Male greater sage grouse gather near White Mountain to perform annual spring courtship in a high desert area in Wyoming.
“I will tell you, we wouldn’t work really, really hard to get seismic permits out if that area wasn’t going to be available,” Balash said during a question-and-answer session following his speech at the International Association of Geophysical Contractors conference in Houston. Interior has offered nearly 16.8 million acres of federal land for oil and gas leasing since Trump took office, according to the Center for Biological Diversity — a swath of land larger than the combined size of Maryland and New Jersey. Of those acres, more than 2.3 million were leased, and the department plans to auction off another 1.3 million acres in the spring.
On their expedition across what became the United States, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark noted that flying sage grouse blackened the skies, leading to unconfirmed estimates that their historic numbers stood at 16 million. Since the bird’s habitat has been cut in half by human expansion and development, those changes, coupled with invasive species and disease, have shrunk their numbers to fewer than 500,000.
Sam Eaton, policy director and counsel to Idaho Gov. Brad Little , said in an interview Friday that the revisions reflect the collaborative process the state had launched under the previous administration that was upended shortly before the 2015 plan was finalized. That view was dismissed by a conservationist who has worked in the sagebrush sea for years. “It’s interesting, because we’ve had repeated letters sent to this administration by the most renowned sage grouse scientists urging them to not walk away from the most valuable habitat, to maintain a commitment to leasing and drilling outside the habitat — all the things that have been abandoned by this record of decision,” said Nada Culver, senior counsel for the Wilderness Society.
The man is giving away America one little piece at a time...
GlennKesslerWP Something has to power all the Ubers that the AOC campaign use.
morgfair The day after the children March to support the planet. I hope this can be undone
About Time !! Drill Baby Drill !
GlennKesslerWP In his remarks, Balash said he found it “absolutely thrilling” that Trump’s “knack for keeping the attention of the media and the public focused somewhere else” has allowed Bureau of Ocean Energy Management employees to process the permits without much scrutiny.
😍😍😍😍
Nooooo!!! Plz, enough!!!
Drill baby drill!
What garbage. There needs to be criminal liability.
Good!
GlennKesslerWP Trump is literally destroying this country.
AndrewYangVFA will be the nominee post debates. He’s uniting the parties like nothing I’ve ever imagined. All love and respect sister 🌎🙏🏾😊❤️ 5 Min - Fox 2 Hours - Joe Rogan TulsiforVice YangTulsi AndrewYang2020 Tulsi2020
He is ruining our country.
And some of that money is for the Trump organization.
It will already be bad enough. Let's not make the planet uninhabitable.
😠
Soon we will be a “third world country”...I mean honestly, what makes our country great?! We suck at education, we suck at health care, we suck at paying off debt...🤷🏻♂️
That is a shame, if true
Good
😢😡
Because fossil fuels are the wave of the future? Uuuuh...
It just keeps getting worse and worse !!
How’s that lawsuit going ?
God stop him please. Anybody
Start of USA Energy Independence! No More Middle Eastern Oil. NationalSecurity
What else is he going to endanger? What s disgrace.
Trump killing the planet one day at a time!
Reckless swine.
We need ALL forms of energy including fossil.
WINNING!
So F-ing sick and tired of the wholesale destruction of protections and safeguards for the environment, our public lands, consumers, and more by this administration! It will take a generation to repair the damage.
Where will your children or grandchildren live when we have destroyed everything due to climate change, and taking away and polluting the habitat of gods creatures, all for the $
Nazi's like killing things.
Money over environment. Trump destroying American landmarks to enrich his friends. Lets put an oil well or trash incinerator next to his clubs and see him whine. If it’s good enough for us he deserves the same treatment.
Anything for a buck- whatever the costs. Republicans and this administration are killing this country.
Liberals are so upset while they drive their SUVs. Drill baby drill!
Keep drilling baby you have only 22 months to 'make America great again' keep drilling
While other countries push for clean energy, we increase fossil fuel output and support “clean coal”. Sad!
Re-opens for drilling, to be accurate.
He really is the most dangerous person on the planet. He will cause more devastation than anyone else in history. If we let him. GOP
Republicans will destroy anything for a buck, democracy included.
This is why we need to Vote TheDemocrats in every election, every time -- rather than voting for third parties and putting Republicans in power.
Oh, good... Hopefully the planet will be swallowed up by a black hole and we can blame that on Trump as well. Geeze you people need a life... TDS
Dang.... now that's a man with IDEAS!! ImpeachTheMF
Fuck yea, here’s to a few million more acres
This was Putin's secret plan all along eh Wapo? lol
Yikes
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