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
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
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
Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) will lead a press conference on Oct. 20 to unveil his Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act, a landmark effort to address the ocean impacts of climate change and reform federal ocean management to better account for climate mitigation. The event will feature Chair Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis and a range of bill endorsers. Reporters interested in participating should RSVP to adam.sarvana@mail.house.gov for a link.
… Continue Reading
The Natural Resources Committee is holding two livestreamed events next week.
Wednesday, Oct. 14
The Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, led by Chair Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), will hold a forum titled The Threat of Offshore Drilling and the Need for a Permanent Federal Ban.
The Trump administration has been determined to open the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to destructive offshore oil and gas drilling and originally proposed to lease more than 90 percent of the OCS, changing cour… Continue Reading
The Natural Resources Committee is holding two livestreamed events next week.
Monday, Oct. 5
On Monday, the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources and the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife, led by Chairs Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) and Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), respectively, will hold a Democratic forum titled The Melting Arctic: Climate Change Impacts on People and Wildlife. The event will focus on the human and environmental impacts of climate change in the Arctic, which the Tr… Continue Reading
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
