This Week at Interior March 29, 2024

My name is Kim Mantey, I'm the Director of the National Geospatial Technical Operations Center, our site in Rolla, Missouri, and you're watching This Week at Interior!

This Week, at Interior

Secretary Haaland traveled to Michigan this week, where she announced a $5.87 million investment through the President’s Investing in America agenda for the state to plug and restore orphaned oil and gas wells. As part of its award, Michigan will measure methane emissions from orphaned wells, screen for groundwater and surface water impacts and prioritize cleaning up wells near overburdened, low-income and Tribal communities.

Secretary Haaland also visited the San Francisco Bay Area this week, to highlight how historic funding from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is helping to restore our nation’s lands and waters. The Secretary toured the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, which is receiving $2 million from the Investing in America agenda to improve recreational opportunities for local communities along the San Francisco Bay. She also announced $58.3 million in funding for communities in 11 states across the United States to create new parks and trails or fund substantial renovations to existing parks through the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership program.

Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Principal Deputy Director Sharon Buccino traveled to Richmond, Virginia, this week, where they announced more than $22.8 million in funding from the President’s Investing in America agenda to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mines, create good-paying, family-sustaining jobs and catalyze economic opportunity in Virginia. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocates a total of $16 billion to address legacy pollution, including $11.3 billion in abandoned mine land funding over 15 years.

Interior this week announced a final rule from the Bureau of Land Management that will curb the waste of natural gas during the production of oil and gas on federal and Tribal lands. The rule strengthens leak detection, holds oil and gas companies accountable, and ensures a fair return to taxpayers for wasted gas. It's expected to generate more than $50 million in additional natural gas royalty payments each year and conserve billions of cubic feet of gas that might otherwise have been vented, flared, or leaked from oil and gas operations.  

Interior this week announced the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval of the Sunrise Wind offshore wind project – the nation’s seventh approval of a commercial-scale offshore wind project under President Biden’s leadership. Sunrise Wind is located about 16 and half nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and will have a total capacity of 924-megawatts of clean, renewable energy that could power more than 320,000 homes per year.

Interior and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation this week announced $11.8 million for 10 projects in seven states that will help restore habitat connectivity and secure key migration corridors for wildlife in the American West. A total of $3 million in grants and $8.8 million in matching contributions will be invested to protect migratory species like elk, mule deer and pronghorn and their habitats in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton visited Toquerville, Utah, this week, where she announced a $35 million investment from the Investing in America agenda for six small surface and groundwater storage projects in Utah and California. The projects are each receiving funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and will increase water supply reliability, improve operational flexibility and enhance resilience to the effects of climate change.  

And our social media Picture of the Week...Idaho's Big Southern Butte. It's one of the largest volcanic domes in the world, but at 300,000 years old, it's also one of the youngest. And hikers who trek to the 7,550-foot-high summit are rewarded with spectacular panoramic views of Idaho.  

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That's This Week at Interior!