This Week at Interior April 22, 2022

Transcript:

Hello, everybody. I'm John Carroll, the Superintendent of Kenai Fjords National Park. And you're watching "This Week at Interior."

This Week, at Interior 

Secretary Haaland kicked off a week-long visit to Alaska this week. The Secretary’s trip will include visits to Anchorage, Fairbanks, King Cove, Seward, and Utqiagvik. She’s meeting with Alaska Native leaders and elders, local, state and federal elected officials, and members of the conservation, outdoor recreation, and labor communities to discuss sustainable economies, federal investments, and infrastructure needs. These investments, including through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will help ensure Alaskan communities have healthy lands and waters, continued access to the outdoors, and the foundation for future jobs and economic opportunity.  

While in Alaska, Secretary Haaland, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Governor Mike Dunleavy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams and Senior Advisor Raina Thiele visited the community of King Cove. They met with Native leaders, elected officials and community members; visited with healthcare professionals at the King Cove Clinic and spoke with students at the King Cove School. In her remarks the Secretary said "No matter the path your life takes you on, you can always choose to pursue the things that make you happy and fulfilled. It takes hard work. It takes perseverance. But at the end of the day, it’s worth it to pursue your passions." 

Interior has published its first Equity Action Plan. That plan outlines the Department’s efforts to advance equity through all of its operations, remove barriers to equal opportunity, and deliver resources and benefits equitably to the general public.  Secretary Haaland discussed Interior’s plan at the White House Convening on Equity. Interior’s efforts focus on areas with the potential for high equity impacts in underserved communities, for Tribes and to address barriers to recreation on Interior-managed lands and waters. 

Friday April 22nd is Earth Day, a time to renew our collective commitment to protect our planet for current and future generations. This week Interior outlined its roadmap for continued renewable energy progress on public lands, part of the Biden-Harris administration’s goal to permit 25 gigawatts of renewable power on public lands by 2025. Through the Bureau of Land Management, the Department has approved more than 120 renewable energy projects with combined generating capacity of 12,000 megawatts. As the agency continues to ramp-up its renewable energy program, it anticipates supporting nearly 10,000 additional megawatts of renewable energy capacity by the end of 2023, and more in 2024. The administration's goal is a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035.    

In honor of Earth Day, the U.S. Geological Survey released a series of videos this week highlighting eight of the agency’s scientists who work to understand and address climate change. USGS employs 8000 people, each with a unique role to support the mission of providing actionable science about the status of Earth’s natural systems.  

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs Keone Nakoa took part in the "Our Ocean Conference" in the Republic of Palau. The conference highlighted the importance of collaborating with traditional and community leaders when it comes to natural resources and ocean conservation. He also signed a Memorandum of Understanding, officially launching a partnership between the National Park Service and national government of Palau for sustainable visitor use and tourism management of protected areas on the island. 

Interior this week announced the winners of the Department's annual Environmental Achievement Awards. The awards recognize employees and partners who have made exceptional contributions through projects in eight categories aimed at fostering the protection and preservation of cultural and environmental resources. Among the winners are 13 individuals and teams from the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the National Park Service. 

Secretary Haaland joined Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough this week for a National Park Week salute to the nation's veterans at Great Falls Park in Virginia.  

At VA, we know that being outdoors can have a real positive impact on the health and well-being of Vets. So whether you hike, fish, rock climb, or just want to have a picnic with family and friends, one of the best ways for you to experience nature is on America's public lands.

Our veterans and their families sacrifice so much for our country and we're truly grateful. That's why servicemembers, veterans, and Gold Star families have free lifetime access to all federal public lands including national parks and wildlife refuges. 

National Park Week runs through April 24th. 

And our social media Picture of the Week, we head back to Alaska, and the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. It's the smallest refuge in the nation's largest state, hosting a quarter-million migratory birds every fall, including the entire world's population of black brants. They migrate here every year to get some much-needed rest and dine at one of the world's largest eelgrass beds. 

Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and You Tube. 

That's This Week at Interior. 
 

This Week: Secretary Haaland kicks off a week-long visit to Alaska; it's Interior's first ever Equity Action Plan; Interior celebrates Earth Day 2022 with a roadmap for continued renewable energy progress on public lands; the U.S. Geological Survey highlights the contributions of its scientists who work to understand and address climate change; Interior takes part in the "Our Ocean Conference" in the Republic of Palau; it's time for Interior's annual Environmental Achievement Awards; Secretary Haaland joined Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough this week for a National Park Week salute to the nation's veterans; and the smallest wildlife refuge in the nation's largest state takes our social media Picture of the Week!

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    04/11/2025

    This Week at Interior April 11, 2025

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    This Week at Interior

    President Trump this week signed Executive Orders aimed at achieving the Administration's goal of American Energy Dominance with a renewed focus on coal. One of the orders directs Interior to identify untapped coal resources on federal lands, while removing barriers to mining and leasing.

    The value of untapped coal in our country is one hundred times greater than the value of all the gold at Fort Knox, and we're going to unleash it and make America rich and powerful again.

    To advance the President Trump's order, Interior will implement a series of policy moves and regulatory reforms to position coal as a cornerstone of the nation’s energy strategy by ensuring federally managed lands remain open and accessible for responsible energy development. Secretary Burgum likened the actions to creating a new Golden Age of "Mine, Baby, Mine," saying that  

    Interior is unlocking America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development to make life more affordable for every American family while showing the world the power of America’s natural resources and innovation.  

    Among the actions are ending the moratorium on federal coal leasing, reopening federal lands in Montana and Wyoming to coal leasing, removing regulatory burdens for coal mines, and providing royalty rate relief.  

    Interior this week announced the disbursement of more than $13 million in grants to support the reclamation of abandoned mine lands, furthering the Trump administration’s commitment to American Energy Dominance, environmental stewardship and economic renewal in coal communities. The funding is administered through the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and it will support job creation and economic revitalization efforts in North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.  

    Interior this week announced the release of updated oil and gas reserve estimates for the Gulf of America's Outer Continental Shelf. The new data and analysis over the last couple of years reveal an additional 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent since 2021, bringing the total reserve estimate to 7.04 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That figure includes 5.77 billion barrels of oil and 7.15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced plans to significantly increase oil and gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf, and just last week Secretary Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to hold the first Gulf of America oil and gas lease sale since its renaming in February.

    Secretary Burgum held his first All Hands meeting this week at Interior's historic Yates Auditorium. The Secretary saluted the notable accomplishments the Department has achieved in making the transition from the previous administration, and expanded on his vision that innovation, rather than regulation, is the cornerstone of American prosperity.

    The thing that has led our country for 250 years is innovation, doesn't matter whether it's the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution our ability to innovate in a way that allowed us to win World War One and World War II and lead the world and become the world leader, all of it was innovation based, and we have to get back to those roots. That's how we win. That's how America wins in this world, that's how we win again for our children and our children's children, is we win with innovation.

    U.S. Geological Survey crews were deployed late last week and this week to monitor flood impacts after storms dumped heavy rain across portions of the southeast and Midwest. Crews are still hard at work gathering flood measurements in Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio, as well as West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi, where as much as ten inches of rain fell causing massive flooding. The gages provide information for the National Weather Service to predict when dangerous flooding might occur and allow for warnings to vulnerable residents, as flood crests will continue into early May.

    And our social media Picture of the Week, California's Battery Point Lighthouse. Perched on California's rugged northern coast, this historic beacon stands among the rocky outcrops of the California Coastal National Monument and has guided mariners since its first lighting in 1856.

    Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X! That's This Week at Interior!


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    News and headlines from Interior April 11, 2025

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