The Interior Department is reopening lease sales on public lands. However, the agency announced that it was 80% less acreage than the oil and gas industry nominated for leasing. The Interior also increased royalty rates.
After months of repeated written questions and public records requests from NPR and the Mountain West News Bureau, Interior Department officials said they now plan to contract with an outside agency to examine the troubles plaguing tribal detention centers.
The National Congress of American Indians has urged the federal government to place medical personnel in its tribal jails, arguing that the current situation "exacerbates the already challenging problem of health disparities for American Indians."
Willy Pepion had a cracked skull, and guards at the federal jail on the Blackfeet Reservation dismissed his pleas for help. He died in his cell. Three hours went by until anyone noticed.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland faced lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday as she advocated for an $18 billion budget increase for her department next year. The money would go towards advancing renewable energy projects, expanding wildland fire programs and boosting public safety on reservations.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. Interior Department is canceling oil and natural gas lease sales from public lands through June amid an ongoing review of how burning that fuel contributes to climate change.
ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) — The U.S. Department of the Interior has been sued over plans to allow all-terrain vehicles in a recreation area in Utah that conservation groups say would be destructive.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal judge has rejected the Trump administration's bid to dismiss lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of a 2017 decision to downsize two sprawling national monuments in Utah.
ELKO, Nev. (AP) — U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt toured a Nevada gold mine's expansion project to tout the Trump administration's streamlining of environmental regulations to expedite permitting for development on federal lands.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Donald Trump says he didn't pick former Nevada Sen. Dean Heller to be his nominee for U.S. Interior Secretary because he couldn't get his base excited about the Republican.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Elected Democrats and an Indian tribal leader criticized Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke for canceling meetings with advocates during his tour of two southern Nevada national monuments that the Trump administration is considering cutting in size.
A report released by the Department of Interior this week has found that a Bureau of Land Management supervisor from Utah violated federal ethics rules at Burning Man.
