Welcome to the Landscape, your show about America's public lands,
and the folks working hard to protect them. I'm Aaron Weiss,
deputy director at the Center for Western Priorities coming to you this week
from our nation's capitol, Washington, dc uh,
getting ready to fly home to Denver just in time for some nice below zero
temperatures.
And I'm Kate g Retinger,
CW P'S Communications Manager recording today from Austin,
Texas where it's about to freeze. And the last time that happened, uh,
it didn't go well here, so everyone's a little on edge ,
but it'll probably be fine . So we've got our, um,
CWP director, Jen Roula, and our director of campaigns and special projects,
Lauren Bogard,
both here today to recap the year of 2022 in public
lands. Um, so welcome back to the, well, yeah,
welcome back to the podcast you've both been on here before .
Thanks. Happy to join y'all.
Thanks, Kate. It's great to be here.
So we're not gonna waste any time. This is, uh, yeah,
the proverbial year ender as they call 'em. And we're just gonna run through,
because as we are putting this together, I'm like, wow, that happened this year.
Uh,
it has been quite a year as far as public lands and the interior department
and parks and national monuments go.
So let's just start at the very beginning,
A very good place to start, uh, with an offshore lease sale, uh,
that got invalidated tossed out by a judge.
This was the lease sale that had happened the previous November and
Earth Justice and four other green groups went to court saying that the interior
department was relying on a years old NPA analysis,
an environmental review that didn't accurately consider greenhouse gas emissions
that would result from the ultimate development of those lease sales.
And the judge agreed and tossed out that lease sale.
And it was the year starting with a reminder that all of the
insufficient environmental reviews that happened during the
Zike and Bernhardt years under the Trump administration, uh,
were not gonna hold up and fast forward all the way to this
summer when the Inflation reduction Act passed. Uh,
and that finally reinstated this lease sale that had been tossed out.
Had that not happened, that lease sale would in fact,
have been invalidated today. And we will talk a whole lot more about the good,
bad and the ugly from the ira. But that was really, I think, a, uh,
a scene setter for, for what was succumb this year, uh,
along with what happened next, Kate.
Uh, right. And those leases de did get restored by the ira, we should mention.
Um, unfortunately, yeah, so big win and then, uh, it was taken away.
Um, we'll get back to the ira. Um,
continuing along with the things that the Trump administration did that have
been overturned, rightfully so. Um,
we've got the boundary waters, uh,
copper mining leases that were canceled by the Biden administration, um,
after the Trump administration had unlawfully reinstated these leases.
Um, now the boundary Waters canoe area is actually wilderness. It's a thousand,
sorry,
a million acre wilderness area within the Superior National Forest
in the state of Minnesota. Um,
the leases would've allowed twin metals to build highly toxic and polluting
sulfide or copper mines along the lakes and streams that flow directly into the
boundary waters. Um, and, you know, of course,
people were very upset about that. And basically,
after doing a scientific review, the US Forest Service, um,
decided to withhold the renewal of the expired leases. So,
um, the Biden administration is currently considering whether, um,
to ban mining in the entire watershed of the boundary waters, um, which, uh,
of course we're we're for that. So we'll see how that plays out.
And Jen,
I really think that was the first big environmental win of
the year, considering, uh,
that project had been in play for so long.
Yeah, that's right, Erin.
I think that was a major victory for the conservation community
and, uh,
just the importance of the boundary waters to,
to Minnesota and the, just the,
the pristine nature of that area just would've been devastated if that,
if that had, uh, if that mining had been able to happen in that area.
Moving on, still in January, what a busy month,
Stuart Rhodes got arrested. He was, of course, the founder of the Oath Keepers.
He was charged with Seditious Conspiracy for his role in the failed coup from
January, 2021. So, uh,
11 months later this year in November,
he was finally convicted of those charges. Uh,
and that was a really big deal. The Oathkeepers involvement, uh, in public,
anti-public land circles has been going on for years.
We've been tracking them in our extremism reports, going back to the,
the first Bundy standoff. They,
the oathkeepers weren't officially at Maier, but of course,
there's been a whole lot of overlap between followers of the Bundy family and
the Oath Keepers.
And the arrest and subsequent conviction of Stuart Rhoads
was really the, the first consequences that folks, uh, have,
uh, finally suffered for, for those anti-government actions.
And we said at the time, when January 6th happened,
that there was a straight line from the lack of consequence at Mallard in
2016 to what happened on January 6th. Uh,
and it, it does feel like vindication, I think in some ways, uh,
that there is finally justice. And Stewart Rhodes, uh,
will be heading to prison for quite a while.
Yeah, I think Aaron, we, we saw this early on with the,
you know, the, the, this version of the Sage Brush Rebellion,
and it was very satisfying to see the results of the Stewart Rhodes,
uh, uh,
trial and vindication that we didn't see during the ma after the Mallor,
uh, occupation.
One last note, in January,
the interior Department started holding listening sessions on the conservation
atlas.
And this is what's gonna track America's progress towards protecting 30% of
our lands and waters by the end of the decade.
It was really encouraging to see the Interior Department holding those sessions,
doing that planning process. Unfortunately,
here we are at the end of December,
and we still have not seen even a draft version of that atlas.
So if there, uh, if there was both optimism and concern, uh,
with what was happening in January, uh,
you can put the lack of Ann Atlas now still, uh,
I think solidly into the concern column.
All right, so we made it through January. We're moving into February. Um,
and we're still talking about things that the Biden administration undid
from the Trump administration. Um, this time it's Gray Wolf protections, um,
actually, I'm sorry, the Biden administration didn't do this. A,
a federal judge restored protections for gray wolfs across a lot of the
United States. Unfortunately,
that ruling did not apply to the Rocky Mountain States, um,
which it would include Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, um,
where we've seen just rampant killing of wolves, um, in the past year.
