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The third element of the Trump pro-polluter strategy is to give coal, oil and other mining companies free rein to seize public resources and despoil public lands. Taking public resources for short-term private gain (see: the Arctic giveaway in the tax bill) is a hallmark of this administration, as well as of corrupt governments worldwide.
Examples abound across America’s lands and waters. Trump recently revoked protections for 85 percent of the land in Bear’s Ears National Monument and about half of the land in Grand Escalante National Monument, as well as allowing more development in the area of other monuments, giving industry access for uranium and coal mining and for oil and gas drilling.
Other actions include: Reversing course to allow hard-rock mining in 10 million acres of sage grouse habitat; recommending allowing uranium mining near the Grand Canyon; reopening the five-year plan to allow offshore oil drilling near the communities and beaches of the East Coast, Florida, and California, as well as vast swaths of Arctic waters that were previously off-limits; moving toward permitting the Bristol Bay Pebble Mine, which could destroy one of the world’s largest salmon fisheries; approving pipelines, such as the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline that have drawn massive public opposition for threatening drinking water, exacerbating climate change, and harming sacred Native American sites; auctioning off massive tracts of land for oil drilling in the Arctic; reversing a pause in coal leasing on public lands and approving coal mining in a Colorado roadless area; and hailing Congress’s action to sacrifice America’s last wild frontier –- the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge –- to oil drilling.
In an ironic complement to this wholesale giveaway to corporate polluters, the National Park Service has proposed sharply reducing public access to our public parks, which are held in trust for every American, by doubling (or more) park entrance fees to $70 for a vehicle and $30 for an individual hiker.
Further exacerbating the damage to our public lands, the Administration is recklessly gutting regulatory and administrative protections to limit harm from drilling and mining operations pursuant to Trump’s Executive Order 13783, which directs agencies to review and revise all agency policies and regulations that may burden domestic energy development or use.
The EPA is proposing to weaken limits on venting and leaking methane from new oil wells, while BLM is proposing to weaken –- or more likely rescind altogether –- limits on flaring, venting, or leaking natural gas from wells on public lands. BLM has proposed rescinding protections against hydraulic fracturing on public lands and is reconsidering a slew of agency policies and regulations related to coal and oil development, such as policies that allow the public to protest a proposed lease sale. The Interior Department reopened a recently closed loophole that allowed coal companies to evade royalties on coal from public lands. The Fish and Wildlife Service is working to reduce protections for endangered species, which often intersect with mineral development, by denying protection for at least 25 species at risk of extinction and dropping 42 planned regulatory actions to protect already listed endangered species.
What emerges is a picture of an administration not just beholden to, but completely arm in arm with fossil fuel and corporate polluters every step of the way.