{"id":342330,"date":"2024-09-08T16:51:26","date_gmt":"2024-09-08T14:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=342330"},"modified":"2024-09-08T16:51:28","modified_gmt":"2024-09-08T14:51:28","slug":"the-department-of-interior-project-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=342330","title":{"rendered":"The Department of Interior (Project 2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Master Resource<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Kennedy Maize<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Heritage Foundation\u2019s 922-page Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise<\/a> (Project 2025: Presidential Transition Project) prominently includes political prescription for various energy and environmental reforms in the U.S. Department of Energy, Department of Interior, and Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from the document, it is virtually certain that if elected, he would move swiftly to try to implement the blueprint. Many of its authors were his appointees in his administration and likely would lead his government beginning in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Heritage project for the Interior Department programs and policies is back to the future<\/em>. Essentially, the chapter wants to erase the Biden administration\u2019s policies and actions, many of which replaced Trump administration policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After describing the roles of the far-reaching agency, the chapter lays out its goal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Given the dire adverse national impact of Biden\u2019s war on fossil fuels, no other initiative is as important for the DOI under a conservative President than the restoration of the department\u2019s historic role managing the nation\u2019s vast storehouse of hydrocarbons, much of which is yet to be discovered.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

William Pendley<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author of the chapter, William Perry Pendley, 79, was a chief architect of some of the Trump administration\u2019s Interior Department activities, which often themselves overrode actions by prior Democratic and Republican administrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After law school, Pendley joined the new conservative \u201cpublic service\u201d Mountain States Legal Foundation<\/a>, founded by fellow Cowboy State native James Gaius Watt (1938\u20132023). The foundation was a leading advocate of the Sagebrush Rebellion, a movement to turn over federal lands to local ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Ronald Regan named Watt as his first Interior secretary, Pendley became Watt\u2019s deputy assistant secretary for energy and minerals. He was forced out as a result of the department selling Powder River Basin coal leases at rock-bottom prices after the agency\u2019s minimum bids had been leaked to the coal industry. The scandal also resulted in Watt\u2019s defenestration after he bragged that the panel he appointed to dissect the lease sale was balanced because it consisted of \u201ca black, a woman, two Jews, and a cripple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pendley again ran into trouble in the Trump administration where he was Interior\u2019s Bureau Land Management deputy director and named acting director in 2019. As acting director, he ordered most of the BLM\u2019s Washington-based workforce to relocate to Grand Junction, Colo. The Interior secretary extended Pendley\u2019s \u201cacting\u201d status repeatedly, avoid Senate confirmation, which he likely would have lost, as had five Trump nominations since 2017. In Sept. 2020 a federal judge in Montana ruled<\/a> that Pendley \u201chas served and continues to serve unlawfully as the Acting B.L.M. director.\u201d The ruling became moot when Biden won the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the notable 2025 Heritage recommendations related to energy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n