And, um, of course, the,
the federal government is currently still reviewing whether or not to
list the gray wolves as endangered, um,
which would help protect them in those states. Unfortunately,
it doesn't seem like that's happening fast enough.
So we'll keep watching that in the new year.
And then also in February,
we had our first significant report from the Interior Department Inspector
General's office. Uh,
the IG was looking back at the tenure of Ryan Zike as interior
secretary, and found that Zike misused his position,
violated his ethical obligations, didn't comply with his duty of candor,
all of that very reminiscent of some of what got him drummed out of,
uh, the military,
or at least saw his military career stall with the Navy Seals.
And lo and behold, he carried those same sort of, uh,
lack of ethics with him into office,
as we had been saying all the time that he was in office. It was, I think,
uh, somewhat of a relief, Jen,
to see that report come out as confirmation that what we had been saying years
ago, uh, was in fact happening.
Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's unfortunate that it took this long, uh,
and that there were really no, uh,
significant consequences for, uh, now, uh, Congressman elect,
uh, Zike,
who will be rejoining the Congress after being elected to the,
the New Congressional district, uh, from Montana. But, you know,
sometimes, uh, I guess justice resolves itself slowly,
but it was vindication to see Zeke hel at least held accountable in this way.
Yeah. And as we note, yep. Come January,
he will be sworn back into Congress,
so he returns exactly where he was before he became Interior Secretary.
All right, let's move into March. Lauren, let's bring you in here. Uh,
one of our first big conservation winds for the year, certainly in,
if not in terms of acres, in terms of cultural significance. Uh,
president Biden established a new national historic site in Colorado.
That's right, Aaron. On March 18th,
the president signed legislation to designate the Amache National
Historic Site in Grenada, Colorado.
It's the first time that he added to the National Park System.
And what this designation will do is it'll help tell the history of Japanese
American incarceration during World War ii.
More than 10,000 people were incarcerated at a Mae from
1942 to 1945,
and actually the site house 7,000 people at its peak,
two thirds of whom were United States citizens. So it's, uh,
an important acknowledgement of that history, uh, that that site has,
has been designated.
One of my favorite stories from this year involves a rosebush
at ah, mache that had not bloomed.
It had been dormant for 80 years. And this spring,
shortly after that designation,
that rosebush started blooming again. Uh,
and it may have been a helping hand from the,
the folks at Denver Botanic B Gardens who had taken clippings, which can,
of course, uh, encourage growth, but really just a, a,
a wonderfully remarkable and symbolic, uh,
continuation of that story there, that this rose plant, uh,
had survived there in really the middle of nowhere, uh, for 80 years,
and then this year starts blooming again.
I love that story too, Erin. I'm glad you brought that up.
And it makes me think of in Washington DC and March and April when the cherry
blossomed trees around the tidal basin in our blooming,
and the initial trees were gifts from, uh, Japan.
So kind of a cool full circle story there.
And then, uh, one week later, secretary Holland headed to Texas.
She sure did.
She made a visit to El Paso's Kassner Range at the invitation
of Congressional representative Veronica Escobar,
and she met with local advocates and conservation groups who have been pushing
for, uh, the Kassner Range National Monument,
and not just within the last several years, but for more than 50 years now.
And for those who may not know,
this is the Casner range is a 7,000 acre area that was a former former
Army missile range, and it connects to the Franklin Mountains State Park.
So it's an important connectivity corridor for wildlife. And if,
uh, the unexploded ordinance that are there were cleaned and it was open to the
public, it would provide much needed access to public lands in a pretty, uh,
densely populated urban area where that isn't something that there's a,
an abundance of. And while the secretary was there in March,
when typically the golden poppies were blooming,
I understand it wasn't quite the, um, spectacular show in the past,
but she did still get to see some of those, uh, blanketing,
the hillside of gas range.
Re really glad that that happened. And then Jen, also in March,
the Biden administration resumed leasing for oil drilling here in the West.
Right. Well,
obviously oil and gas leasing reform has been a priority of the Biden
administration, but it's, you know, this is a complicated process.
And the, the Biden administration had, um,
stopped oil and gas lease sales because a judge in Louisiana blocked the
administration from considering the harm caused by climate change,
also known as the social cost of carbon.
But then following a favorable interim ruling in a lawsuit over
whether or not the government can use the true cost of carbon in
decision making,
the Biden administration announced that it was going to resume plans for onshore
and offshore oil and gas leasing. Um,
and I know we will continue to talk about oil and gas drilling on public lands,
uh, throughout this episode, but, uh, it's, uh, it's a,
it's, it's a tale of, um,
many decisions through the courts and through the Biden administration as they
work to reform the broken, uh, oil and gas leasing process.
Yeah.
Another one of these through lines that we really saw start to take shape in
March was a giant methane leak in Alaska that was at a,
a Conoco Phillips Drilling site, uh,
that it was first detected at the beginning of March,
but the company didn't detect it for three whole days, which,
uh, was really a missed opportunity that would've stopped that methane leak.
It was, in fact, just an error at the end of the day, a, uh,
a mistake during a drilling operation.
It put too much pressure on the well pad caused a massive ongoing
leak.
And I think this is a wrong reminder that drilling in Alaska and the Arctic
is very difficult and very expensive.
And when things go wrong, they can go very wrong very quickly.
