November 16, 2020
Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement today on the impending Trump administration lease sale for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"This administration is ending as it began, with a desperate push for oil drilling regardless of the human or environmental costs. Drilling in the Arctic Refuge would destroy one of the most iconic wilderness areas on Earth for no discernible public benefit, and it's as wrong to allow it now as it's ever been. It's f… Continue Reading
November 13, 2020
The full House Committee on Natural Resources, led by Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), will hold a legislative hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time titled Ocean Climate Action: Solutions to the Climate Crisis. The hearing will include consideration of Grijalva's H.R. 8632, the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act, introduced on Oct. 20.
The 324-page package is the first comprehensive legislative effort to fully utilize oceans' climate mitigation potential. It addresses t… Continue Reading
October 28, 2020
Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and the majority staff of the House Natural Resources Committee today released a 47-page report outlining the Trump administration's destruction of the Department of the Interior (DOI) and other agencies in the Committee's jurisdiction and how to restore those agencies' effectiveness and credibility.
The report, titled Dirty Deals: Four Years of the Trump Administration Putting Polluter Profits Over People, is available online at https://bit.ly/31Pm9YL. I… Continue Reading
May 29, 2020
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - A senior Trump administration official misused his office for private gain by capitalizing on his government connections to help get his son-in-law hired at the Environmental Protection Agency, investigators said in a report obtained by The Associated Press.
The Interior Department's Inspector General found that Assistant Interior Secretary Douglas Domenech reached out to a senior EPA official in person and later by email in 2017 to advocate for the son-in-law when he was… Continue Reading
April 30, 2020
Democratic committee leaders aren't waiting for formal rule changes to move online in the coronavirus-lockdown era.
The House Natural Resources Committee, led by Chairman Raul Grijalva, is sponsoring a series of Facebook livestreamed remote roundtables featuring Democratic members and handpicked witnesses, setting the stage for the lower chamber to follow suit.
"We're not [Energy and Commerce]. We're not Ways and Means. We're not the committees that are intimate in all the discussions that are… Continue Reading
March 27, 2020
U.S. territories, where health infrastructure is weaker than most mainland facilities and local governments are facing serious financial challenges, have already reported several COVID-19 fatalities and dozens of cases. Government officials and residents of the territories are justifiably worried that an inadequate federal pandemic response will lead to preventable loss of life on a scale that - because of recent disasters - they've unfortunately already seen in the recent past.
As leaders of t… Continue Reading
November 16, 2020
On Sept. 11, the CEO and two other top executives at the international mining giant Rio Tinto announced they would step down following public outrage at the company's destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site in Australia known as Juukan Gorge.
Back in May, the company had blown up the rock shelters - they housed Aboriginal artifacts dating back 28,000 years - to gain access to millions of dollars' worth of iron ore.
Although the departure of the company's leading figures and i… Continue Reading
May 13, 2020
In April 2019, President Trump launched a public relations campaign designed to make Americans forget that Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States. He complained on Twitter that Puerto Ricans seeking disaster aid "only take from USA" and "hurt our farmers and states." His spokesman, Hogan Gidley, referred to Puerto Rico as "that country" not once but twice in a subsequent interview about what the president's initial comments meant.
None of this was accidental. On Trump's watch, in addit… Continue Reading
May 07, 2020
President Trump is using the worst pandemic in a century to weaken our environmental laws without public oversight, and he isn't sparing the Grand Canyon.
While Americans shelter at home, waiting for the administration to offer a more effective medical response than injecting bleach, an administration advisory group just released a report recommending opening more public lands to uranium extraction.
The steps recommended in a new report by the Nuclear Fuel Working Group, an industry-stacked pa… Continue Reading
May 14, 2018
Last week Ranking Member Grijalva and Rep Lowenthal, the top Democrat on the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee, introduced the Hardrock Leasing and Reclamation Act of 2018.
The Grijalva-Lowenthal bill requires hardrock mining operations to meet some of the same requirements and standards that already apply to oil, gas, and coal development on public lands. Among other measures, the bill would:
Eliminate the antiquated use of mining claims, and create a leasing system for hardrock mi… Continue Reading
May 08, 2018
Today marks the 230th day since our fellow Americans living in Puerto Rico lost power and were devastated by Hurricane Maria. Many people living on the island are still lacking power and still need assistance from the federal government. Instead of addressing the immediate needs of the people, Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) traveled to Puerto Rico to promote oil and gas projects and discuss importing fossil fuels to the island. Bishop has continuously ignored the fact that renewable energy sources… Continue Reading
April 24, 2018
The House is voting on H.R. 3144 on Wednesday - also known as the Columbia River Salmon Extinction Act - which will drive the Pacific Northwest's salmon runs closer to extinction. Federal agencies have been ordered by the courts to develop a new salmon recovery plan to bring back dwindling salmon populations. H.R. 3144 attempts to mandate an outdated recovery plan that won't recover salmon and that has been deemed illegal by federal courts. Ranking Member Grijalva opposes the bill for the follow… Continue Reading
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