An investigative report by Adam Federman in the Washington Post says that the Biden administration is issuing oil and gas permits at a rate faster than Trump did. “Between Jan. 20 and Oct. 31, the Bureau of Land Management [part of the Interior Department] approved 3,091 new onshore drilling permits—permits it could have deferred or…
Search Results for: federal management
Should Yellowstone Grizzlies Get Off the Endangered List?
Five Republican senators are asking Democratic committee heads to hold hearings on a bill that has been tied up in committees since April. The bill would remove one group of grizzly bears from listing under the Endangered Species Act. That group is the population in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the area that includes and surrounds…
Environmentalists Deny the True Causes of Wildfires
Better forest management, including prescribed burns and strategic logging, are essential to preventing western wildfires, says Ryan Zinke, former Interior Department secretary and former Montana congressman. “Radical environmentalists would have you believe forest management means clear cutting forests and national parks. But their rhetoric could not be further from the truth. They make outdated and…
Can a Rancher Kill a Grizzly Bear in Self-Defense?
The growing numbers of grizzly bears in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, are rankling ranchers. So the Montana legislature has passed two bills that aim at giving ranchers more rights to kill grizzlies. But will these laws fly? The will undoubtedly run into conflict with federal regulations for the grizzly, which is still listed as an…
Can Banks Refuse Oil and Gas Customers?
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has issued a regulation that would prevent banks from refusing to fund legal activities that they disapprove of, such as oil and gas drilling. During the past year, several major banks, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, J. P. Morgan, and others, announced they will not…
The Challenge of Private “Seasteading”
By Greg Rehmke. This is a guest post by Greg Rehmke, program director of Economic Thinking, an organization that fosters better understanding of economic principles. Natural coral and oyster reefs around the world are considered “rainforests of the oceans,” home to rich and diverse ecosystems. Shipwrecks, offshore oil platforms, and artificial reefs teem with species…