Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt recently finalized plans to strip the greater sage grouse’s protected status by opening Federal land in 10 oil-rich Western states to drilling. On March 20th, only days after that decision, a Federal Judge ruled that the Obama administration’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had ignored climate change … [Read more...]
Gas and Oil Production Safety Requirements Relaxed by Trump
Offshore gas and oil production safety rules and regulations have been relaxed and even removed to support Donald Trump’s “energy dominance” goals. Many of the requirements put into place following the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 crewmen in April 2010 have been rolled back by the Trump administration in a … [Read more...]
Increased Drilling Could Bring Waves of Pollution to 68 National Parks
In January, President Trump announced plans to open up 90 percent of US coastal waters to oil and gas drilling, rendering places like George’s Bank and the Florida Straits vulnerable to unnecessary risks. As noted in a National Resources Defense Council blog post, as drill rigs are erected, risks of blow outs, major spills, explosions and sonic … [Read more...]
Interior Department Stops Mountaintop Mining Health Study
Late last month, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine was asked by the Department of the Interior to cease an ongoing investigation into the damaging effects of mountaintop mining. The investigation commenced last year after state agencies in West Virginia requested federal aid to study the community health impact of the … [Read more...]
