April 21, 2021
Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement on the Bureau of Land Management's announcement that it will not hold oil and gas lease sales on public lands for the second quarter of the year, pending the results of Biden administration's ongoing review of climate policy: "The Biden administration is right to put fossil fuel leasing on pause while it finishes its review, just as anyone would do during any similar review period. Treating constant fossil fuel drilling as … Continue Reading
April 20, 2021
Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said today that the draft biological opinion the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the pesticide malathion makes it clear that the EPA must ban the substance as soon as possible. The draft opinion says the continued use of malathion would jeopardize the continued existence of 78 species around the country and would cause adverse effects to many others, marking the most severe findings of harm… Continue Reading
April 19, 2021
Today House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) cheered the announcement that the Department of Housing and Urban Development would obligate $8.2 billion in Community Development Block Grant Mitigation funds that were allocated for Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in September 2017. The Department will also remove onerous restrictions blocking Puerto Rico's access to Community Development Block Grant Disaster Relief funds for long-term recovery.
Chair Grijal… Continue Reading
January 12, 2021
When Scott Angelle, an oil drilling advocate-turned-industry regulator, finished a hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee last March, lawmakers had some follow-up questions for him - a standard part of the congressional oversight process.
The Interior Department's response to the inquiries, however, was anything but routine.
It took nearly nine months for the department to address committee members' requests for more information about the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforc… Continue Reading
December 23, 2020
A Montana tribe is having a "once in a lifetime moment" after a water compact with the federal government passed Monday night, tucked inside the massive spending and pandemic aid package.
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana (CSKT) compact, amounting to $1.9 billion, is the largest tribal water rights settlement in history by total federal cost.
The year-end package also advanced other tribal water rights settlements, including for the Pueblos of Nambé, Pojoaque, Tesuq… Continue Reading
December 08, 2020
February 01, 2021
With a new President at the helm, and with Democrats controlling both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the federal government has a unique opportunity to focus on policies that benefit all Americans, including those residing in the U.S. territories. After years of neglect and a clearly failed approach by the Trump administration, now is the time to resolve longstanding inequities in federal treatment of territorial residents.
Nearly 4 million Americans live in the territories of Ame… 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
October 29, 2020
When Americans think about our national parks and natural beauty, our minds often jump - whether or not we've visited these places - to images we've seen of ice sheets at Glacier National Park, the moonlike wastes of Death Valley, or iconic images of groves at Joshua Tree National Park. While the classic look of these places is fixed in our minds, the places themselves are changing for the worse, and if we don't take action, old images may be all we have left to enjoy.… 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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