Thursday, April 18, 2024

U.S. Interior Dept BLM rule prioritizes conservation and clean energy

From today's Washington Post article:

"For decades, the federal government has prioritized oil and gas drilling, hardrock mining and livestock grazing on public lands across the country. That could soon change under a far-reaching Interior Department rule that puts conservation, recreation and renewable energy development on equal footing with resource extraction.

The final rule released Thursday represents a seismic shift in the management of roughly 245 million acres of public property — about one-tenth of the nation’s land mass.

* * *

'We oversee 245 million acres, and every land manager will tell you that climate change is already happening. It’s already impacting our public lands,' [Bureau of Land Management director Tracy] Stone-Manning said during a Washington Post Live event last year. 'We see it in pretty obvious ways, through unprecedented wildfires.'"

The U.S. just changed how it manages a tenth of its land: The Interior Department rule puts conservation and clean energy development on par with drilling, mining and resource extraction on federal lands for the first time, Maxine Joselow, Washington Post, April 18, 2024

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Democrats and Republicans are different on conservation policy:

The Antiquities Act is a "1906 law that gives presidents the unilateral power to protect federal lands with natural, cultural and scientific values. Eighteen presidents, Republican and Democrat, have used the law to designate 161 national monuments." The Biden administration has a "goal of conserving 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030, known as 30x30." Meanwhile, "Project 2025, the 920-page policy blueprint that dozens of right-wing organizations compiled to guide Trump should he win reelection in November, specifically calls for repealing the Antiquities Act." (HuffPost, May 9, 2024)

👏 “A lot of nature conservation is a long game. You plant a tree, you're not going to in your lifetime see that it reached its full potential. But within three months of that river being re-wiggled the salmon were spawning in that one kilometre stretch for the first time in over 150 years”

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— Stephen Frost (@sfrost.bsky.social) September 28, 2024 at 1:31 AM

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