Greens gird for combat as energy leasing continues

Interior Department officials are preparing for the partial government shutdown to last months. Last Friday, acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt hosted a conference call to inform certain sportsmen and conservation groups how the massive department is navigating the shutdown, now in its fourth week. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership arranged the call, and dozens of organizations joined in. Sources said the officials are not expecting the situation to change soon, though officials could not say with certainty. Interior officials are planning in 30-day increments, they said, and have carryover funds to last two to four weeks. It's not clear how certain funds are moved around. What is clear is that oil and gas permitting has not stalled. Since the shutdown started on Dec. 22, the Bureau of Land Management has posted public notice of at least 127 new drilling permit applications in several states during the shutdown, according to the WildEarth Guardians. The work is funded by application fees, the agency said. In addition, Interior appears to be on track to hold February and March oil and gas lease sales on 2.3 million acres in Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Montana. Some sales were rescheduled from December to comply with a court order, and as such, the land offered on the next auction block is the largest in at least a decade, conservationists said. Yesterday, a bloc of conservationists charged that Interior is breaking the law. They said agency scientists tasked with performing environmental analysis have been furloughed, and they expressed concern that public input could get lost or go unnoticed as BLM offices are closed...MORE