Chris D'Angelo

Maine

Senior Reporter at HuffPost

co-founder/ink-slinger at https://t.co/P4pA6rnyWi / formerly HuffPost / fan of trout, wood grain & Blues hockey / https://t.co/PwJn3bObmW / Signal: cmdangelo.33

Articles

Utah Senator Resurrects Federal Land Sell-Off. This Time It’s A Fire Sale.

2 weeks ago | publicdomain.media | Chris D'Angelo |Roque Planas

Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee, one of the most radically anti-federal land lawmakers to ever walk the halls of Congress, moved late Wednesday to force the sale of as much as 3.2 million acres of public land in 11 western states. The proposal, part of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s contribution to the GOP’s massive budget bill, is all but guaranteed to ignite a firestorm among public land advocates across the West.
DOJ Memo Gives Trump A Green Light To Dismantle National Monuments

2 weeks ago | publicdomain.media | Chris D'Angelo |Jimmy Tobias |Roque Planas

A legal official at the Department of Justice has concluded that President Donald Trump has the authority to not only shrink but completely abolish areas protected as national monuments. The memo provides the legal framework for a broad reduction of federal land protections that Trump officials have alluded to for months.
New Interior Draft Strategic Plan Drops Mention Of Federal Land Reductions

2 weeks ago | publicdomain.media | Chris D'Angelo |Roque Planas

The Interior Department has released a draft strategic plan that omits contentious goals contained in an internal version leaked two months ago. The internal document, first published by Public Domain in April, called for vastly expanding energy development on federal lands, while reducing federal land holdings, shrinking national monuments, dismantling environmental protections and systematically delisting endangered species.
House GOP Passes Budget Dismantling Public Land Protections, But Stops Short Of Sell-Off

1 month ago | publicdomain.media | Roque Planas |Chris D'Angelo

House Republicans voted Thursday morning to approve the budget reconciliation bill, after removing provisions for a major public land sell off that had created a broad uproar. But the bill, passed without a single Democratic vote, still contains several unprecedented measures to roll back public land protections, boost the pace of leasing for energy development, and sidestep key laws.
Environmental Groups Urge Senate To Vote Down Trump’s Public Lands Chief

1 month ago | publicdomain.media | Chris D'Angelo |Roque Planas |Jimmy Tobias

More than 125 public land, climate and environmental advocacy groups signed on to a letter Monday urging senators to oppose President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the federal government's largest land management agency, citing “inherent conflicts of interest.” In February, Trump tapped Kathleen Sgamma, a longtime leader of Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas trade association, to serve as director of the Bureau of Land Management, an agency that manages 246 million acres of public land...
Trump To Scrap Biden-Era Rule That Elevated Conservation On Public Lands

1 month ago | publicdomain.media | Chris D'Angelo |Roque Planas

At an all-hands meeting of Interior Department employees last week, Secretary Doug Burgum stressed that managing and protecting federal public lands “must be held in balance.”“It says in the mission statement the job of Interior is to ‘manage and protect,’” he said. “It doesn’t just say ‘protect,’ it says ‘manage and protect.’”Better balance on public lands was precisely what the Biden administration was after with a rule it finalized last year.
Senate Votes Down Measure Aimed At Blocking Public Land Sell-Off

1 month ago | publicdomain.media | Chris D'Angelo |Roque Planas

The Senate voted early Saturday to advance a budget framework for slashing federal spending and permanently extending President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, but rejected an amendment seeking to block federal lands from being sold off to reduce the federal deficit. Some Republicans, including Rep.
House Natural Resources Chair’s Oil Stock Purchases Were Unusual For Committee

1 month ago | publicdomain.media | Roque Planas |Chris D'Angelo

As the House Committee on Natural Resources debated its draft of an unprecedented budget reconciliation bill that would mandate a slew of new leasing for energy projects last week, Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) rattled off the record profits oil and gas giants raked in over recent years. Then, she detailed some of Chairman Bruce Westerman’s recent stock buys — including shares in British Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Shell.
Thank you for an excellent first month!

1 month ago | publicdomain.media | Jimmy Tobias |Roque Planas |Chris D'Angelo

Dear Public Domain readers, This publication is now officially one month old. We had no idea what to expect when the three of us teamed up to produce investigative reporting on public lands, wildlife and resources. But we knew that the stakes have never been higher for those who care about the future of our public heritage. We're astounded at the warm welcome we've enjoyed. Our back-of-the-napkin math showed the project would become financially viable if we reached 3,000 paid subscribers.
House Republicans Stonewall Opposition To Their Radically Anti-Public Lands Budget Bill

1 month ago | publicdomain.media | Chris D'Angelo |Roque Planas

House Republicans appeared poised Tuesday to advance an unprecedented dismantling of public land protections that would vastly increase energy and timber production while weakening conservation measures, rescinding already-allocated agency funding and blunting critics’ ability to challenge faster-moving lease sales in court.