And fast forward to just this week in December,
and we see Conoco Phillips possibly looking for a way out
of the huge Willow Project in Alaska,
saying that if interior keeps shrinking the size of that project in order to
protect wildlife, then it won't be profitable. Well, that of course,
is the problem when you're working in Alaska, isn't it? It is not.
The Permian in Texas and New Mexico where you can just haul your oil and gas
off for export really easily. You're up in the middle of nowhere,
and it is very hard and very expensive to do that profitably.
Uh, and as the more anyone talks about ex, you know,
exploiting the Arctic or getting a hold of America's natural
resources up there,
just the e economics of it simply don't pencil out a lot of the time.
No, no, they don't. And it's a very fragile environment, uh, and,
you know,
all the more reason that we need to accelerate the transition to clean energy.
Right. Um, so moving into April, uh, the appear,
the Interior Department announced the America the Beautiful Challenge Grants,
Lauren, do you mind telling us a little bit about that?
Sure thing.
So the administration announced 1 billion as part of
in funding for the America, the Beautiful Challenge,
which is intended to accelerate public-private partnerships to protect
land, water, and wildlife across the country. So this, uh,
there's an initial 440 million in grants for locally led ecosystem
restoration projects that fund those fund, uh,
funds will be managed by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
And the program is designed to make grants available to states, tribes,
territories, non-governmental organizations, and others to apply for,
uh, funding to carry out some of those critical conservation and restoration
projects.
So, also in April, the Biden administration, um,
put out a report that showed its on track to nearly double renewable energy
capacity on public lands. By the end of 2023,
the Interior Department submitted the report to Congress in April, um,
and showed that it is on track to approve 48 wind, solar,
and geothermal energy projects with the capacity to produce an estimated
31,827 megawatts of energy, um,
sorry, electricity, um,
which is enough to power roughly 9.5 million homes. Um,
and that is, would be by the end of fiscal year 2023, sorry, 2025.
Um,
that's like a huge amount of electricity coming from our public lands and just
shows what a powerhouse they can be, um, in the energy transition.
The report also estimated that the BLM will approve projects capable of
producing 11,000 megawatts of electricity by the end of 2023,
which is doubling the amount, um, that is currently, uh,
operating on public lands. So, footnote to that, in December,
the BLM announced it's also working on a West wide solar plan, um,
which would essentially make it easier to develop solar energy projects on
public lands in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico,
and Utah.
And I think if there's another footnote on that, it's that all of this,
all of this solar and wind development that's gonna be happening on public lands
over the next two years,
all of that goes through the desk of Laura Daniel Davis,
the deputy PRI principal,
deputy Assistant Secretary for Landon Minerals,
who is awaiting confirmation for the full assistant secretary job.
And Jen, we, uh, just learned this week that, uh,
Laura Daniel Davis is not going to end up getting confirmed before Congress
adjourns this year.
No, unfortunately, uh, that the,
the time ran out for the Senate to take up Laura's, uh,
nomination. Uh, she had gone through two committee hearings,
which is unprecedented,
and had been waiting for over 500 days after being nominated by the president
to, to serve in that role. And unfortunately, uh, you know,
Senator Schumer just ran outta time and wasn't able to take her nomination up
before the Senate adjourned, uh, this year.
And so we will,
we will see what happens in 2023 and whether Laura is renominated,
and if so,
hopefully she will not have to go through another committee hearing and they
can, uh, expedite her nomination and, and get her confirmed because,
you know,
the role that she would play is just way too important to the President's
climate agenda.
Yep. Getting all of that electricity capacity online. Uh,
also a fairly remarkable moment in April, Jen, the president, uh,
really put oil and gas CEOs on notice regarding public lands.
Yeah. Well, one of the biggest stories this year has been the price of gasoline,
as we all know. Uh, the price at the pump has been high.
And while Republicans blame the Biden administration for the high price of gas,
really the main reason was, uh, the Russia, Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
And, you know, we've seen oil companies, uh, you know,
reaping record profits, and, you know, the president, you know,
I think really stepped up and did an important, you know,
held an important press conference.
Oil and oil and gas companies have been sitting on over 9,000 unused,
but approved permits to drill for oil and gas. And so it wasn't for a lack of,
you know, oil and gas leases and permits. It, it,
it was really oil and gas companies, uh, not stepping up.
And so the president said, uh, you know, oil and gas companies,
uh, should either use it or lose it.
And he called on Congress to pass legislation that would find
companies for locking up public lands without producing oil on them. Um,
and the president also in those, at the same time, uh, same time,
uh,
announced that the US would release 1 million barrels of oil a day from the
strategic Pro P Petroleum Reserve. Um, so it was an important announcement,
and it was great to see the president putting these oil and gas CEOs
on notice.
And then one other item from April the stop,
30 by 30 summit that happened in Lincoln, Nebraska,
I flew out there for it because it was gonna be a,
a who's who of anti conservation folks.
You had folks like David Bernhardt, former interior Secretary,
Congresswoman Lauren Bobert, uh,
a whole bunch of really extreme folks aligned with people like the
Bundys all hanging out in one room,
trying to stop land protection efforts.
We put out a report called the 30 by 30 Disinformation Brigade highlighting a
bunch of these speakers.
And I thought it was remarkable for as much preparation and attention that they
put into this summit, the number of names that they got there,
including Senator Kevin Kramer, after that summit in April.
Nothing happened.
And it seemed like they put all of their effort into this big launching pad,
and it absolutely fizzled afterwards.
Now, it's,
it certainly didn't have the impact that I think they thought they were gonna
have. In fact, as we know,
they are on the wrong side of history when it comes to public lands.
