Salt Lake City, UT-- Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will close the public input period for the land use planning, for 15% of Bears Ears National Monument. The process would provide monument protection to the Indian Creek and Shash Jáa Units while excluding 85% of the original monument, leaving those areas vulnerable to drilling and mining and without adequate protection for the dense cultural and sacred resources. The comment period lasted a mere 45-days.
Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project today renewed opposition to President Trump’s illegal proclamation to strip protections from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. The conservation groups, which submitted comments as the first round of public input closes today, also criticized the Interior Department’s disregard for preserving irreplaceable objects of cultural and natural value and its destructive push for dirty fuel development.
Zinke's actions more questionable by the day.
WHAT: A Sierra Club webinar featuring a panel of bilingual border issues experts to discuss strategies to build a unified environmental front to protect communities and wildlife on the border.
WHEN: Thursday, April 12, at 1 pm ET (12 CT)
Conservation groups appeal border waiver decision.
DENVER, CO -- After just 15 days, today marks the close of the public comment period on a proposal by the Department of the Interior to open public lands near Great Sand Dunes National Park and the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness to destructive drilling, mining and fracking. The proposal is part of a nationwide effort by Interior Secretary Zinke to sell out public lands to the oil and gas industry. All of the parcels set to be auctioned off by Sec.
Washington, DC-- Ryan Zinke has continued to work tirelessly to show his true self as he reveals his future political ambitions. Last Friday, it was revealed that Zinke has said diversity is not important nor a priority for his department-- clarified by his actions that disproportionately affect Native Americans and women working at the department.
One year ago, Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at exploiting our public lands for fossil fuel development and rolling back Obama-era safeguards. In the year since, Ryan Zinke has made it his mission to be a “partner” with industry while pushing their agenda, ignoring the cost to America’s health, safety, and wild places.
SEDRO WOOLLEY, WA -- Upwards of 65 people gathered today as Secretary Zinke visited Washington. With signs opposing Zinke’s monuments mistakes, offshore drilling proposals, park fee hikes, oil and gas leases, and his general disregard for our public lands, the message of opposition to the Secretary’s sell out was clear.
In response Alex Craven, Washington Organizer for Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign issued the following statement.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In a rush to avoid another government shutdown, members of Congress have proposed an omnibus deal that fortunately falls short of Trump’s outrageous requests to fully fund his wall, but still includes $1.6 billion for border walls along the U.S.- Mexico border. A significant portion of the funding is designated for 33 miles of new barriers that can be built as levee-walls or existing “bollard fence.
Utahns to oppose oil and gas leasing on iconic public lands.
Interior Secretary Zinke was on Capitol Hill again today testifying before the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee defending the proposed budget for the Department of the Interior. Sec. Zinke’s answers to Congressional questions largely mirrored those he gave earlier in the week when he blamed the elderly, disabled, veterans, and children for failing to pay for the National Park maintenance backlog, changed his story on opening the country’s coasts to offshore drilling, lectured members he disagreed with, and made clear nothing will be allowed to get in the way of the Trump administration’s vision for the country’s public lands - fossil fuel profits above all else.