keeping with that, his attack has been a stealth attack. They use Orwellian rhetoric to conceal this extreme agenda from the public. When they want to destroy the forests, they call it theHealthy Forest Act; when they want to destroy the air, they call it the Clear Skies bill. Most insidiously, as part of this stealth attack, they’ve put polluters in charge of the agencies that are supposed to protect Americans from pollution. The head of the Forest Service is Mark Rey, probably the most rapacious timber industry lobbyist in American history. The head of public lands is Steven Griles, a mining industry lobbyist who believes public lands are unconstitutional.

greenpeace:

Since my last post about the Bush Administration and its cozy relationship with logging industry lobbyists, the “revolving door” between the two has spun again.

The latest whirl has Jan Poling, a high-level lawyer for the Forest Service, landing in the lap of the nation’s most powerful timber industry lobbying group – the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA).

As Poling takes her post as general counsel for AF&PA, she’ll run into lots of familiar faces. There will be, of course, industry friends who kept her company during her stint at the Forest Service. But there will also be Dave Tenny, Bush’s former “deputy undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment” (does that title even fit on a business card?) who, like Poling, swapped his job at the Bush administration for one at AF&PA this year.

To bring the door back full circle, I’ll point out Dave Tenny’s new job at AF&PA – vice president of forestry and wood products – is the same one that Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey held before Bush put him in charge of the Forest Service.

New Report Details Wide-Ranging Ethics Scandal at Interior Dept.

by Paul Kiel

ProPublica, Sep. 10, 2008, 4:30 p.m.

Update: We’ve just added the scandal under “Sex, Drugs, and Oil [1]” to our Scandal Watch.

There’s quite a scandal [2] brewing at the Interior Department. According to a series of reports sent to Congress today by the department’s inspector general, Interior employees rigged oil contracts, took money as oil consultants, had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives, and engaged in other misconduct.

The accusations—centered on the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in oil and gas royalties annually—are detailed at length in an article just out [3] from the New York Times.

Since the reports don’t seem to be publicly available, we thought we’d post them.

Some of these files are quite large, so beware.

In a cover letter [4] (PDF), Inspector General Earl Devaney details the “culture of ethical failure” in the department.

In the first report [5] (PDF), investigators focus on Gregory Smith, the former program director of the royalty-in-kind program. As the Times reports, “The report accuses Mr. Smith of improperly accepting gifts from the oil and gas industry, of engaging in sex with two subordinates, and of using cocaine that he purchased from his secretary or her boyfriend several times a year between 2002 and 2005.”

The second report [6] (PDF) look at the Interior officials who marketed taxpayers’ oil. From the Times: “The report found that 19 officials—about one-third of the program’s staff—accepted gratuities from oil companies, which was prohibited because they conducted official business with the industry.”

And the third report [7] (PDF) focuses on Lucy Denett, the former associate director of minerals revenue management, who allegedly manipulated the contracting process to steer a contract to her friend Jimmy Mayberry. Mayberry pleaded guilty [8] to conflict of interest charges earlier this year.

Dept of the Interior DOI

Department taps White House attorney as senior counselor

USDA under fire amid tension over relocation and climate work

Controversial agency relocation slammed as attack on science by lawmakers, employees

Former Interior scientist calls out ‘culture of fear, censorship, and suppression’ under Trump

Scandals mount under David Bernhardt just two weeks after being confirmed to lead Interior

EPA internal watchdog will audit the agency’s Scientific Integrity Policy

Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs

Is the United States About to Lose Its Best Conservation Program?

Far-Reaching Impacts

Legislative Hopes

IG halts climate censorship investigation

Trump Administration, Which Wants More Offshore Drilling, Shuts Down Study Into Its Safety

Contents

Categories

Dick Cheney rears his head over the Gulf disaster

Contents

...

Controversy

==

Sex, Drug Use and Graft Cited in Interior Department

Contents

Regulating Active Mines

Reclaiming abandoned mine lands

Initiatives

Related legislation

See also

Contents

Provisions of the bill

Congressional Budget Office report

Procedural history

Debate and discussion

See also

Notes/References

Contents

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New Report Details Wide-Ranging Ethics Scandal at Interior Dept.