And the support that we've seen in our polling, uh,
shows that they just don't get that, you know, voters,
uh, want to see more conservation of public lands. And,
and when you say disinformation, I think, you know, the,
the way that they twist, uh, the facts around, uh,
is just remarkable. But it was, I was surprised to see that they did not, uh,
they really didn't do anything the rest of the year.
All right. Let's jump into May with a couple quick hits here off the top. First,
the e p a killed the Pebble goldmine in Alaska.
We've done episodes on the mine, and I'll just say,
what a relief for the people of Bristol Bay.
It appears now that the Pebble Mine Project is dead, dead.
And that is great news, uh, for both the people and the salmon there.
And then also in Alaska,
the interior Department canceled an offshore lease sale because of a lack
of interest. Like we just said, it is expensive and risky,
and oil companies just don't seem all that interested right now, uh,
in undertaking big new oil and gas projects in Alaska.
All right. Uh, and then we had a big, uh, Supreme Court ruling, Kate, regarding,
uh, social cost of carbon.
Yeah. You know, actually the,
the Supreme Court just rejected an emergency request to block the Biden
administration's use of the social cost of carbon. Um, which, you know,
what the court we've got, uh, was surprising, you know, I mean,
they could have taken it up and they didn't. So that says a lot. Um,
the social cost of carbon puts a dollar figure on the cost of releasing
emissions under the Biden administration. The value for carbon dioxide, um,
is set to about $51 per metric ton, um,
which is way up from the Trump administration's $1 per metric ton. Um,
and a little, uh, update on that. The, uh,
US Appeals Court actually upheld the Biden social cost of carbon metric in
October. So that's a, that's great news. Um, of course,
we need to account for the emissions that we're releasing, um,
from federal projects. And, you know, this does apply to leasing.
It's like somewhat, um,
vague on exactly how it affects leasing,
but it does allow the administration to take into account the emissions
f that will be emitted by fuel drilled for on public
lands. So, Aaron, I don't know if you wanna say anything more about that.
It's a little complicated.
It's complicated.
I think the best summary there is one of the important tools in the toolkit as
far as oil and gas leasing goes in this new world after,
uh, after the, the laws that were passed this year.
And we'll talk more about that in a moment. And then also in May, uh,
we saw some of our first money for cleaning up orphaned wells. Um,
it was a $33 million announcement, part of a,
a whole $250 million package through the bipartisan infrastructure
bill that passed in 2021.
And $33 million is kind of a drop in the bucket as far as
orphaned wells go. But it's an a, a start at the very least.
But I think also a REMI reminder that oil and gas companies still today
aren't paying what they have to in order to ensure that oil and gas wells get
cleaned up if they go bankrupt.
Right, right. And that's actually on the, the blm,
the agency that is leasing the land, um,
they're not requiring these companies to put up sufficient bonds to reclaim
wells. So, um, we'll get to that again when we get to the ira. So.
another, another through line.
Yeah. .
And then, uh, yeah, one more Inspector General report, uh,
interesting comparing and contrasting David Bernhardt and Ryan Zike. Uh,
this was in May n I g report that said David Bernhardt,
the Interior Secretary,
stonewalled an investigation into whether he violated the Lobbying Disclosure
Act. And this, I think,
gets to the fact that David Bernhardt was always a bit smarter than Ryan Zike in
covering his tracks and not being such a bombast. And at the end of the day,
the IG couldn't say one way or the other,
whether David Bernhardt violated the law because they couldn't catch him,
and he wouldn't talk to them. So I think we can call that the,
the swamp pickiest of outcomes for the swamp pickiest of Cabinet secretaries,
who we have not seen a whole lot from, other than a few op-eds, uh,
since he left the, uh, the secretary's office.
Right. And, you know,
this isn't really public lands news that it did also happen in May. Um,
we're gonna talk about it because it's interior department news. Uh,
government investigation found, um,
53 marked or unmarked burial sites at Native American Boarding schools.
And, you know, this has been a big, um, effort by Deb Holland.
It's important to remember that in addition to public lands, she does have, um,
oversight over Native American affairs. So she's busy working on that. Um,
they have done a lot of good work to actually document these unmarked burial
sites,
and hopefully that will all result in some sort of reparations at some point.
And I think a, a,
a symbol of how important it is to have the first indigenous cabinet secretary
mm-hmm. in American history to make that a priority,
to be talking about these things that we have not really talked about
in the last hundred years.
Right, right, right. Native American, uh,
communities have been talking about them, but, um,
n it never was elevated it or outside that it took,
it took Deb Holland to elevate it to a federal level. Yes.
Which is great to see.
It. It really is. Let's jump into June. All right. Well, yeah.
So the first lease sale under the Biden administration happened, uh,
initially they were going to lease off 570,000 acres in
Wyoming that got slashed to about 120,000. Now,
it's interesting,
as much as the oil and gas industry yelled and shouted and said,
what are you doing cutting a lease sale by 80%,
they only ended up buying about half of what was then offered.
So a tiny, tiny fraction of what they said they were interested in,
they only ended up buying. So even at these smaller numbers,
it seems like the oil industry just isn't interested in padding their books
that way. And that was, should be noted,
the final oil and gas lease sale under the Mineral Leasing Act before the act
was reformed by the Inflation Reduction Act in just a couple months later.
And then Jen, the big Supreme Court ruling of the year,
and certainly not a good one, West Virginia versus e P a.
That's right. Well, as we all know,
the Supreme Court saves some of the most consequential, uh,
cases or decisions for the end. Uh, and this one, uh,
was definitely consequential, uh,
the SE Supreme Court delta major below to, to climate change regulations, uh,
in West Virginia versus epa. It was a six to three, six to three decision.
