Interior Secretary David Bernhardt leads breakneck effort to erase protections for public lands, waters, and wildlife
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 8, 2019
DENVER—A new report from the Center for Western Priorities finds the Trump administration is granting the wishes of oil, gas, coal, and uranium companies at a breathtaking pace. The report, “The Drilling and Mining Industry Wish List,” identifies 53 specific policy changes within the jurisdiction of the Interior Department requested or supported by energy interests.
Of the 53 energy industry asks reviewed, Trump’s Interior Department has already completed 36 of them, with another 12 policy changes in process. Just five industry policy goals identified for action have not yet been addressed during the Trump presidency.
“This report lays out the staggering scope of the Trump administration’s war on our public lands, climate, and wildlife,” said Jennifer Rokala, executive director at the Center for Western Priorities. “From rescinding major oil and gas safeguards to weakening landmark wildlife protection laws, Interior Secretary Bernhardt has pulled out all the stops to deliver policy favors for his former clients in the drilling and mining industries.”
The release of CWP’s “The Drilling and Mining Wish List” report comes as President Trump and Interior Secretary Bernhardt are reportedly set to tout their environmental record. In less than three years, Trump’s Interior Department has moved swiftly to open American coastlines and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, slash national monuments in Utah to allow more mining, and weaken key wildlife laws such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered Species Act.
Last month, the Trump administration announced a cross-cutting strategy to open American public lands to mining for dozens of minerals, including uranium, arsenic, and potash. The policy changes identified in the administration’s strategy including removing protections from key Western landscapes, including a temporary moratorium on new uranium mining claims surrounding Grand Canyon National Park.
“It is laughable that this administration would tout their environmental record after doing everything in their power to roll back public health and wildlife protections at the behest of drilling and mining companies,” said Jesse Prentice-Dunn, policy director at the Center for Western Priorities.
“And they’re not done yet,” Prentice-Dunn added. “The Interior Department is in the process of opening millions of acres in the Arctic for drilling and spiking key conservation policies.”
The title of CWP’s report is a reference to the Trump administration’s call for energy corporations and trade associations to identify policies that “potentially burden the development or utilization of domestically produced energy resources” to be repealed or revised. In response, industry interests including the National Mining Association, American Petroleum Institute, and ConocoPhillips submitted wish lists of policies to be rolled back. As the report lays out, the Interior Department is moving at a breakneck pace to translate those drilling and mining industry requests into official policy actions.