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Leaked 5-Yr US Interior Dept Plan Focuses on Capitalistic Ventures Over Environment Conservation

  • The DOI that is supposed to include ways to incorporate renewable energy in its plan barely finds mention in the leaked draft, the Nation noted.

    The DOI that is supposed to include ways to incorporate renewable energy in its plan barely finds mention in the leaked draft, the Nation noted. | Photo: Reuters

Published 25 October 2017
Opinion

The DOI that is supposed to include ways to incorporate renewable energy in its plan barely finds mention in the leaked draft, the Nation noted. 

A damning U.S. Department of the Interior, DOI document leaked to the Nation, a U.S. publication, reveals the department's five-year "strategic vision" that focuses on the rapid oil and land development while paying little head to the impact on the environment. 

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The leaked 50-page draft stresses on capitalistic ventures and completely denying climate change. The document about the environment "does not once mention climate change or climate science," according to the Nation.  

The blueprint entails plans to profit off of vast swathes of U.S land and resources by placing "a premium on facilitating oil and gas development," the Nation pointed out. "It calls for speeding up the processing of parcels nominated for oil and gas leasing on public lands." 

The DOI, that is supposed to include ways to incorporate renewable energy into its plan, barely finds mention in the leaked draft, the Nation noted. 

"It is bewildering that the agency would prioritize approving more permits—at the inevitable expense of your environmental responsibilities—when companies have plenty and appear to be simply stockpiling them," Raul Grijalva, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee wrote in an April letter to the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, Michael D. Nedd.

The letter also raised concerns that the current administration might be returning to the "philosophy of  the George W. Bush administration " compromising vital elements to sustain like  "conservation, wildlife protection, recreation, air and water quality" by establishing " an Executive Committee for Expedited Permitting to facilitate on- and -offshore leasing," the Nation reported. 

The leaked document highlights the Trump administration's misplaced priorities which instead of focusing on protecting landscapes and preserving ecosystems, lists as one of its aims reducing the time taken to "green-light energy projects on Native land by 50 percent" and "speed up the application process for drilling permits, even though industry is currently sitting on thousands of approved permits," according to the Nation. 

The document also emphasizes surveillance of the US-Mexico border by decreasing "illegal immigration and marijuana smuggling on DOI managed public lands."  

The new five-year plan is, according to the document, starkly misguided and opposes the earlier plan (2012-2017) introduced by the Obama administration which laid emphasis on environment conservation with a full-throttled acceptance of climate change and its repercussions.  The document even laid out six "mission areas." 

Within its section, "Increasing Climate Change Preparedness and Resilience," the older document spanning 2012 and 2017, addresses climate change issues such as, "drought, severe flooding, interrupted pollination of crops, changes in wildlife and prey behavior, warmer rivers and streams, and sea level rise" stating how DOI would work towards the issues. 

"The DOI will be a national leader in integrating preparedness and resilience efforts into its mission areas, goals, strategies, and programs; identifying vulnerabilities and systematically addressing these vulnerabilities; and incorporating climate change strategies into management plans, policies, programs, and operations," the document added. 

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The leaked draft comes at a time when the Trump administration is facing harsh criticism over climate change denial.  

A new report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Initiative warned that Trump's continued callousness would cost US taxpayers trillions of dollars, as the administration might see a surge in climate-change costs.

In September, the U.S. president also announced major cuts to some of vital environment programs like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which coordinates global climate research; the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which forms the basis of international climate negotiations such as the Paris Agreement; the UN Green Climate Fund; and climate programs at the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

Earlier in June, Trump also pulled out of a key global climate policy agreement, the Paris Agreement. 

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