Interior Department

WASHINGTON — Since the 1940s, the U.S. offshore oil and gas industry has installed more than 55,000 wells and 7,000 platforms on the outer continental shelf, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico. In their day, they were a symbol of... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday approved the construction of the Sunrise Wind offshore wind farm, a project off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, that proponents say will eventually power 320,000 homes. The project is the seventh commercial-scale... Read More

ALBANY, N.Y. — Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland will travel to Albany, New York, Thursday to discuss offshore wind energy and how it ties into President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda.  Haaland is set to talk with local... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed cutting water allotments from the Colorado River in a potentially precedent-setting bid to save the waterway by dramatically reducing the water Arizona, California and Nevada draw from it. Along with the Rio... Read More

WASHINGTON — Four coastal states in the southeast — Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — will share in a windfall of over $353 million in additional energy revenues due to increased production and market trends in the 2022 fiscal year.... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department is investing over $25 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to advance an effort to restore wild and healthy populations of American bison and the prairie grassland ecosystem. Through a wide-ranging initiative announced last week,... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has updated its regulations for wind energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf and is poised to publish the proposal in the Federal Register as soon as this week. Laura... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department on Thursday announced a proposed rule to address the waste of natural gas during the production of oil and gas on federal and tribal lands. Officials with the department’s Bureau of Land Management said the... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior has issued a final guidance for tribes on how to apply for the first $50 million in grant funding available under the bipartisan infrastructure law to clean up orphaned oil and gas wells.... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is seeking public comment as part of its environmental review of the first offshore wind project proposed off Maryland’s coastline. Baltimore-based wind energy developer U.S. Wind has proposed the development... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration plans to auction oil and gas leases this week in a policy reversal intended to bring down the price of fuel for consumers. The leases would open 144,000 acres to corporate oil and gas extraction,... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration’s new proposal to overhaul the nation's oil and gas leasing program drew praise this week from environmentalists in Congress but complaints from oil-producing states. The proposal wouldn’t eliminate oil and gas leases but it would... Read More

BOSTON, Mass. -- Interior Secretary Deb Haaland told attendees at a wind energy conference on Wednesday that the Biden administration wants to dramatically expand the nation’s use of wind power, opening large swaths of coastal waters to wind farm development.... Read More

Federal regulators on Monday declared the first-ever water shortage at Lake Mead, a reservoir that feeds into the Colorado River and serves approximately 40 million people in the West. The declaration, issued as part of an outlook for the river... Read More

A federal judge in South Dakota sided with the Biden administration on Wednesday, upholding its decision to block Fourth of July fireworks at Mount Rushmore. The decision by Chief U.S. District Judge Roberto Lange temporarily ends a contentious legal battle... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Department of Agriculture announced it will start making loan forgiveness payments to thousands of minority farmers in June as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. Roughly $4 billion was set aside by the economic relief package... Read More

The Biden administration is opening up the northern and central coasts of California to the first commercial scale offshore wind farm projects in the region. The first location, called the Morro Bay 399 Area, is roughly 400 square miles off... Read More

WASHINGTON — Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced a new division of the Missing and Murdered Unit will operate within the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services. The new unit will direct federal resources in unsolved investigations... Read More

 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Monday confirmed New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland as interior secretary, making her the first Native American to lead a Cabinet department and the first to lead the federal agency that has wielded influence over... Read More

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — For Native Americans, Deb Haaland is more than an elected official on track to become the first Indigenous secretary of the Interior Department. She is a sister, an auntie and a fierce pueblo woman whose political... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Oil and natural gas will continue to play a major role in America for years to come, even as the Biden administration seeks to conserve public lands and address climate change, President Joe Biden's nominee to head... Read More

WASHINGTON - President-elect Joe Biden has asked Democratic Rep. Deb Haaland, of New Mexico, to serve as the first Native American interior secretary, a historic pick for a department that oversees the country’s vast natural resources and much of the... Read More

The Interior Department is dropping plans to reintroduce grizzly bears to the North Cascades in Washington State, citing the concerns of people who live and work in the area. The move has alarmed environmentalists who say the decision threatens the... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump drew the ire of tribes and environmentalists when he issued proclamations in December 2017 significantly reducing the size of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments, two sites designated by previous Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton... Read More

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote the House and Senate appropriations panels this week, asking them to withhold funding from a new Trump administration proposal to accelerate the capture of 130,000 wild horses across the west in the... Read More

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Interior Department, in collaboration with the U.S. Education Department and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, will host the first-ever National Tribal Broadband Summit, Sept. 23 and 24 in Washington, D.C. According to the Federal... Read More

WASHINGTON - Last week's sales of Gulf of Mexico leases for oil and gas exploration generated over $159 million in high bids for 151 tracts covering 835,000 acres in federal waters, the Interior Department reports. A total of 27 companies... Read More

The Trump administration has indefinitely delayed its controversial plan to expand oil and gas exploration off the Atlantic Coast citing the need to await the outcome of litigation that currently blocks similar drilling in the Arctic. In March, U.S. District... Read More