Ian Brickey, ian.brickey@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Late Monday night, Interior Secretary Burgum posted new Secretarial Orders focused on implementing Donald Trump's flurry of Day One Executive Orders declaring an “energy national emergency” and seeking to strip protections of public lands and waters to enable extractive industrial development.
Burgum’s order directs assistant secretaries to submit action plans in 15 days to implement Trump’s Executive Orders, including actions to suspend, revise, or rescind rules protecting fragile landscapes in Arctic Alaska and the lower 48 states, ensuring a fair return to taxpayers and strengthening accountability for the oil and gas industry on public lands, and land-use plans drafted by the Bureau of Land Management. The order also calls for a review of national monuments along with protections for other landscapes from drilling and mining.
Burgum’s orders do not contain specific actions, but it does indicate some of the Trump Administration’s priorities for public lands, primarily slashing protections and opening up public lands and waters to extractive industry.
In response, Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, released the following statement:
“Donald Trump made it clear on Day One what his priorities for public lands and waters would be, and these orders are the next step in his reckless ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda. The lands and waters of this country belong to the American people for the benefit and enjoyment of all Americans – Donald Trump is working overtime to give them away to Big Oil CEOs, billionaires, and corporate polluters. But we’re working overtime, too, and we won’t stop until these lands and waters are protected for the next generation.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.