As one of his last official acts in the Trump administration, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt rescinded an Obama-era order that directs the department to protect wilderness areas.
Outgoing Interior chief says Arctic oil leases will survive Biden By Jennifer A. Dlouhy on 1/20/2021
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt
(Bloomberg) Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said he expects both political and legal constraints to get in the way of President-elect Joe Bidenâs pledges to block new oil and gas permitting on federal land.
âYou can write a lot of executive orders, but an executive order doesnât get you past go,â Bernhardt said in an interview with Bloomberg News on his last full day leading the Interior Department. âThey still have to run through the gauntlet of the law.â
During Bernhardtâs tenure, the Interior Department moved to open up more public lands for energy development by reviving a stalled coal leasing program and selling drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt late yesterday ordered new 10-year grazing permits for Oregon ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond, who previously lost their access to federal acreage after being convicted of arson for burning public lands.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt's former press secretary has quit his new job as communications director for freshman Rep. Lauren Boebert within the first two weeks of the 117th Congress.
The 1776 Report - written by the commission ordered by President Trump in response to The New York Times's 1619 Project - has received scathing rebukes from historians and civil rights groups since its release on Monday, a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.Published in the waning hours of Trump's presidency, the 45-page report goes after critical race theory, which asserts that racism has always been and continues to be inherently.