This Week at Interior
A day of service to honor an American hero...Secretary Haaland marked the birthday of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. this week with a visit to Miriam's Kitchen in Washington, D.C. She served
meals to people experiencing homelessness and thanked the staff and volunteers who work
every day to make a difference in the lives of their neighbors and local community. Later,
Secretary Haaland visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall, which
honors Dr. King’s legacy and the struggle for freedom, equality, and justice.
Secretary Haaland commemorated the one-year mark of the Biden-Harris administration this
week with a keynote address to the GreenLatinos Winter National Summit. The Secretary highlighted
the importance of environmental justice, the work accomplished together in the past year,
and the road ahead.
Every community faces the pain and heartache that extreme events bring. However, not
every community has the resources to rebuild, or even relocate when a climate event happens
in their backyard. That’s why the Biden-Harris administration is building equity and inclusion
into our all-of-government approach to the climate crisis.
The Biden-Harris Administration is moving across several fronts when it comes to advancing
clean energy projects. Interior announced a record-breaking offshore wind lease sale
off the coasts of New York and New Jersey, the most lease areas ever offered. Onshore,
Interior is joining the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, Energy, and the Environmental
Protection Agency to improve clean energy project reviews to expand solar, onshore wind,
& geothermal energy on federal lands.
Interior this week announced $25 million in funding to accelerate a long-term solution
addressing the Pretty Rocks landslide in Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. That
funding was made available thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Pretty Rocks landslide
has been active since at least the 1960s, but in recent years it's caused restrictions
and road closures. The project will help safeguard Alaska’s outdoor recreation economy and
ensure safe and full access to the park much sooner than expected.
It's an historic action that will benefit the nation’s public lands for generations
to come...the Foundation for America’s Public Lands was launched this week at a virtual
event featuring remarks by Secretary Haaland and Department leaders. The non-profit foundation
was authorized by Congress and will help leverage public and private dollars to conserve, protect
and restore lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management for the benefit of the American
people.
Interior this week announced an interagency initiative to implement a new federal program
for addressing orphaned wells, created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Interior
joins the Departments of Agriculture and Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the
Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission in launching the $4.7 billion program to fund
well site plugging, remediation, and restoration activities, which will create good-paying
jobs, address environmental injustice, and reduce methane emissions.
Interior is joining the Department of Agriculture and the White House Council on Environmental
Quality to help develop the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas. That's a new tool designed
to measure the progress of conservation, stewardship, and restoration efforts across the United
States, in a manner that reflects the goals and principles of the America the Beautiful
initiative. Members of the public are invited to submit written comments by March 7th.
The Bureau of Indian Education released its official logo this week, the first since the
Bureau's inception in 2006. The initial logo design was created by Kayla Jackson, a member
of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe who is also a graduate of the Bureau’s Haskell Indian
Nations University located in Lawrence, Kansas.
And our social media Picture of the Week, the breathtaking landscape of the Alabama
Hills National Scenic Area in California. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management,
the Alabama Hills are a formation of rounded rocks and eroded hills set between the jagged
peaks of the Sierra Nevada and the Inyo Mountains...visitors can enjoy rock climbing, exploring natural
arches, and viewing the swaths of wildflowers that bloom every spring.
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That's This Week at Interior.