Biden Administration halts/suspends suspending all Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program ANWR - FY 2022 DOI investments...

...this move by the Biden Administration is most welcomed because Trump’s attacks on our Country’s Natural Resources was environmentally bonkers Whispers it’s a lot of data chug a Red Bull to keep up

Bye Bye Trump Gas & Oil Leases…

President Biden issued Executive Order 13990, directing the Interior Department to review oil and gas activity in the Arctic Refuge. After conducting the required review, the Department identified defects in the underlying Record of Decision supporting the leases, including the lack of analysis of a reasonable range of alternatives in the EIS conducted under NEPA.

Department of Interior June 1st Secretarial Order

On June 1, 2021 -The Department of the Interior formally announced (at the direction of President Biden) it suspended all activities related to the implementation of the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge pending completion of a comprehensive analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Secretary Haaland via Secretarial Order 3401  which directs the Department (of Interior) to initiate a comprehensive environmental analysis to review the potential impacts of the Program and to address legal deficiencies in the current leasing program’s environmental review under NEPA.

Secretarial Order 3401 - Oil & Gas Leases ANWR

The Department is in the process of notifying lessees, of the Department of Interior recent decision suspending oil and gas leases in the Arctic Refuge, (which are currently pending the review) -the DOI plans to determine whether the leases should be reaffirmed, voided, or subject to additional mitigation measures. See Sec 5-Implementation (a) for a timeline and Sec 5 (b) thru (d) for next steps

Jume 1, 2021 DOI Secretarial Order 3401 Gas & Oil Leases ANWR

Not that this matters but I tweeted about NEPA and ANWR, a lot - Twitter thread archives found here. However if you followed me on Twitter then you might recall in September of 2019 I may have completely lost my ___ because after reading the BLM report I was flummoxed that the previous administration would go full stream with the leases (I’m kind of busy and I don’t have the time to track down the archived tweets) but included in the DOI directive they cite the very same report I originally cited in September 2019

…the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) established and began administering an oil and gas program in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge. While failing to do the prerequisite study and public notices, public comments. Hence why I harped on Trump’s countless APA & NEPA violations. In September pf 2019 BLM prepared the “Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program Environmental Impact Statement” (EIS) under NEPA. Then BLM held a lease sale on January 6, 2021, and subsequently issued 10-year leases on nine tracts covering more than 430,000 acres. Because drill baby drill…

President Biden’s proposed Fiscal Year 2022 Budget

Makes Significant Investments in Interior Department, again the proposed Fiscal Year 2022 budget makes a lot of smart investments - Department of the Interior Budget in Brief highlights and describes details of the fiscal year 2022 request.

 Budget Justifications

• FY 2022 Bureau of Reclamation

• FY 2022 Central Utah Project Completion Act

• FY 2022 Office of Insular Affairs

• FY 2022 Office of the Solicitor

• FY 2022 Office of Inspector General

Side note one subordinate agency within the Department of Interior - that you should keep an eye on is the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management -because the Biden/Harris Administration also included increases

• Renewable Energy. The FY 2022 budget includes $45.8 million for BOEM’s Renewable Energy program, an increase of $17.4 million from the 2021 enacted level

• Marine Minerals. The FY 2022 budget includes $15.0 million for BOEM’s Marine Minerals Program, an increase of $4.2 million from the 2021 enacted level. 

• Environmental Programs. The FY 2022 budget includes $86.8 million for BOEM’s Environmental Programs, an increase of $10.9 million from the 2021 enacted level. Science is vital to BOEM’s mission to manage offshore energy and mineral resources in an environmentally and economically responsible manner

• Conventional Energy. The FY 2022 budget includes $62.3 million for BOEM’s conventional energy program, an increase of $1.8 million from the 2021 enacted level.