Um, and they ruled that the Clean Air Act does not authorize the EPA to regulate
carbon emissions. Uh, this,
the decision sets a precedent for further limitations on the environmental
regulatory power of federal agencies,
which means that unless Congress, uh,
specifically authorizes the agency to
regulate to, to, to issue these regulations, they,
they are not able to do it. And I think, uh, you know,
justice Kagan, um, in her dissent said it well, uh,
that the court strips the EPA a of the power of power, ah,
excuse me, the court strips,
the EPA A of the Power Congress gave it to respond to the most pressing
environmental challenge of our time.
It deprives EPA of the power needed and the power granted to curb the
emission of greenhouse gases.
Um, also in June, the Bears Ears Commission was reestablished. Um,
of course, that followed the, the restoration of the monuments, which occurred,
um, in 2021. Um,
I'm not exactly sure why it took so long to reestablish the commission,
but I'm glad they did. Um, the commission, um,
is actually different than the, um, intertribal Coalition,
which you probably have heard of. They're the advocacy group made up of the,
um, five tribes involved in the monument. The commission is,
was established under the, the original Monument Proclamation, um,
under the ABO Obama administration. And the commission essentially is a,
um,
group of tribal representatives from each of the five tribes
who will play a part in deciding how the Manu Monument is managed.
Um, so they are a advisory commission to the B L M, which is the,
or I guess the B L M and the Forest Service,
which are the two agencies that manage Bears Ears.
And then also in June, Lauren,
we saw the effects of climate change hitting our national parks.
We did in a really big way, Erin,
it's at times it feels hyperbolic to talk about some of these,
what we might call climate disasters.
But anyone who saw the photos of Yellowstone National Park from last summer in
the historic flooding, they were just astonishing.
It was as if you could watch the road melt away into rivers, um,
structures just fall off the banks into these roaring rivers.
I mean, the damage was significant, and it wasn't just to the park itself,
but to the surrounding communities that rely on some of that tourist income.
And this, of course, is in June,
one of the busiest seasons of the year in Yellowstone.
But there's kind of a positive thing in that, um,
given that.
The flooding destroyed homes, roads, bridges,
and caused the evacuation of 10,000 visitors,
the park was actually able to partially reopen within a few weeks. So,
uh,
there was a chance to recover some of that lost revenue and some of those towns,
although full recovery of some of that infrastructure is still gonna take years.
All right. Let's move on into July. And Jen, I,
I know we've done a full episode on our winning the West polling, but I think,
uh, after the November election,
it is worth reiterating what we found then and how it stayed relevant through
the year.
Oh, absolutely. And as our listeners know that, uh,
CWP runs a winning the West Campaign every election, uh,
uh, cycle.
And this year we focused on four battleground states,
including Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. And, uh,
you know, what we found is the outdoors, uh, and outdoors issues,
the conservation issues are incredibly important to voters in these states and
throughout the west. And, you know,
we saw that 90% of voters in our polling said that public lands,
parks and wildlife were important to them,
and 81% said that these issues would play an in influential role role in how
they voted in November. I know once we get down to November,
we'll talk more about the midterm elections,
but I think we definitely saw conservation play an important role in many
elections throughout the West.
Let's just keep on going.
And the first indication that we were gonna get
some big bill on conservation,
what ended up becoming the Inflation Reduction Act, uh, we had the,
the first word that there was a deal between Manchin and Schumer.
And I think at the end of the day,
you have to chalk this up to some pretty masterful politics,
especially by Chuck Schumer. It looked like a deal was dead,
dead. There was no way, no how going to,
to get build back better done.
And it ended up not being called build back better, but in the end,
a a a bunch of the big important pieces were there. And,
uh, thanks to some very quiet ongoing conversations, uh,
it happened. And when you look back at this year,
the fact that that bill got done really is, uh,
one of the most remarkable political moments. Certainly, uh,
I think of this decade once we look back at.
It. No, I think it,
it's the most consequential climate legislation to pass Congress
in. I mean, I think ever. And, uh,
certainly the Biden administration and, uh, you know,
allies in Congress, uh, th this is a huge accomplishment.
Also, in July,
the Biden administration released an environmental review on the Willow Project,
which is that giant, uh,
drilling proposal from Koco Phillips that we mentioned earlier. Um,
and that was a really big bummer because, you know,
the Biden administration could, could kill the project,
but they decided to continue going forward with it. Um,
and that is still where we're at, um, coming to the close of 2022.
We don't know if the Biden administration's going to approve Willow or not.
If they do, um,
it would produce over a hundred thousand barrels of oil daily for decades to
come,
pumping up to 287 million metric tons of carbon into the
atmosphere per year,
which is the equivalent of operating 76 coal plants per a year.
So basically building 76 new coal plants, um, sounds like a bad idea to me,
but we'll see what happens.
And, and once again,
it looks like maybe Conoco Phillips is looking for an excuse to cancel it
and blame everyone else for it. Um, I think that is gonna be one of the,
the big storylines of the next few months. So we will keep our eye on,
on Willow, and then Lauren, another month,
another climate disaster in our national parks.
. Yeah, I'm just bringing the cheer to this podcast.
.
So, one of the things on my life list is to see giant sequoias
live and in person.
There's some of the biggest and oldest species living on earth.
Some of these trees can even reach 3000 years of age.
So that's enough to give you a hefty dose of humility and perspective.
And while they're adapted to a fire prone landscape,
some of these recent mega fires that are just burning hotter and more intensely
have killed up to 10,000 trees in recent years.
That's as many as 20% of all mature sequoias.
So pretty bad news there. I think folks were, were,
it was upsetting to read that news this summer and see the images and,
and appreciate the valiant effort of wildland firefighters to specifically
protect those trees.
