Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has unveiled a slew of moves to help undo some of the fallout of the Trump era. For starters, she’s ordered Interior Department officials not to apply any 2020 changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) “in a manner that would change the application or level of NEPA that would have been applied to a proposed action before the 2020 Rule went into effect.” In other words, Haaland is ordering the undoing of Trump era changes that would have substantively shifted the way in which the law is applied.
Haaland’s directive stipulates that officials should bring the issue to higher-ups in instances in which the Trump era changes “irreconcilably conflict” with underlying regulations, allowing for an extra level of review. The NEPA legislation provides for analyses of relevant environmental impacts ahead of development projects like oil drilling on public lands, all of which are under the Interior Department’s ultimate supervision. The Trump administration slashed the time required for these analyses by about half and eliminated stipulations mandating an examination of climate-change related issues as part of the review process.
Haaland has also established a Departmental Climate Task Force, which — as its name suggests — will be tasked with handling climate change-related concerns. As summarized by the Associated Press, Haaland has also “revoked a series of Trump administration orders that promoted fossil fuel development on public lands and waters,” including an order that promoted oil drilling in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve.
Haaland also revoked a 2017 end to an Obama era moratorium on federal coal reserve sales, although a department spokesperson noted that this cancellation doesn’t mean that the moratorium has been reinstituted. General corporate interest in leasing public land for coal in the first place, thereby buying up federal coal reserves, is low at present. Haaland commented as follows:
‘From day one, President Biden was clear that we must take a whole-of-government approach to tackle the climate crisis, strengthen the economy, and address environmental justice… At the Department of the Interior, I believe we have a unique opportunity to make our communities more resilient to climate change and to help lead the transition to a clean energy economy. These steps will align the Interior Department with the President’s priorities and better position the team to be a part of the climate solution.’
During the previous president’s administration, the federal government turned somewhat of a blind eye to environmental protection and climate change concerns. At one point, Trump even said — publicly — that he simply didn’t “believe” a report from within his own administration about the looming impacts of climate change.
