Steady Hand at the Helm: Haaland’s First Secretarial Orders

Interior Secretary Debra Haaland issued her first two Secretarial Orders today. In doing so, she has put the Department of the Interior and the nation back on a path to prosperity.

Interior Assumes its Critical Role in Addressing Catastrophic Climate Change.

Order 3398 revokes a series of Trump-era orders that were inconsistent with the Department’s legal obligations to protect public health; conserve land, water and wildlife; and make science-based decisions.

Order 3399 establishes a Climate Task Force within the Interior Department to advise the Secretary in her role as a member of the White House National Climate Task Force. The Deputy Secretary and Counselor to the Secretary will chair the Interior task force of which each of the Assistant Secretaries will be a member. 

As a result of Haaland’s action today:

• Meaningful consultation with tribal nations must occur.
• Review of environmental impacts of major federal actions like fossil fuel leasing shall include analysis of indirect and cumulative effects including an assessment of the social cost of carbon.
• New coal leasing will receive greater scrutiny.

Haaland Aims to Bring a Divided Nation Together.

The laws that govern our public lands and waters provide a process that allows various stakeholders to help inform the decisions our government makes. One of the most important—the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)—requires public participation in government decision-making as well as a review of the environmental impacts of proposed decisions. 

Through meaningful stakeholder engagement under NEPA our nation can move past the political whiplash from which it suffers.

The engagement should be efficient, as well as effective. Given that communities across the nation are already feeling the impacts of catastrophic climate change, we don’t have time to waste. Action is needed now to manage our federal fossil fuels in a way that solves climate change, rather than fuels it. Secretary Haaland’s orders are a step in the right direction.