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The Bureau of Land Management has made it official Tuesday — coal leasing will end in the Powder River Basin by 2041. The move follows a court order in a federal lawsuit, Western Organization of Resource Councils et al. v. BLM. The judge on the case directed the BLM to redo its environmental analysis, and include both no-leasing and a limited coal leasing alternatives. As a result of that analysis, the BLM said it has determined that “additional leasing of BLM-administered coal is not necessary, based on the current analysis in the Final Supplemental EIS. The analysis indicates that operating...

President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will nominate Doug Burgum to be secretary of the Department of the Interior. “He’s going to head the Department of Interior and he’s going to be fantastic,” Trump said of the North Dakota governor. Trump, 78, indicated that he will make a “formal announcement” regarding Burgum on Friday. This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates. ========================================================================Troubling Details Are Coming Out About Kamala Harris' Behavior - NYPost.comKamala Harris' Bizarre Marriage Has Us Scratching Our Heads - NickiSwift.comSara Haines walks off 'The View' after Whoopi Goldberg admits she likes 'to be...

The Biden administration has proposed cutting water allotments from the Colorado River to California, Arizona, and Nevada by up to 25%. hoping to conserve the supply. “The Colorado River Basin provides water for more than 40 million Americans. It fuels hydropower resources in eight states, supports agriculture and agricultural communities across the West, and is a crucial resource for 30 Tribal Nations. Failure is not an option,” said Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau in a statement. “Recognizing the severity of the worsening drought, the Biden-Harris administration is bringing every tool and every resource to bear through the President’s Investing in America...

Much to the chagrin of radical environmentalists and legacy media, President Donald Trump’s Department of Interior (DOI) largely succeeded in promoting true conservation policies. Since 2017, the department gave sportsmen and women— the largest drivers of conservation funding— a bigger seat at the table, bolstered relations with landowners out West and strengthened the multiple-use, sustained yield philosophy guiding public lands management. Post-Trump, DOI could morph into a preservationist, climate-focused agency largely mirroring the House Natural Resources Committee under Chairman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ). This should concern the millions of true conservationists across America. Who will succeed Secretary David Bernhardt come January,...

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will depart the administration amid growing controversy over allegations that he violated ethics rules, President Trump announced Saturday. Trump tweeted early Saturday that Zinke "will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years." "Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation," Trump wrote. He did not specify whether Zinke resigned or was fired, and said he will announce a new secretary next week. Whoever Trump nominates will likely have to go through Senate...

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is listing 35 minerals used in aircraft, cellphones, and other important technologies as "vital" to national security in a move to wean the U.S. off foreign suppliers. The list includes such valuable metals as aluminum and titanium, as well as uranium, helium, lithium, platinum, potash, and strontium. The materials are used in aircraft and other aerospace technologies. Lithium is used in batteries to power a wide range of products from cellphones to electric cars. A final rule to be published Friday says the U.S. is "heavily reliant" on imports of the minerals. "This dependency of the...

The Obama administration has finalized rules designed to reduce the environmental impact of coal mining on the nation’s streams, a long-anticipated move that met quick resistance from Republicans who vowed to overturn it under President-elect Donald Trump. The Interior Department said Monday the rule will protect 6,000 miles of streams and 52,000 acres of forests, preventing debris from coal mining from being dumped into nearby waters. …

Interior Secretary Calls for 'major course correction' in conservation. Video of Secretary's speech: https://www.doi.gov/video/next-100-years-conservation And weep!

The National Park Service is launching an initiative to make places and people of significance to the history of lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual Americans part of the national narrative. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is convening a panel of 18 scholars next month that will be charged with exploring the LGBT movement’s story in areas such as law, religion, media, civil rights and the arts. The committee will identify relevant sites and its work will be used to evaluate them for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, designation as National Historic Landmarks, or consideration as national monuments, Park...

President Barack Obama’s administration has quietly suggested it is willing to create a two-tier race-based legal system in Hawaii, where one set of taxes, spending and law enforcement will govern one race, and the second set of laws will govern every other race. The diversity proposal is portrayed as an effort to create a separate in-state government for people who are “native Hawaiians.” If Obama succeeds, “what’s to prevent creating similar [self-governing racial] groups out of say, Cajuns, or Orthodox Jews or Amish?” said Gail Heriot, a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. “If you can do that...

Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell vowed that President Obama would use executive authority to create more national monuments to protect lands if Congress doesn't pass legislation to do so. "If Congress doesn't step up to act," Jewell said during a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, "then the president will take action." Obama has used the more than century-old Antiquities Act to establish national monuments nine times, with six coming in the last year. The administration has said it would use the law only if local communities can demonstrate there is significant support for such action. Those...

Bureau Of Land Management Gives Advice On Finding Bigfoot Last week we reported on how the U.S. National Ocean Service publicly denied the existence of mermaids in response to a joke documentary on Animal Planet. Meanwhile, another federal agency has taken a different course. The Bureau of Land Management in Oregon & Washington has released this video titled "Bigfoot and the BLM." In it, people, who I assume to be BLM staff, are asked about their belief in Bigfoot and the narrator gives handy tips about where to go looking for the mysterious creature. Is this all just a bit...

So you thought the creation of the NLCS was just so BLM could do a better job of managing special lands already under their control. That's how the program was sold. To better manage 27 million acres. Well we all better think again. The document I'm about to describe provides for the BLM to have 14 new monuments on existing BLM land and acquire at the very least 2.6 million acres to add to the NLCS. I am in possession of part of a DOI document marked "Internal Draft - NOT FOR RELEASE". The part I have is pgs. 15-21,...

Energy The administration asked for public comments on a plan to expand offshore drilling. When they came in 2-to-1 in favor, the Interior Department sat on the news. Time for a "Texas tea" party? When you ask for public comment on a major policy issue, at some point you should make the results public, not hide them until you can figure out a way to spin the public reaction to support a conclusion you've already drawn. On its last business day in office, the Bush administration published a proposed draft of a five-year plan to lease areas in the Atlantic...

WASHINGTON - Federal officials are investigating how National Archives documents of interest to Indians suing the Interior Department were found discarded in a trash bin and a wastebasket. The discovery came to light on Sept. 1, when Archives staff noticed federal records in one of the trash bins behind the National Archives Building near the Capitol. They notified the Archives' inspector general, Paul Brachfeld, whose staff recovered the documents. They found at least a portion of the documents were Bureau of Indian Affairs records dating to the 1950s, according to Jason Baron of the Archives' Office of General Counsel, in...

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The new version of the Endangered Species Act approved by the House is unlikely to pass muster in the Senate, at least right away. Critics worry especially about a murky provision that could pay landowners tens of millions of dollars in damages for property devalued by restrictions due to rare critters or plants. Nonetheless, sponsors' success in getting this far and winning bipartisan backing shows widespread recognition of problems in one of the nation's most venerable environmental laws. In a barometer of emotions flowing on the issue, no fewer than four Old Testament books (Genesis, Psalms,...

WASHINGTON DC -- Around midday Friday, Senator Harry Reid (D NV), as Senate Majority Whip, announced the Senate schedule for Monday, September 23. The late afternoon's events, he said, are to include a vote on a motion to invoke cloture on the Byrd Amendment to the Interior Department funding bill. The very same motion, actually aimed not against the Byrd Amendment but the Bush Healthy Forests Initiative, was voted down September 17. But Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD)then saved his vote until last, and when it was clear the Democrat-favored motion would not attract the necessary 60 votes,...

Appropriators Try to Blackmail Flake, Shadegg to Vote For Bad Bill Washington, D.C. – Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake, who represents the state’s First District, today blasted the House Appropriations Committee for accusing him, and other members of Arizona’s congressional delegation, of working to slash funds to help Arizona and other western states cope with the devastating wildfire season.   The Interior Appropriations bill, written by the House Appropriations Committee, has a price tag of nearly $20 billion.  The bill is $775 million more than President Bush’s request and is more than $900 million more than the same bill cost...

U.S. Newswire 24 Apr 16:26 To: National Desk Contact: Mark Pfeifle or John Wright, 202-208-6416, both of the Department of the Interior WASHINGTON, April 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton announced today her intention to develop plans managing the national monuments established under the department's jurisdiction in 2000 and 2001. "It's important that we begin the process of developing plans for managing these national treasures," Norton said. "While I share concerns about the way in which these monuments were created, it's our job now to see that we develop land use plans in an open, inclusive...