But the good news is there's a coalition of government agencies and nonprofits
that are making significant investments and actually making progress toward
protecting those Sequoia groves from severe wildfires in the future.
Right. Moving into August, um,
Colorado elected officials called on President Biden to use the Antiquities Act
to designate Camp Hale Continental Divide National Monument.
And spoiler alert it worked. , Jen, do you wanna tell us more about that.
? Yeah. This, this was actually not on our radar, uh,
when we started 2022, but, uh,
after legislation to protect 400,000 acres of public lands in
Colorado, known as the Corex stalled in Congress, uh,
Colorado's two senators, Michael Bennett and John Hickenlooper,
along with the Governor, governor Pullis and Congressman Joan Naus, uh,
reached out to President Biden and asked him to use the Antiquities Act to
designate the Camp Hale Continental Divide National Monument, um,
that these landscapes were part of the CORE Act. And I think, uh,
you know, instead of languishing in in Congress,
the Senator Bennett decided it was important enough to,
to reach out to the President and ask him to, uh,
to make this President Biden's first National Monument.
Uh, and then also in August,
president Biden actually signed the Inflation Reduction Act,
which as Jen mentioned,
certainly the largest investment in our nation's history to combat climate
change. And it is,
it is hard to overstate how important the overhaul of the oil and gas leasing
program is as part of that bill,
and the fact that it made it in everything,
almost everything that we have been talking about in my seven plus years at the
Center for Western Priorities, uh, the, the royalty rates,
non-competitive leasing, uh,
charging a fee to nominate lands for leasing, it's a very big deal,
and it will permanently change the way oil and gas leasing happens on public
lands. Uh, and we're still gonna see, uh,
the devil will be in the details on how it's implemented as we are even seeing
this week as the Interior Department, uh,
announces a scoping period planning for lease sales into
2023. Um, but those reforms, top to bottom are, uh,
a very big deal that are gonna have a really lasting impact.
Also, in August,
the Utah Attorney General filed a lawsuit over President Biden's decision to
reinstate, uh,
the boundaries of Bear's Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments.
Um, you know, it was only a matter of time before this lawsuit was filed.
Attorney General Deshaun Reyes had said as soon as the monuments were restored
that he was going to file a lawsuit.
So no one was really surprised to see the lawsuit. Um, I think as a Utah, um,
it, it was, uh, it's clear that this is politics,
this is good politics in Utah, kind of,
although our polling shows that it's not. But, um, you know, whatever,
we could get into the primary system in Utah and explain why being a,
a radical Republican actually pays off there .
But I think it's mostly politics. Um, I don't think that this lawsuit has,
I mean, we basically haven't heard anything about it since August,
so it doesn't really seem like it's going anywhere right now. Um,
one kind of weird,
bizarre thing that Utah did was they clearly spent a lot of money creating a
flashy, uh, video to go along with the announcement of this lawsuit,
um, which included a lot of lies in it about the monument.
I'll just say it, it was weird.
Yeah. Not sure what to make of that as a, as a taxpayer in Utah,
I don't love it. . Um, so we bears ears, you know,
the monument's here to stay for now. Um,
and I don't think this lawsuit's gonna be what undo it.
No. Uh, and then Lauren, let's see. We had, uh,
flooding in July, fires in August. How about, uh,
or some drought now?
Oh, yeah. The ongoing drought in the Southwest,
which is the worst in at least 1200 years, I think at this point,
it'd be really hard to miss just how serious the situation is for the Colorado
River Basin. So in August,
the US Bureau of Reclamation announced water shortages along
the Colorado River due to drought and climate change, uh,
had passed a threshold for the first time that will require them to
mandate unprecedented cuts to water use,
which was directed specifically at two lower basin states of Arizona in
Nevada. Um, so the, for folks who may not know,
the Colorado River Basin is divided into upper and lower basin,
and some of the dividing areas are the reservoirs of Lake Mead
and Lake Powell, which are,
I think at their lowest level since they were created. Um,
but the Interior Department could still order cuts for the upper basin states as
well of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
They are saying that system-wide states need to have a plan
and say where they're gonna make cuts to reduce their use of
two to 4 million acre feet of water next year. So, uh,
and that's in order to avoid a total collapse of the entire Colorado River
system,
I know two to 4 million acre feet just might not bring to mind
what scale that is,
but if it would be like cutting the entire Colorado River allocation for the
state of Arizona, uh, by next year, they get,
currently get two point million acre feet per year. So, um,
not a lot of good news on the Colorado River at the moment.
And, and, and those level of cuts still may not be sufficient.
We, we just today saw an op-ed from former Interior secretary and former
Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt sounding rather impatient with the
department he used to run, saying it is time for the,
the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation to step in and just order these
cuts that were agreed to back in 2019,
and Secretary Babbitt saying, and even then, that probably won't be enough,
but we, if we don't start here, we will never get there.
And things are gonna get dire really, really quickly, uh,
over the next year in the Colorado.
All right. Well, we've made it to September, folks. Thanks for sticking with us.
Uh, we're gonna breeze through the, the rest of 2022 here.
So the big news in September, um,
was that the Interior Department released guidance, um,
directing federal agencies to include tribes in, um,
co-management of public lands. So that is a really big deal.
I don't think that there has ever been guidance explicitly telling the blm,
the National Park Service Fish and Wildlife to, um, come up with, uh,
policy memorandums that basically say how they're going to facilitate and
support agreements with tribes to collaborate in stewarding federal public lands
and waters. Um, we've seen a lot of tribes, um, or,
or tribal leaders and, um, tribal members celebrating this.