On January 27, 2021 President Biden issued Executive Order 14008 which requires the Secretary of the Interior to “pause new offshore oil and natural gas leasing while the Department performs a comprehensive review of permitting and leasing practices and evaluates royalties and other actions to account for the climate costs of oil and gas resources extracted from offshore waters…” - dang is the Orange QAnon-Hate Goblin award of the new administration’s plan to expand alternative energy by way of wind-farms? Of which I applaud the Biden/Harris Administration policy of harnessing natural and alternative energy sources

• May 25, 2021 - Biden-Harris Administration Advances Offshore Wind in the Pacific, Morro Bay 399 Area Map and Morro Bay 399 Area Map Shape File

—but is Trump also aware that the DOI Directive will also lay waste to his “short cuts” which unquestionably contravened A-P-A and N-E-P-A

As previously discussed Biden’s Executive Order 3401 - which directed the Department of Interior to confirmed the program’s failure to comply with NEPA, “including failure to adequately analyze a reasonable range of alternatives in the environmental impact statement.” …the DOI also stated that it will begin tne review all of the Program’s oil and gas leases “to determine whether the leases should be reaffirmed, voided, or subject to additional mitigation measures.” Like I said those of us who really know how DC works, we know where to look and what to look for. And then we share that data/facts with our readers.

Interior Department FY2022 investments:

Yes I am purposely using the word investments because that’s applicable to a large portion of the Department of Interior’s Budget Request. As noted the Department of the Interior’s 2022 budget proposal totals $17.6 billion — an increase of $2.5 billion, or 17 percent. This significant investment will help the Department address the climate crisis while creating good-paying union jobs and investing in healthy lands, waters, and economies in communities across the country.

• Address Climate Challenges and Build Climate Resiliency. The 2022 budget proposal includes more than $1.9 billion in new climate-related investments to conserve and adaptively manage natural resources, increase understanding of how natural resources are changing and what that means, build resilience to protect communities and lands from significant impacts, and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases.

The Biden Administration FY 2022 proposal includes funding to help advance the America the Beautiful initiative – the Administration's effort to conserve 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 – and includes more than $900 million in funding for Interior and the Department of Agriculture for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

The budget proposal also contains funding for wildland fire management, drought mitigation, and science-based investments that will help the Department and communities prepare for and address the aftermath of natural hazard events. And I can assure you there’s nothing about “raking leaves” to stop the ever growing wildfires.

Strengthen Tribal Nations (finally)

The Biden/Harris Administration’s actually puts a long over due focus on Indian Country. The FY 2022 budget proposal includes $4.2 billion, an increase of $727.8 million from the 2021 enacted levels, across all Indian Affairs programs. These investments will support a new Indian Land Consolidation Program, which will address the problem of fractionated lands and enhance the ability of Tribal governments to plan for and adapt to climate change and to build stronger Tribal communities. - in short the proposed “buyback land” would benefit many Tribal Communities.

The budget will also provide increases to strengthen Tribal natural resource programs, Tribal public safety, and efforts to provide leadership and direction for cross-departmental and interagency work involving missing and murdered American Indian and Alaska Native peoples.

JOBS. JOBS. JOBS. Biden’s FY 2022 BUDGET

Create Jobs to Meet Environmental and Energy Challenges. These two points that some espouse are diametrically opposed, are not:

The American Jobs Plan, the 2022 budget proposal includes

• new investments to create good-paying jobs,

• rebuild the country’s infrastructure,

• address the climate crisis, and

• position the United States to out-compete other countries.
  

The proposal includes an increase of $300 million to support jobs plugging orphan oil and gas wells, cleaning up abandoned mines, and decommissioning offshore oil and gas infrastructure, all of which will improve the environmental quality of energy communities by addressing serious safety hazards and risks from associated air, water, or other environmental damage.

Furthermore Biden’s FY2022 proposed budget also includes $169 million for a new Energy Community Revitalization Program, which will help accelerate this remediation and reclamation work on Interior-managed lands and support work on non-federal lands through grants to states and Tribes.

And lastly the proposed FY 2022 budget also appropriates $86 million for the Civilian Climate Corps, an initiative to put a new generation of Americans to work conserving and restoring public lands and waters. It also includes $249 million in funding to increase renewable energy production on public lands and in offshore waters, which will create jobs and help transition the country to a clean energy future. 

You can visit the White House for more information on the President’s FY 2022 Budget. It is finally nice to have an administration that actually addresses the real consequences of Climate Change - while investing in our Native American Communities and doesn’t just “talk about it” but puts his words into action via his FY2022 proposed budget. Damn if me wanting clean air and water, preservation of our Country’s Natural Resources and making significant investments in our collective waters and land makes me a libtard - welp I’m actually okay with that.

-Filey