The Trump administration is making a last-minute push to sell oil rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Firms can now select which swaths of pristine Alaskan wilderness they would like to drill, and they could bid on leases before President Trump leaves office in January.
It has been an absolute rollercoaster of a week for anyone who cares about our public lands. It all started last Friday when a federal judge ruled that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) beleaguered acting director should be removed from his illegally held position.
Offshore wind is at a key juncture right now. And your voice can help take it to the next level.
No, lithium isn’t going to become “the new oil,” regardless of what the pandering pundits of the popular press say (it’s a raw material, not a fuel, and it’s one of the most abundant elements on Earth).
Ten years ago, people all over the U.S. gasped in horror, glued to news broadcasts trained on the fallout from a massive oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a national crisis, and the need to address the health and safety of communities and workers across the nation is paramount. Yet a number of political leaders are making sure to look out for their corporate friends. Last week, some of the most reliable servants of the fossil fuel industry in the House and Senate sent letters to Interior Secretary Bernhardt asking him to grant royalty relief, lease extensions, and other favors to the oil, gas, and coal industries.
We are currently in a state of national emergency thanks in no small part to the Trump administration’s muzzling of public health experts and slow response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we all do our part to limit the extent of this outbreak, the Department of the Interior (DOI) instead appears to be more focused on advancing oil and gas interests and abusing the situation to avoid public scrutiny and input on its actions.
Recent reports show that political appointees at the Department of the Interior (DOI) ignored experts who opposed issuing a rule rolling back safety measures for offshore oil rig workers.
The American Wind Energy Association has described language in recently-released Defense and Department of the Interior FY 2020 appropriations bills as “redundant” and says it threatens to needlessly delaying the development of the country’s offshore wind pipeline.
The US Government has awarded new offshore wind leases off the coast of Massachusetts that are said to be worth over $405 million and which have the potential to develop up to 4.1 gigawatts of offshore wind.