And I think that we'll see a lot of those partnerships, um,
coming into fruition in the next year or so. And that brings us to October.
President Biden, we've mentioned this earlier, did,
did finally designate Camp Hale Continental Divide National Monument.
And our very own Aaron Weiss was able to attend the signing ceremony and sit
in the front row. So tell us what that was like.
I mean, just as a experience personally, it was pretty spectacular, uh,
getting to, to watch that, getting to,
to very quickly shake the President's hand afterwards and thank him. Uh,
but I think also getting to watch the president recognize
what a great moment that is, that you could see he was energized,
he was excited to be there.
He was recognizing he was doing something that was very smart,
both for the land and for Colorado, and very smart politically.
And he went off script a bit and talked about the reason that he was there that
day was because Senator Michael Bennett went into his office in October,
in August, and wouldn't leave until he agreed to do the monument.
And that there is the lesson, uh,
that Senator Bennett recognized this was in Colorado's best interest.
And in his interest politically,
he was obviously a month away from reelection at that point,
and he was concerned, obviously, wanting to do everything he could to get there.
And Jan, at the end of the day, it worked.
And let's go ahead and just dive right then into November
and what happened on election day.
Uh, Michael Bennett was reelected, uh, by a wide margin.
Uh, he, uh, requested this monument, and I think this was an important,
uh, piece of his reelection effort. I, Senator Bennett, uh,
has been a conservation champion, and I think he saw the value of, look,
his legislation was stuck in the Senate.
The President has the tools through the executive,
through Executive action and the Antiquities Act to protect, uh,
important landscapes. And, uh, you know,
this was a really important victory for Senator Bennett and his reelection
and an important victory for, for Colorado.
I think it was one of the most important conservation, uh,
elections in the West was Senator Bennett's reelection.
On, on election night. Uh,
Joe Biden was p caught wearing a Camp Hale national mon,
excuse me, camp ha Continental Divide National Monument hat,
while calling candidates to congratulate them, um, in the Oval Office. So,
you know, it, it's not exactly, uh, clear what that says,
but it definitely says something good about national monuments.
He was, he was definitely telegraphing something wearing that hat, and,
and I think, think he was telegraphing something again.
Then a couple weeks later, uh, at the Tribal Nation Summit, Lauren.
That's right, uh, the Tribal Nation Summit is hosted by the White House,
and it brings together all,
I think it's 576 federally recognized tribes delegates from all those.
So it's a nation to nation, um, summit.
And, uh, one of the things that the president, uh,
told the folks who attended that summit this year is
that he intends to protect the, uh,
a vicay area or, uh,
some call it the Spirit Mountain area in southern Nevada.
So this is an area that is sacred to 12 indigenous tribes who have been leading
the effort to create the Quame National Monument.
It's an area spanning approximately 450,000 acres,
and it connects, uh, more than a dozen wilderness and conservation areas,
providing really important habitat and migration corridors for
wildlife, including big corn, sheep and desert tortoises.
And I'll just say that Kate and I had the fortune,
good fortune to visit that area when we were doing our avik short
documentary film as part of our postcards campaign.
And it is truly a stunning landscape. You,
you get the spiritual significance just by being there.
So we're thrilled that he has, uh,
announced his intention and we can't wait for him to,
to sign a proclamation to protect the area.
Right. And that brings us to December. Um, it's, you know,
been a fairly quiet month, I guess. Uh, we did just get the first,
uh,
or an indication of a pretty big lease sale that the administration
plans to hold next year. Um,
over a hundred thousand acres of federal public lands are on the table for
leasing next year. Um, there's not,
we don't have a lot more to say about that right now,
other than we really hope the Interior Department, um,
implements all those changes that were made in the Inflation reduction Act,
plus all of the changes that the interior department identified it needed to
make in its own report on oil and gas leasing, um, that it was, you know,
preparing during that oil and gas leasing pause. So, um, we're,
we're just eagerly awaiting, um, a lot of, um,
reforms and updates to come out of the interior department as it when it comes
to leasing, and we'll see how that all plays out next year. Um,
we've already touched on Laura Daniel Davis, but, uh, Jen,
do you wanna say anything about what we're waiting to see there?
Well, in terms of Laura's, uh, nomination, I think we have to, we'll,
we'll see if the president renos her for, for that, uh, position. Uh,
so stay tuned. Uh, we'll know more in 2023.
Um, and then of course, as Lauren just mentioned, Quame,
the president said he intends to create, or he intends to protect that area,
ostensibly that would be as a national monument. Um, and, uh,
what else are we sort of waiting for, waiting to see Lauren?
I think our message to the president and the administration is go ahead and keep
that antiquity, Zach Pen un holsters, and at the ready. Um,
he's already indicated he is, um,
would like to protect Avik, and as we discussed,
Kana range and the community have been working for decades to protect that area.
So we're looking forward to seeing him, uh,
using his authority to protect some of those areas.
And Aaron, coming back to the conservation atlas,
I think we kicked off with this, uh, . We're still waiting to see it.
What are your, what are your thoughts on that.
? Exactly. We, we started the year with these listening sessions,
which suggested the interior department was moving quickly on it.
And I just wanna say that the atlas, uh,
it is not just symbolic,
but it's actually important to be able to track what you're doing in terms of
conservation in terms of 30 by 30.
And it's important to build things that outlast any one
administration to be able to say to a future administration,
Republican or Democrat,
we set up this for a reason and it needs to keep going for a reason.
