drilling

Zinke Thinks His Job is to Cater to Oil and Gas Interests, Not Protect Public Lands

Today, in his remarks at an energy conference in Houston, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke made his preference for supporting the oil and gas industry over protecting our public lands and waters clear.

Greater Chaco Spared from Fracking Auction

Yesterday, the Department of the Interior announced the cancellation of an oil and gas lease sale near Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a UNESCO Heritage Site in northern New Mexico. The controversial leases would have auctioned off an additional 4,434 acres in the Greater Chaco region for industrialized fracking, exposing local communities to increased pollution and threatening ancient ruins considered sacred by Indigenous Nations.

In Yet Another Political Stunt, Zinke Announces Long Island Offshore Drilling Hearing

Last night, it was reported that the Department of the Interior will host a second public hearing in New York tomorrow on its draft offshore drilling plan.

ICYMI: Trump Administration Wants to Ensure Companies Pay as Little as Possible to Threaten Coasts with Offshore Drilling

An Interior Department advisory panel is considering making it even cheaper and easier for oil and gas companies to lease public waters for offshore drilling.

Court Rejects Trump and Zinke’s Attempt to Delay Key Pollution Safeguard

Last night, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California rejected the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) suspension of a key safeguard that would limit methane pollution from oil and gas drilling operations on public lands.

DC Tells Trump Administration: No New Offshore Drilling

This afternoon, DC residents and District officials gathered to send a strong message of opposition to the Trump administration’s offshore drilling plan.

ICYMI: Ryan Zinke: Not a Geologist, Definitely a Liar

Interior Secretary Zinke claims to be a geologist, but he can’t figure out how to stop digging himself deeper into a hole over his disastrous handling of the administration’s draft offshore drilling plan.

With Latest Flip-Flop on Offshore Drilling, Zinke Makes it Clear He Can’t Be Trusted

This morning, in a hearing before the House Natural Resources Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Acting Director Walter Cruickshank testified that, despite Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s earlier claims, Florida’s waters would in fact be considered in the administration’s offshore drilling plan.

ICYMI: Ryan Zinke’s No Good, Very Bad Week

Washington, DC -- Once again, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is having a disastrous week.

Zinke Scrambles to Make it Look Like He Cares Whether States Want Offshore Drilling Or Not

In the wake of questions about the rationale behind Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s removal of Florida from draft offshore drilling plans just days after it was released, Zinke is scrambling to create the appearance of a fair process.

Huckabee Sanders Fails to Answers Questions on Florida’s Removal from Offshore Drilling Plan

In today’s White House press briefing, NBC News asked if there was a political component to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s removal of Florida from the draft offshore drilling plan just days after the plan was released. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed that she is “not aware of any political favor.”

ICYMI: Not Only Will Communities Face Growing Threat of Oil Spills, There Won’t be Money to Clean Them Up

Today, the Washington Post reported that, in addition to passing a tax bill containing enormous giveaways to the oil and gas industry, Congressional Republicans quietly gave yet another gift to Big Oil when they allowed a tax on oil companies that funded federal oil-spill response efforts to expire.