And that's why it's so important that this conservation atlas get
completed. It doesn't exist in any other form right now to be able to say,
here are the lands that America has protected everywhere. Um,
so I think it is an important thing to not just let, uh,
fall by the wayside going forward, but be able to say, yes,
here is a finished product and here's how it will be a living document in the
years and decades to come.
Right. Basically a plan for conservation. Um,
we don't have a coherent plan right now, so we need one.
Yeah. Uh, here, here's what counts and why. Mm-hmm. .
Yeah. Um,
also another thing that didn't happen in December is the Senate did not pass
permitting reform. Um, it almost did, but it tied and, um,
therefore died in the Senate. And that's, that's a, that's a good thing because,
um, this bill that was,
or this permitting reform language that was brought back by Senator Joe Manchin,
um, was actually worse than the first time he tried to pass permitting reform
earlier this year. This new bill, um, proposed changes that would've like,
just made it a much harder to petition, um, or to, uh,
to sue over projects that have issues. Um,
and it would have sped up, um,
judicial reviews for projects and enacted page limits on environmental review
documents. So a lot of, um, things that would sort of hamstring npa,
which of course is a really important environmental law that was created for a
reason and works very well. Um, if you wanna know more about permitting,
permitting reform and how we can actually maybe speed up the permitting process,
go back and listen to our episode with Jamie Plum.
We talked about that in depth,
and I will not bore you here with any more of permitting reform talk. Um,
closing out, we, we mentioned this earlier, but, um, the Colorado River, we're,
we're, you know, all eyes on the Colorado River is really, I think,
how we're gonna go into 2023. Um, Lauren,
is there anything you wanna add on that?
Yeah, I mean,
I think it is fair to say that there's broad agreement that the river is
in crisis.
And the challenge is that there doesn't appear to be agreement yet on what to
do about it. Uh,
one of the challenges though is that the Colorado River Compact itself,
which was, uh, approved in a hundred years ago, 1922,
didn't include tribal nations who are, um, historic,
who have a tremendous stake in Colorado River and deserve a seat
at the table. And it was also based on several years of above average,
uh, flow and precipitation in the river. So I think there's,
there's a lot of justifiable hesitance to revisit that agreement. But,
um, as John Ensminger,
the general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority put it very
accurately regarding the severity of the situation,
he said the circumstances on the ground are overtaking the pace of negotiations
and discussions one way or another.
Physics and mother nature are going to dictate outcomes if we don't come up with
some solutions. So it's really up to the Colorado River Basin states to,
um,
to decide on their own terms where they will make cuts or the federal government
will have to step in and do so, uh, unilaterally early in the,
in the new year.
And I just wanna close looking forward by asking both Jen
and Lauren to reflect on some of their time in Lauren's case,
working inside the interior department. In Jen's case,
a lot of time on Capitol Hill,
on the shape of an administration on the shape of a congressional term,
because on paper on the calendar next month
marks halfway of the Biden administration,
the President Biden's first term. But in actuality,
is there really that much time left,
or are we more than halfway in terms of how much you can really get go,
get done given what happens over the next two years heading into another
presidential election?
People are already starting to talk about the 2024 election,
and so I think the Biden administration will certainly be under that microscope,
but they can get a lot done in this next year to year and a half, uh,
before they really have to start focusing on what we assume right now is a real
election effort. Um, but Lauren,
you were in the Obama administration at this time, uh,
during this period of time. I think you may have, uh,
kinda an insider view of, of what you can get done.
That's right.
I joined the office of the Assistant secretary for Landon Minerals
Management in June, 2014.
So that was looking at about two years left in the Obama administration.
So I worked for the person who was in that role, um,
previously the LA b,
which is the same as the one that we're trying to get Laura,
Daniel Davis confirmed for. And I will say, uh,
I expressed hesitation or concern to, to Janice Schneider. I just said, boy,
you know, we got a lot to get done here. And she, uh, said, well, Lauren,
I'm incredibly results oriented.
So the first thing I I need is I need you to track everything that we're getting
done, and we're gonna do our best. And I don't have a number for the,
the rules, um, the, the programs,
the things that we did, but I know that, um,
with the right leadership in place, you can get a lot done.
Um,
and that I can say from experience that these are
where you'll find the actual experts working in agencies on these issues.
The actual experts on offshore renewable energy on surface
mine reclamation on national conservation land.
So I have so much confidence in the folks who are in the interior department
doing this important work. Um,
one thing that concerns me is a headline I saw I think this week,
maybe last week, that, uh,
BLM still has 25% of its positions are unfilled.
That's a tremendous.
Issue. 3000 jobs.
Yeah. Yeah. And that's at an agency of I think, 10,000 people. Um,
I don't know if that math quite works out, but that,
that's what's concerning to me,
is making sure that these folks have the resources they need, uh,
to do this important work.
But I have all the confidence in the world that they're, um,
they're doing their best and that they have really smart people looking at
really complicated, challenging things.
All right. Jen, any final thoughts on the year that was,
or the year that we'll be?
I think this was an important year for the Biden administration. Uh,
certainly protecting his first national monument,
committing to protect a Vic May as his next national monument.
And I'm very optimistic about what the president and his team
are gonna be able to do in 2023 from, uh, you know,
land protection to oil and gas leasing reform. Uh, I think,
uh, you know, there's a lot,
a lot of great progress that's been made and will be made next year.
All right. I think that will do it for us here. Uh, as always,
if you enjoyed listening, please drop us a line,
drop us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to it.
Podcast western priorities.org is where to send emails.
Jen Rola, Lauren Bogard, thank you so much for joining us,
and thank you for another great year of standing up for public lands. Uh,
I'm Erin Weiss, the Center for Western Priorities.
And I'm Kate Reninger. Thanks again for listening to the landscape.